Sunday, December 22, 2024 |
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Important Communication Milestones
3 – 6 Months
· Smiles spontaneously to human contact
· Smiles when playing alone
· Smiles at faces of several family members
· Stops crying when spoken to
· Shows different responses to different family members
6 – 9 Months
· Responds to “Come here”
· Becomes more outgoing with familiar people
· Shows anxiety when separated from favorite caregiver
· Likes to be with specific people
9 – 12 Months
· Reacts to other’s moods
· Is fearful of strangers
· Can tolerate momentary loss of contact with caregiver in unfamiliar places
· Shows off to get attention
12 – 18 Months
· Has an expressive vocabulary of between 5-20 words
· Is aware of the value of communication
· Follows simple directions, especially with gesture
· Practices intonation, sometimes imitating an adult
· Uses mostly nouns with a few others, such as “down” or “up”
· Uses much, meaningful jargon with inflection and emotion
19 – 24 Months
· Names common objects
· Uses two or three more prepositions such as “on”, “in”, or “under”
· Uses noun + Verb consistently
· Family understands about 2/3 of what child says
· Rhythm and fluency of speech is poor
· Uses “I”, “me”, and “you”, but may confuse “I” and “me”
· Control of pitch and volume is poor
· “My” and “mine” emerging (like a vengeance!)
· Follows commands, such as “Show me your nose”
25 – 36 Months
· Uses “I”, “you”, and “me” correctly
· Uses some plurals and past tenses
· ‘Knows principle body parts
· Uses three-word sentences
· Family understands about 90% of what child says
· Verbs emerge quickly
· Understands and responds to questions dealing with immediate environment
· Tells about his experiences
· Can answer thinking questions, such as “What do you want when you’re thirsty?”
· Gives name, age, and gender
· Understands much more than he expresses
>4 Years
· Knows names of animals
· Uses at least four prepositions
· Knows some colors
· Can repeat four digits when given slowly
· Can repeat a four-syllable word
· Knows contrasts such as “larger” and “longer”
· Follows directions when desired object is not in sight
· Repeats many words, phrases, syllables, and sounds
· Loves make-believe and takes on multiple roles during play
· Talks extensively during play by himself or with others
5 Years
· Uses adjectives and adverbs extensively in conversation
· Knows opposites such as “on-off”, “big-little”, “heavy-light”, and “soft-hard”
· Counts to ten
· All speech should be intelligible, but articulation errors may persist
· Can repeat sentences as long as nine words
· Can define common words, such as “shoe”, “chair”, “hat”, and “bird”
· Can follow three-stage commands without help
· Understands simple time concepts, such as “morning”, “later”, and “tomorrow”
· Verbal language is generally correct
· Uses long sentences, including some compound and complex constructions
