Expressive Language Milestones Flashcards
Birth to 3 months
Coos, and makes other sounds too. Has a hunger cry, and repeats a syllable when crying. Produces at least two different syllables, and vocalizes to express pleasure. The child will cry to get attention, and vocalizes when the caregiver smiles and talks. The child produces back sounds, like /g/ and /k/.
3 to 6 months
The child vocalizes, and takes turns doing so. Hen will vocalize to express displeasure. The child begins to search for eye contact, and attempts to interact. Hen initiates “talking” with others, and stops babbling when others vocalize. The child laughs at henself. The child demonstrates sound play alone or with others and whines with manipulative intent.
6-9 months.
The child produces at least four syllables, and produces to syllable combinations like “dada, or baba.” The child imitates duplicated syllables. The child will vocalize during play, will sing along to familiar songs, and will shout or vocalize to get attention.
9-12 months
The child should say “mama” or “dada” meaningfully by now. Hen will imitate CV sounds and nonspeech sounds, like animal sounds. The child will use an approximation of a name to call someone, and uses approximations to name common objects. The child vocalizes with intent frequently, and vocalizes when hen wishes to change activities. Hen should say 1-2 words spontaneously.
12-15 months
Uses 5-10 words consistently. The child will use a combination of jargon and real words, and will incorporate gestures and pointing to communicate. The child will shake their head to say no, and will imitate new words spontaneously.
15-18 months
The child says “all gone” by now, answers “what’s this,” and asks for more. Hen will call the caregiver when waking, and verbalizes to have needs met (“juice”). 50% of hen’s utterances are nouns, and has an MLU of 1-2 words. The child uses simple modifiers like, “pretty,” “hot,” or “dirty.”
18-21 months
Produces animal sounds and names with a model and spontaneously. The child should have 10-20 words that hen uses consistently, and will verbalize needs. The child will begin to use adjectives and verbs.
21-24 months
The child should have 50 words by now, and has an MLU of 1.8 which is comprised of approximately 33% nouns. The child will, on occasion, produce 3 word utterances. Hen will say hen’s name on request, and will begin to use pronouns.
24-27 months
By now, the child will use personal pronouns often and will have no difficulty producing 2-3 word sentences independently. The child will use many action words and will ask basic questions (daddy gone?).
27-30 months
The child uses 200 intelligible words spontaneously. Syntax begins to emerge: using articles “a” and “the.” Uses the present progressive verb tense “ing.” Regular plurals are emerging (run/ran), and uses contraction (can’t, don’t). The child will name one color and will refer to self by pronoun (I). Uses declaratives and questions. MLU should be approximately 3.1 comprised of 25% verbs and 25% nouns using subject+verb+object.
30-33 months
The child will answer yes/no questions accurately. The child uses plurals, prepositions, all pronouns, and auxiliary “is/am +verb+ing.” The child will state hen’s gender and what first and last name. The child will repeat sentences of 6-7 syllables in length, and will answer 6-7 action/agent questions accurately (what runs?). The child will answer wh- and how many questions, and will ask simple questions. “Not” is emerging.
33-36 months
The child begins to use yes/no questions (“is this a ___) and answers “what do you do when…” The child will use “is+ADJ.” The child uses regular past tense, uses contracted is (he’s) and possessives. Begins to use adverb locations like here and there, and begins to use can, do, or will. Child has a mean length odorants of approximately 3.5, using around 500 words comprised of 20% nouns and 25% verbs. The child is able to count to three.
3-4 Years Old
Talk in sentences of about four words, is able to relate past experiences, people outside of the immediate family are able to wonder stand the child. The tile to be able to answer what, when, and where questions logically.
4-5 YO
Child is now able to respond to “why” questions, is able to define, and can explain procedures and name categories. Hen is able to use prepositions and regular and irregular past tense verbs with no difficulty.
5-6 YO
Child should be able to use full sentences in discourse, and will use adjectives to describe people and objects. By now, the child is able to express quantity.
