Speech & Language Milestones: Ages 1-5

1-2 years

Speech sounds: p b m h w

Receptive Language (Hearing and Understanding):

• Points to a few body parts when you ask.
• Follows 1-part directions, like “Roll the ball” or “Kiss the baby.”
• Responds to simple questions, like “Who’s that?” or “Where’s your shoe?”
• Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes.
• Points to pictures in a book when you name them.

Expressive Language (Talking):

• Uses lots of new words.
• Starts to name pictures in books.
• Asks questions, like “What’s that?” and “Where’s kitty?”
• Puts 2 words together, like “more apple,” “no bed,” and “mommy book.”

2-3 years

Speech sounds: k g f t d n y

Receptive Language (Hearing and Understanding):

• Understands opposites, like go-stop, big-little, and up-down.
• Follows 2-part directions, like “Get the spoon and put it on the table.”
• Understands new words quickly.

Expressive Language (Talking):

• Has a word for almost everything.
• Talks about things that are not in the room.
• Uses words like in, on, and under.
• Uses two-or-three words to talk about and ask for things.
• Asks “Why?”
• Puts 3 words together to talk about things. May repeat some words and sounds.

3-4 years

Speech sounds: r l s ch sh z begin to develop

 Receptive Language (Hearing and Understanding):

• Responds when you call from another room.
• Understands words for some colors, like red, blue, and green.
• Understands words for some shapes, like circle and square.

Expressive Language (Talking):

• Answers simple who, what and where questions.
• Says rhyming words like, hat-cat.
• Uses pronouns like I, you, me, we, and they.
• Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses.
• Most people understand what your child says.
• Asks when and how questions.
• Puts 4 words together. May make some mistakes, like “I goed to school.”
• Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.

4-5 years

Speech sounds: says all speech sounds with some mistakes

Receptive Language (Hearing and Understanding):

• Understands words for order, like first, next, and last.
• Understands words for time, like yesterday, today and tomorrow.
• Follows longer directions, like “Put your pajamas on, brush your teeth, and then pick out a book.”
• Follows classroom directions, like “Draw a circle on your paper around something you eat.”
• Hears and understands most of what she hears at home and in school.

Expressive Language (Talking):

• Responds to “What did you say?”
• Talks without repeating sounds or words most of the time.
• Names letters and numbers.
• Uses sentences that have more than 1 action word, like jump, play, and get. May make some mistakes, like “Zach gots 2 video games but I got one.”
• Tells a short story.
• Keeps a conversation going.
• Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place. Your child may use short sentences with younger children.  He may talk louder outside than inside.