Guide to Important Speech Milestones
Speech & Language Milestones by Age
Infants (0–12 months)
0–3 months:
- Reacts to sounds (startles, calms)
- Makes cooing and gurgling sounds
- Begins to smile socially
4–6 months:
- Turns head toward sounds
- Babbles with different sounds (e.g., “ba”, “da”, “ga”)
- Responds to tone of voice
7–12 months:
- Understands simple words like “no” or “bye-bye”
- Imitates speech sounds
- First words may emerge (e.g., “mama”, “dada”)
Toddlers (1–3 years)
12–18 months:
- Uses 5–20 words
- Points to objects when named
- Understands simple questions (“Where’s your shoe?”)
18–24 months:
- Vocabulary explosion (50+ words)
- Combines 2 words (“want juice”, “go car”)
- Follows simple two-step directions
2–3 years:
- Uses 2–3 word sentences
- Speech is about 50–75% intelligible
- Asks simple questions
Preschoolers (3–5 years)
3–4 years:
- Speaks in full sentences (3–5 words)
- Tells stories
- Speech is 75–90% clear to strangers
4–5 years:
- Can hold basic conversations
- Uses grammar correctly (plurals, past tense)
- Speech is 90–100% intelligible
- Can answer “why” and “how” questions
School-Age (6–12 years)
- Expands vocabulary rapidly
- Understands jokes, riddles, sarcasm
- Follows multi-step directions
- Reads and writes using proper sentence structure
- Improves storytelling and descriptive language
Teens (13–18 years)
- Mastery of language for academics and social situations
- Understands abstract and figurative language
- Develops persuasive and argumentative language
- Uses tone, sarcasm, and implied meaning
- Builds complex sentence structures in writing and speech
Adults (18+)
- Refines professional, academic, and social communication
- Applies language flexibly for job interviews, presentations, relationships
- May work on accent modification, voice training, or communication recovery post-injury
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