Children may need to see a speech-language pathologist if they haven’t met communication milestones. Some things to look for would be: difficulty repeating sounds, not saying new words, lack of joint attention and difficulty understanding common vocabulary. Speech norms are based on age, culture and language. See how your child is developing by looking at the speech & language milestones chart.

4-6 Months

• Moves her eyes in the direction of sounds. 

• Responds to changes in your tone of voice. 

• Notices toys that make sounds. 

• Pays attention to music.

• Coos and babbles when playing alone or with you. 

• Makes speech-like babbling sounds, like pa, ba, and mi. 

• Giggles and laughs. 

• Makes sounds when happy or upset.

7 Months-1 Year

• Looks in the direction of sounds. 

• Turns when their name is called.

• Understands words for common items

• Starts to respond to simple words and phrases, like "No", "more.”

• Plays games with you, like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. 

• Listens to songs and stories for a short time. 

• Babbles long strings of sounds.

• Uses sounds and gestures to get attention. 

• Points to objects and shows them to others. 

• Uses gestures like waving bye and reaching for "up".

• Imitates different speech sounds.

• Says 1 or 2 words, like hi, dog, dada, mama, or uh-oh.

1-2 years

• Points to a few body parts when you ask. 

• Follows 1-part directions, like "Roll the ball.”

• Responds to simple questions, like "Where's your toy?" 

• Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes. 

• Points to pictures in a book when you name them.

• Starts using many new words.

• Uses /p, b, m, h, m/ sounds in words. 

• Starts to name pictures in books. 

• Asks questions, like "What's that?", "Who's that?" 

• Puts 2 words together, like "more apple," and "no bed."

2-3 years

• Understands opposites, like go-stop, big-little, and up-down. 

• Follows 2-part directions, like "Find the toy, put it on the table." 

• Understands new words quickly. . 

• Talks about things that are not in the room. 

• Uses /k, g, f, t, d, n/ in words. 

• Uses words like in, on, and under. 

• Uses two or three  words to talk 

• People who know your child can understand them.

• Asks "Why?" questions.

• Puts 3 words together to talk, may repeat some words or sounds.

3-4 years

• Responds when you call from another room. 

• Understands words for some colors and shapes.

• Understands words for family members.

• 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. Make errors ie "I goed home.”

• Talks about what happened during the day.

4-5 years

• Understands words for order, like first, and last. 

• Understands words for time, like today, and tomorrow. 

• Follows longer directions

• Says all speech sounds in words. 

• May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say

  ie /s, r, v, z, ch, sh, th/.

• Talks without repeating sounds.

• Names, letters and numbers. 

• Can tell a short story. 

• Keeps a conversation going. 

• Follows classroom directions

• Understands functional vocabulary

• They may talk louder outside than inside.