Speech development milestones

Maternity Team

8 months ago

baby speech development, toddler speech milestones, toddler speech development, kids speech development

The age at which children learn to talk can vary widely. Some children are simply just late developers. There are lots of ways to encourage speech development – reading to your toddler being the most important and beneficial also give your toddler lots of opportunities to communicate and be patient.

The below speech development milestones are a guideline, it’s important to remember every child is different and if you are worried speak to your GP or local PHN.

3 months

Be vocal – have baby conversations with you

6 months

Babble using vowel sounds, eg. “goo”, “ga”
Imitate sounds
Laugh out loud

9 months

Smile and laugh at you
Turn to sounds
Reaching for objects
Use his voice to get attention

If following the normal speech developmental stages of infants and toddlers, your toddler should:

12 months

Respond to his own name
Use sounds and even a few understandable words
Be able to play peek-a-boo and other games
Be able to use gestures like pointing
Be able to understand simple directions
Be able to let you know what he wants and what he doesn’t want!
Be showing you things that interest him

15 months

Be using lots of gestures and sounds
Be using some words to communicate
Be able to understand familiar words and phrases, like “where’s daddy?” or “get your shoes”
Be able to play with a variety of toys, like blocks, dolls, cars, teddy bears etc

18 months

Use at least 10 words
Be able to make at least five different consonant sounds – for example: ba,ca,da,ga,la,ma,na,sha,ta,wa,ya
Be able to identify body parts when asked- eg. “show me your nose”
Imitate words
Use symbolic play – so pretend to feed a doll