Age of Child Typical Development

Age of Child	Typical Development
6 Months	vocalizes, responds to name, responds to angry or happy tone of voice, turns to a voice
12 Months	uses one or more words spontaneously to express meaning, can understand simple instructions, practices voice inflections
18 Months	has vocabulary of more than five meaningful words, repeats a word or phrase over and over (echolalia), jargons (babbles), can follow simple commands
24 Months	can name several common objects, uses two prepositions (e.g. in, on ), uses two pronouns correctly, combines nouns and verbs, has a 150+ word vocabulary, voice volume, pitch, and fluency are poor, points to body parts on command
36 Months	uses I, you, me correctly, uses some plurals and past tenses, uses three prepositions, uses 3 word sentences, vocabulary is around 1000 words, speech is intelligible, child can understands most simple questions, can describe an event or action reasonably well, knows what sleepy, hungry, cool, and thirsty mean, can tell gender, name, and age, engages in doll play pretending that doll is self
48 Months	knows names of familiar animals, uses at least four prepositions, names common objects in picture books or magazines, knows one or more colors, can remember a sequence of 4 digits or syllables, plays can play with dolls making two dolls talk to each other, talks to self continually, understands superlatives like longer, larger, repeats words and phrases (echoes) frequently
60 Months	uses adjectives and adverbs, knows common opposites, understands one-to-one correspondence up to five objects, can recite numbers to ten, can repeat a sentence with nine words, can tell what common objects are used for , can follow a three step command, understands time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while, tomorrow, yesterday, today, speech is generally grammatically correct
6 Years	f, v, sh, zh, th are articulated correctly, understands more/less and number concepts up to 10, can tell a story about a picture using past and imperfect verb tenses, sequence of events and relationships
7 Years	s-z, r, ch, wh, are articulated correctly, can understand analogies, can tell time at quarter, half hour and hour, can read and print some words
8 Years	Can describe and explain complex events coherently, no articulation errors should persist, reading is fairly easy, child can write simple paragraphs, and can converse with adults

STAGES IN TYPICAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Babbling, or making isolated sounds with vowels and consonants (ba, da, ga, goo, etc) usually begins by 4-8 months.
CANONICAL babbling, or repeating vowels and consonants (babababa, lalalalala, etc) usually begins by 5-9 months and should be well established by 10 months.
Comprehending individual words (mommy, daddy, no) usually occurs by 6-10 months. The correct use of mama/dada as a label for a parent usually occurs by 7-12 months.
Many infants can follow a one step command with a gesture (for example, asking for an object and holding your hand out) by 6-9 months. He should be able to follow a one step command without a gesture by 7-11 months.
The first word (other than mama/dada) is usually spoken by 9-14 months.
By 10-15 months, he should be able to point to an object that he wants.
Your child will be able to say 4-6 words (other than mama/dada and names of family members or pets) by 11-20 months.
He should be able to follow a two step command without a gesture by 14-21 months.
By 16-20 months your child should be able to tell two wants using single words (juice, milk, more, etc.).
He should be able to point to one or more body parts by 14-18 months, and this will increase to 6 body parts by 22 months.
Two word combinations or sentences are used by 18-22 months and can include phrases like 'Want milk', 'More juice', etc.
A vocabulary spurt leading to a 50+ word vocabulary occurs by 16-24 months.
Pronouns (me, you, etc) are used by 19-26 months, although they may still be used incorrectly (reversed, etc). Most children can use pronouns appropriately by 30 months.
By 24-32 months he should be able to name 4 pictures.
Conversations, with 2-3 simple sentences put together, can usually occur by 26-32 months.
He should understand two prepositional commands (put the cup on top of the table or next to the book) by 27-34 months.
By 29-34 months he should be able to give the name and use of at least two objects.
He should be able to name one color by 2 1/2 - 3 1/4 years, and this will increase to 4 colors by 3 - 4 1/4 years.
By 3 years his speech should be 75% understandable by strangers, or someone who is not routinely around the child and he should have a vocabulary of about 250 words. His speech should be fully understandable by 4 years of age with a vocabulary of well over 600 words.