Are my child's language skills normal?

This is my favourite reference for parents when they want to know if their child's speech and language development on track. I love how there is a distinction between minimal expectations and typical expectations.

Are my child's language skills normal?

Minimal Expectations

• (If your child cannot perform these skills by the end of the age range, an immediate referral to an early intervention program or speech-language pathologist is warranted.)

Typical Expectations

• (Most children can perform these skills by the end of the age range. In other words, this is “typical” or “normal” development.)

0-3 months

Typical Expectation

-Communicates with cries, grunts, and facial expressions

-Prefers human voices

-Coos using vowel sounds

-May laugh out loud

-Smiles and coos to initiate and sustain interactions with caregivers

4-6 months

Minimal Expectations

-Vocalizes & coos in response to adults talking or singing

-Blows raspberries

-Smiles in response to pleasant speech

Typical Expectation

-Begins to babble using consonant-vowel combinations

-Participates in games initiated by adults with smiles, laughter, and vocalizations

-Acquires sounds of native language in babble

-Squeals & laughs out loud

-Recognizes his name

6-9 months

Minimal Expectations

-Vocalizes using different

sounding and two syllable combinations

-Begins to imitate duplicated syllables when modelled by an adult (“Mamamama” or “Bubububu”)

Typical Expectation

-Varies babbling in loudness, pitch, and rhythm

-Adds more consonants sounds to babbling

-May begin to say “mama” or “dada” but may not connect word with parent yet

-Begins to point or use other gestures like reaching to communicate

-Responds to “no” sometimes

9-12 months

Minimal Expectations

-Imitates sounds or words made by others

-Gives objects in response to a request with outstretched hand

-Performs routine activity in response to verbal request (“Put your arm in.”)

-Participates in games such as “So Big” and “Peekaboo” with excitement and performs his part

Typical Expectation

-Uses gestures more purposefully to influence the behaviour of others

-Understands 25 or more words

-Begins to understand familiar words associated with routines & interests

-Waves bye-bye

-Let him says 5 words on his own

-Imitates other familiar words

-Initiates favourite games with adults

12-15 months

Minimal Expectations

-Tries to say a few words on his own such as “Mama” or “Dada” or exclamatory wordslike “uh-oh” and “no-no”

-Imitates new words & animal sounds

-Performs simple requests such as giving a kiss and waving bye-bye.

-Identifies a few body parts

Typical Expectation

-Says 10 words on his own consisting mostly of nouns and names

-Understands words and directions associated with familiar routines

-Understands a few early prepositions with cues

15-18 months

Minimal Expectations

-Uses words more often with a minimum of 8-10 word vocabulary

-Echoes last word spoken by an adult

-Names several familiar objects on request

-Points to 6 body parts or clothing items

-Finds familiar objects not in sight on request

Typical Expectation

-Language explosion occurs by the end of this phase so that he is saying many more words than before

-Normal range of vocabulary is between 15 and 50 words

-Begins to engage in jargon or unintelligible sentence-length utterances

-Begins to imitate two-word phrases & use a few familiar combinations on his own such as “more milk” or “Bye-bye Dada”

-Understands at least 50 words & follows many familiar commands

-Can point to a few familiar pictures on request

18-21 months

Minimal Expectations

-Minimum vocabulary of 15 words

-Names a few pictures

-Points to familiar pictures on request

Typical Expectation

-Understands 150 words

-Typical vocabulary is 50+ words

-Adds new words everyday

(Some sources say 7-9 new words a day!)

-Uses new & different two-word phrases

21-24 months

Minimal Expectations

-Minimum vocabulary of 50 words

-Says two-word phrases on his own

-Follows many different and new verbal directions

Typical Expectation

-Speaks in 2-3 word phrases frequently

-Refers to himself by name

-Comprehends 300 words & can follow two-step related commands

-Vocabulary size is around 200 words he says on his own

-Is understood at least 25% of the time by parents

-Uses many different consonant sounds and all vowel sounds correctly

24-27 months

Minimal Expectations

-Sings phrases of songs

-Names objects in photographs

-Begins to use a few action words/verbs

-Can point to more complex ideas in pictures (“Who is running”?)

Typical Expectation

-Uses 3 word phrases frequently

-Understands size concepts

-Understands concept of one

27-30 months

Minimal Expectations

-Speaks in short phrases most of the time

-Parents understand at least 50% of what he says

Typical Expectation

-Names colours

-Consistently refers to himself using a pronoun

-Follows more complex verbal commands

30-33 months

Minimal Expectations

-Answers questions with an accurate “yes” or “no”

-Uses plurals (books, shoes)

-Uses prepositions (in, on, out, off, up, down)

-Understands and correctly states gender (Are you a boy/girl?)

-States first and last name

-Uses negation (not sleeping)

-Understands size differences (big/little)

-Understands object functions (Which one do you wear on your feet?)

Typical Expectation

-Speaks in 4-5 word sentences more often.

-Starts to take more turns talking in early conversations

33-36 months

Minimal Expectations

-Uses verb forms (-ing)

-Asks & Answers Who, what, where questions

-Counts to 3

-Recites a few nursery rhymes/songs

-Identifies parts of an objects

(Show me the wheels on the car.)

-Vocabulary increases to 300+ words

-Is understood by parents 90% of the time

Typical Expectation

-Uses 4-5 word sentences consistently with correct word order.

– Displays effective conversational skills such as asking and answering many kinds of questions including list to the left and “How” and “Why”

-Refers to himself using pronouns in sentences

-Understands and correctly uses gender pronouns (he/she, him/her)

-Talks about objects and events not immediately present

-Narrates & pretends with more elaborate pretend play schemes (going to doctor or shopping)

Source: Laura Mize from Teach Me To Talk

If your child does not meet the minimal expectations for his/her age, feel free to schedule a free 15 min consult with me to find out how you can help your child.