Language Development 

Receptive language development

0-3 months

• Responds to loud sounds

• Recognizes your voice

4-6 months

• Looks toward sound

• Attends to toys with sound and music

7-12 months

• Enjoys routine predictive games (i.e. peek-a-boo)

• Recognizes words from common items

• Begins to respond to simple requests (i.e. “come here”)

12-18 months

• Understands 100-150 words in context

• Points to body parts

• Listens to songs, stories, rhymes

18-24 months

• Understands 150-200+ words

• Follows simple commands

• Understands simple questions

• Identifies pictures in books by pointing

24-36 months

• Understands 200-500+ words

• Follows 2-step directions

• Understand one, all, in, on, under,

• Understands differences in meaning (i.e. go/stop),

• Starts to understand many aspects of language including grammar

• Listens to longer stories

Expressive speech, language and social development

0-3 months

• Cooing

• Different cries for different needs

• Smiles when spoken to/sees you

4-6 months

• Babbling sounds (p,b,m)

• Laughs

• Vocalizes pleasure/displeasure

7-12 months

• Varied babbling

• Uses speech/sounds to get attention

• Imitates speech sounds

• Produces first meaningful word

12-18 months

• Uses gestures for intentional communication

• Uses many different consonant sounds

• Rapid increase in vocabulary daily

18-24 months

• Says 50-150 words

• Names common items

• Starts to put 2 words together

24-36 months

• Says 100-250+ words

• Uses 2-4 word phrases

• Uses sounds (k ,g, f, t, d, n)

• Requests objects by name

• Starts to use grammar rules of language