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In the womb
Fetuses can distinguish the tone and rhythm of different voices and sounds, particularly the mother. -
2 months
At this stage the infant can coo, making pleasant vowel sounds. -
4 months on .....
The infant observes with interest as the caregiver plays turn-taking games, such as pat-a-cake and peekaboo. -
6 months on .....
The infant van babble, adding consonants to their cooing sounds and repeating syllables. By 7 months, babbling starts to include many sounds of spoken languages. Infants begin to comprehend a few commonly heard words. -
12 months
Infant babbling includes sound and intonation patterns of a child's language community. Speed and accuracy of word comprehension increases rapidly. Toddlers will begin to say their first recognizable word. -
8-12 months
Infants become more accurate at establishing joint attention with the caregiver, who often verbally labels what the baby is looking at.Infants actively participate in turn-taking games, trading roles with the caregiver. infants use preverbal gestures, such as showing and pointing, to influence others' goals and behavior and to convey information. -
18-24 months
Spoken vocabulary expands from about 50 to 200 to 250 words. Toddlers will begin to combine 2 words at a time. -
3 years
Children should be able to understand and use questions. They understand “why” “where” “what” questions and can follow simple two part instructions. They start combining 3-4 words to express thoughts and ideas and their speech is 75% intelligible to unknown listeners. They use pronouns such as “I” “my” “mine” “you”. -
4 years
Children start to combine four words or more to form sentences. Conjunctions such as “and” & “because” emerge so the child is able to form longer sentences and express more complex relationships (I had a sandwich because I was hungry). They should be able to follow instructions that involve three actions, and understand concepts such as ‘in front of’ ‘between’ ‘behind’. Speech is 100% intelligible to unknown listeners. -
5 years
Children should be able to produce up to 8 word sentences incorporating more complex sentence forms including conjunctions such as ‘because’ ‘when’ ‘so’ and ‘if’. Later developing grammatical forms appear such as future tense (we will go), irregular plurals (mice, firemen), third person singular (he sings) and a variety of pronouns (they, their, ours). Five year old should be able to follow instructions containing a range of concepts including ‘before’ & ‘after’. -
6-7 years
At this age the child should have mastered the consonants s-z, r, voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George. Should be to handle opposite analogies easily: girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp short-long, sweet-sour, etc. Understands such terms as: alike, different, beginning, end, etc. Be able to tell time to quarter hour. Also will be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words. -
7-8 years
The child begins to use reference books. Enjoys reading aloud,
mysteries, adventure stories and biographies. Adjusts language and vocabulary to fit an audience, topic, or purpose. Develops vocabulary from textbooks and personal reading. Gives precise directions and instructions for more complex activities and tasks.
Tells and retells stories in a formal storytelling format using descriptive language, story elements, and voice to create interest and mood. -
9-10 years
At this age your child should be opening and closing conversations appropriately. Stays on topic, takes turns, and uses eye contact during conversation. Clarifies and explains words and ideas when conversation breaks down, gives background information or definitions of words. Uses language to inform, persuade, and entertain. Uses language to establish and maintain social status (7-9 years) -
11- 12 years
Children’s conversational skills should be developing well and they will be able to cope when adults or peers strike up a conversation. They may be expressing their personal opinions in conversations too
Reading, writing and general conversing will all help them to gain the confidence and dialogue needed to hold longer conversations or debates that they will be starting to face and that will be expected of them when they start secondary education.
