SpeechWise Therapy, LLC.
Speech Therapy Services in the Natural Environment
(321) 362-4099
Consider the following developmental milestones for speech and language development. For questions about whether your child could benefit from speech therapy, please contact us at (321) 362-4099 for a free phone consultation or e-mail us at info@speechwisetherapy.com.
Speech Milestones
Speech refers to the verbal action of communicating. It includes how children articulate their sounds, the fluency with which they say those sounds, as well as their voice quality.
Questions to ask pertaining to speech:
Is my child difficult for others to understand?
Is my child misarticulating certain sounds such as "wabbit" for "rabbit"?
Is my child stuttering?
Does my child's voice frequently sound raspy or hoarse?
By 18 months, a child should be approximately 25% intelligible
By 24 months, a child should be approximately 50%-75% intelligible
By 36 months, a child should be approximately 75%-100% intelligible
Language Milestones
Language refers to the rules and details of communication, including the words we know, the order in which we use words, and the way we use them in social situations.
By 6 months: reacts to loud noises and turns head to sound, watches speaker's face, vocalizes (laughs, giggles, cries), coos and some babbling, respond to changes in tone of voice
By 12 months: tries imitating speech sounds, babbles "ba-ba" or "ma-ma," tries to communicate with gestures, understand simple instructions and "no no," recognize words for common objects (i.e. juice).
By 24 months: Attends to a book or toy for a few minutes, points to simple body parts, understands simple commands and verbs (eat, play), says 8-10 words, requests items by name, imitates animal sounds, begins combining words (more juice), emerging pronouns such as "mine."
By 3 years: Knows 50+ words, concepts such as "in" and "on," answers simple questions, knows basic descriptions (happy, big), speaks in 2-3 word phrases, uses some inflection for questions versus statements, emerging plurals (shoes, toys) and past tense verbs.
By 4 years old: Can group items into basic categories (food, clothes, animals), can describe the uses of common objects (i.e. eat with a fork), expresses ideas and feelings, repeats sentences, identifies colors
By age 5: Understands 2,000+ words, follows 2-3 step directions, understands rhyming, understands sequence of events (first, next, last), participates in conversation, sentences are often 8+ words in length, describes objects, creative language for stories