| 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
- 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 him/ her
- 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 1,500 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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