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. 

Developmental milestones are from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association