Cognitive Skills

• Performs action manually with mechanical toy
• Takes objects out of container

Pragmatic Skills

• Appears to “listen” to a conversation
• Indicates his/her wants by vocalizing instead of crying
• Responds to expression of emotion
• Rejects by turning the head
• Crying indicates different needs, emotions

Semantic Skills

• Stops an activity when you use the word “no-no”
• Stops an activity regularly when name is called
• Recognizes names of familiar people
• Vocalizes word-like utterances using two identifiable consonants
• Recognizes names of common objects, e.g., “Kitty,” “bottle,” “blanket”

Phonetic Skills

• Discriminates primary caretaker’s voice from stranger’s
• Combines consonants and vowels in babbling, e.g., “baba”
• Uses long chains of babbled sounds
• Imitates speech sounds
• Exhibits vocal variations of intensity; shouts
• “Sings” along with music

Cognitive Skills

• Imitates simple actions
• Looks for objects removed from line of vision
• Predicts outcomes from events (e.g., flipping a light switch will turn on/off the light)
• Puts objects into containers
• Transfers objects from one hand to another
• Recognizes familiar objects, persons, and pets

Pragmatic Skills

• Responds to environmental sounds

Semantic Skills

• Understands 50 words
• Waves “bye-bye”
• Complies with simple commands occasionally (e.g., “give me,” “come here”)
• Says first words
• Points and vocalizes as a way of obtaining objects

Phonetic Skills

• Babbles while looking at a book
• Imitates new sounds and words

Cognitive Skills

• Uses simple conventional objects in an appropriate manner, e.g., hits pegs with wooden hammer
• Imitates adult activities
• Plays simple games
• Points to objects in pictures

Semantic Skills

• Says ten names for common objects, actions and familiar people, e.g., mommy, doggie, ball, cookie, etc.
• Asks for names of things
• Shakes head yes/no to some questions
• Points to major body parts when asked
• Uses words more often than gestures to communicate
• Produces animal sounds
• Refers to self by name
• Says “no”

Phonetic Skills

• Jargons while looking at pictures in a book
• Tries to imitate what you say
• Uses vowel sounds accurately
• Uses at least /m/, /p/, /n/, /w/, /th/, /t/ and /d/ in his/her speech, duplicates the syllable, e.g. [nana] for banana, [wawa] for water, [ba] for ball
• Increases vocalizing as activity level increases

Syntactic Skills

• Follows directions for simple actions, e.g., “jump down”
• Uses two word combinations such as “more milk,” “big boy,” “daddy go”
• Tries to “tell” experiences using jargon combined with some real words

Cognitive Skills

• Uses conventional objects in symbolic play, such as “feeding” baby dolls with spoons and bottles; “driving the car”, etc.

Pragmatic Skills

• Refers to self by name
• Attempts to describe events after they occur
• Verbalizes basic needs for food and drink

Semantic Skills

• Understands “in,” “on,” “off,” “under,” “big,” and “little”
• Understands the meanings of 500-900 words
• Imitates new words that you say
• Uses 200 words
• Identifies about five body parts
• Uses words in creative ways (e.g., a stick thrown into the sky becomes a bird)

Phonetic Skills

• Uses speech that is 75% understandable to friends and family, although many speech “errors” can be heard
• Uses no jargon

Syntactic Skills

• Follows simple one-step commands
• Combines two and three words, e.g., “more milk,” “Daddy bye-bye”
• Answers your statements, questions, or requests, e.g., “Do you want more milk?” Answer: “No milk”
• Vocalizes a great deal in a group but uses very little true conversation
• Uses “me,” “you,” and “mine” although not always correctly

Cognitive

• Matches colors and shapes
• Matches objects to pictures
• Does simple counting
• Parallel plays
• Talks to self

Pragmatic Skills

• Uses verbal language as his/her primary means of expression
• Uses speech to be social
• Has a conversation involving two to three exchanges with a listener
• Talks about immediate experiences, e.g.,”Billy push car”

Semantic Skills

• Identifies a minimum of two body parts from a picture, self, doll, or person
• Identifies many pictures in a picture book
• Identifies objects by use, e.g., “Which one do we drink out of? Sleep in? Sit on?”
• Understands the concept of “one” and “one more”
• Names pictures that show actions
• Has a vocabulary of 200-300 words
• Refers to self by name, e.g.,”Jamie go”

Phonetic Skills

• Uses speech which is clear enough for strangers to understand 75% of the time
• Uses /m/,/n/, /p/, /ng/, /w/, correctly in speech
• May delete parts of word-initial clusters, e.g., blue ->[bu]; school -> [ku]
• May produce /s/,/z/,/sh/ as [t] or [d], e.g., sun -> [tun]
• May produce back throat consonants in the front of the mouth, e.g., car -> [ta]

Syntactic Skills

• Uses two to three word sentences
• Uses speech which is telegraphic yet functional, using key words (nouns and verbs) to convey needs
• Consistently follows two-part commands, e.g.,”Get mommy a diaper”
• Understands instructions involving pronouns, e.g. “I want a cup.” “Show me my cup,” “your cup,” ” mine”
• Asks simple questions “What doing?”
• Recites portions of nursery rhymes
• Answers “Who,” “What” and “Why” questions
• Uses one or more personal pronouns, although not always correctly (“Me push car”)

Cognitive Skills

• Knows his/her last name, sex, name of street on which he/she lives, and parts of several nursery rhymes
• Stays with one activity for eight or nine minutes
• Sings songs

Pragmatic Skills

• Enjoys speaking without avoidance or embarrassment
• Uses language as a tool
• Takes turns in conversation
• Maintains topic

Semantic Skills

• Understands concepts of “one,” “many,” “big,” “little,” “same,” “different,” “empty,” “full,” “clean,” “dirty,” etc.
• Understands concepts of time such as “night” and “day”
• Uses words to relate observations, ideas and relationships
• Exhibits an expanding vocabulary of up to 900 words

Phonetic Skills

• Produces speech which is 90% understandable
• Produces most consonant sounds correctly
• Includes final consonants on words, e.g., hat duck; may delete weak syllables, e.g., [efant] for elephant
• Only occasionally repeats or hesitates as in “ma-ma-ma-mom”

Syntactic Skills

• Obeys prepositional phrases such as “put the block under the chair” and follows two-part commands, e.g.,”put the doll in the bed”
• Understands and uses plurals, e.g., “blocks,” “dogs;” pronouns, e.g., “I, me, you, he, she, it, him, her;” and possessives, e.g., “girl’s”
• Retells a story or relates an idea to someone using short simple sentences
• Uses three to five word sentences
• Asks simple questions, e.g., “What + doing?”, “Where?”, “Who?”
• Uses “because” to join two sentences

Cognitive Skills

• Comprehends opposite concepts
• Identifies crosses, triangles, circles, and squares
• Speaks of imaginary conditions with “pretend” or “I hope”
• Stays with one activity for 11-12 minutes
• Helps plan activities
• Names primary colors on request
• Has metalinguistic awareness: is able to think about and comment on what he (and others) says

Pragmatic Skills

• Understands the conventions of simple conversations e.g., turn taking, topic maintenance
• Rarely repeats or hesitates
• Speaks without avoidance or embarrassment
• Modifies speech to age of listener
• Talks on the telephone

Semantic Skills

• Understands time concepts such as “early in the morning,” “next month,” “next year,” “noontime”
• Knows concepts related to spatial arrangements, e.g., “in front of,” “behind,” “far,” and “near”
• Uses many more words than you can count (nearly 1500)

Phonetic Skills

• Expresses himself using speech which is understood by all
• /s/, /z/, /sh/, /j/ may be distorted
• [w] may be used for /r/

Syntactic Skills

• Comprehends complex sentences
• Delivers a message
• Follows three step commands even though objects are not present
• Uses five and six word sentences
• Asks “How,” “Where,” “When” and “Why” questions
• Answers “What if” questions
• Uses compound sentences combined by “and,” “but,” “or,” “so,” and “because,”e.g., “I’m four now but John is only three.”
• Uses past and present progressive tenses accurately e.g., “I ate,” “I am going…”

Cognitive Skills

• Understands cause and effect, consequences
• States birthday and address
• Stays with one activity for 15-20 minutes
• Uses complicated reasoning
• Demands increasingly detailed explanation until the adult is unable to answer

Pragmatic Skills

• Expresses his/her feelings verbally
• Shows interest in things being funny

Semantic Skills

• Classifies objects by their form, color, use, or composition, e.g., “You eat with a fork.” “A fork is made of metal.”
• Knows concepts “more” and “less”
• Describes person, place, or thing using attributes
• Names a time of day associated with an activity
• Recites days of the week and names “penny,” “nickle” and “dime”
• Understands and uses more words than you can count (uses 2000; understands 6000), and continues to ask the meaning of new words

Phonetic Skills

• Uses all speech sounds correctly with the possible exception of /r/

Syntactic Skills

• Relates fanciful stories
• Answers questions about a story and its plot
• Comprehends all question types including “How many”
• Comprehends complex questions related to remote elements
• Uses a sentence length of six to eight words
• Uses grammatically correct sentences. Can use complex verbs such as “could have been,” “will be going,” etc.

Cognitive Skills

• Listens attentively and for long periods of time
• Answers all questions accurately
• Makes logical relationships and solves problems verbally
• Understands reality versus fantasy

Pragmatic Skills

• Comprehends subtle humor and giggles about silly things
• Uses the telephone for social calls

Semantic Skills

• Uses mature vocabulary, e.g., “surprisingly,” “frightening,” “disappointing”

Phonetic Skills

• Speech is error-free and adult-like

Syntactic Skills

• Uses passive sentences forms, e.g., “The bus was hit by the car.”
• Corrects his/her own sentence errors
• Uses mature expressions, e.g., “This is serious. Dad is allergic to cats and we have a mouse in the cellar.”
• Seldom makes grammatical errors
• Argues verbally
• Uses negation often, e.g., “I can’t get it,” or “I can’t figure it out.”