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Typical Speech Sound Development

Receptive Language (understanding)

Birth to 3 months

  • startles to loud sounds

  • appears to recognize familiar voices and is comforted

  • smiles when spoken to

 

4 – 6 months

  • turns head/eyes to locate source of sounds

  • enjoys toys with lights/sounds

 

7 – 12 months

  • enjoys peek-a-boo

  • recognizes own name

  • recognizes names for common items like "bottle, juice"

  • is responding to some simple requests such as "wave bye-bye-bye, no, come here"

 

1 – 2 years

  • identifies body parts by pointing

  • follows simple commands and understands

  • Simple questions "throw ball, where's shoes?"

  • identifies objects/people in pictures/books

 

2 – 3 years

  • follows 2 step commands "get the book and put on the chair"

  • understands spatial concepts (in, out, of) and descriptive concepts (big, little)

 

3 – 4 years

  • understands pronouns he/she, him/her

  • identifies colors by pointing

  • understands quantity concepts (one vs. more than one)

  • answers simple "who questions 'where, what, who, when?

 

4 – 5 years

  • listens to short stories and answers questions about it

Express language (talking/communicating)

Birth – 3 months

  • smiles at familiar face

  • makes cooing pleasure sounds

 

4 – 6 months

  • begins to make "babble" sounds with p, b, m

  • vocalizes when alone and when playing with caregiver

 

7 – 12 months

  • uses vocalizations to get attention vs. crying

  • babbles different syllable strings

  • uses simple gestures to express wants (raises arms to be picked up)

  • has a vocabulary of 1 or 2 words (bye-bye, mama, dada)

 

1 – 2 years

  • gains new vocabulary every month

  • uses pointer finger to express wants/needs

  • asks questions "what's that?, where daddy?"

  • puts two words together (my shoe)

 

2 – 3 years

  • uses words for most all communication

  • speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time

  • uses 2 – 4 word phrases to talk about events

 

3 – 4 years

  • tells about activities at school

  • speech is greater than 75% intelligible to all listeners

  • uses many sentences containing 4 or more words in each

 

4 – 5 years

  • uses descriptive concepts in conversation (the pink dress is my favorite)

  • able to tell make-believe stories

  • uses correct verb tenses

Typical Speech Sound Development

By age 2:

  • H as in he

  • M as in mama

  • N as in no

  • P as in up

  • B as in be

  • D as in do

 

By age 3:

  • Zh as in measure

  • Y as in yes

  • W as in we

  • Ng as in sing

  • T as in to

  • K as in car

  • G as in go

 

By age 3 years 6 months:

  • F as in if

 

By age 4:

  • L as in lay

  • Sh as in she

  • Ch as in chew

 

By age 4 years 6 months:

  • J as in jaw

  • S as in so

  • Z as in is

 

By age 5:

  • R as in red

 

By age 6:

  • V as in Vegemit

 

By age 8:

  • Th as in this

 

By age 8 years 6 months:

  • Th as in thing

Source: http://speech-language-therapy.com/acquisition.html

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