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Speech and Language Checklists

Developmental milestones are one way of seeing if your child’s development matches that of typically developing peers.

If your child is not showing the following speech, language, and related skills, a consultation is recommended with a licensed speech-language pathologist who can provide you with suggestions which may prevent a communication problem from developing and determine if a screening test or in-depth diagnostic testing is needed.

Please refer to our Glossary of Terms for an explanation of the terms used throughout the milestone checklists.

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.”

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