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| Birth to 5 months. |
- Coos.
- Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries or fusses).
- Makes noise when talked to.
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| 6 to 11 months. |
- Understands "no-no".
- Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba).
- Says ma-ma or da-da without meaning.
- Tries to communicate by actions or gestures.
- Tries to repeat your sounds.
- Says first word.
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| 12 to 17 months. |
- Answers simple questions nonverbally.
- Says two to three words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear).
- Tries to imitate simple words.
- Vocabulary of four to six words.
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| 18 to 23 months. |
- Correctly pronounces most vowels and n, m, p, h, especially in the beginning of syllables and short words - also begins to use other speech sounds.
- Vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear.
- Asks for common foods by name.
- Makes animal sounds such as "moo" .
- Starting to combine words such as "more milk".
- Begins to use pronouns such as "mine".
- Uses two word phrases.
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| 2 to 3 years. |
- Knows some spatial concepts such as "in", "on".
- Knows pronouns such as "you," "me," "her".
- Knows descriptive words such as "big," "happy".
- Vocabulary of 250 to 900 words.
- Uses three word sentences.
- Knows 50-100 words.
- Speech is becoming more accurate but may still leave off ending sounds - strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said.
- Answers simple questions.
- Begins to use more pronouns such as "you," "I".
- Uses question inflection to ask for something such as "my ball?".
- Begins to use plurals such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs such as "jumped".
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| 3 to 4 years. |
- Groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc.
- Identifies colors.
- Uses most speech sounds but may distort some of the more difficult sounds such as l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th - these sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8.
- Uses consonants in the beginning, middle and ends of words - some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them.
- Strangers are able to understand much of what is said.
- Able to describe the use of objects such as "fork," "car," etc.
- Has fun with language - enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, "is that an elephant on your head?"
- Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around them.
- Uses verbs that end in "ing," such as "walking" and "talking".
- Answers simple questions such as "What do you do when you are hungry?".
- Repeats sentences.
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| 4 to 5 years. |
- Understands spatial concepts such as "behind," "next to".
- Understands complex questions.
- Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult or complex words such as "hippopotamus".
- Vocabulary of about 1500 words.
- Uses some irregular past tense verbs such as "ran," "fell".
- Describes how to do things such as painting a picture.
- Defines words.
- Lists items that belong in a category such as animals, vehicles, etc.
- Answers "why" questions.
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| 5 years |
- Understands more than 2,000 words.
- Understands time sequences (what happened first, second, third, etc.).
- Carries out a series of three directions.
- Understands rhyming.
- Engages in conversation.
- Sentences can be eight or more words in length.
- Uses compound and complex sentences.
- Describes objects.
- Uses imagination to create stories.
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