Important Developmental Milestones of Communication

Each stage and age of a child’s life is full of new things they can do and say! Use this page to discover the communication milestones children should obtain at various ages.

Birth to 12 Months

  • Sucks and swallows appropriately during feeding
  • Smiles/interacts with others
  • Babbles using a few sounds and vowels (e.g., “bah”, “muh”, etc.)
  • Gestures (e.g., waves, points, etc.)
  • Responds to voices, familiar words (“milk”, “no”, etc.), and names (“mama”, “daddy”, etc)
  • Attempts to imitate sounds
​12 Months to 18 Months​
  • Imitates words inexactly ​
  • Follows 1-step directions without cues (e.g., get your cup)
  • Points to at least three body parts
  • Names objects on request
  • Uses 20-100 meaningful words
​18 Months to 2 Years Old​
  • Follows 2-step directions without cues (e.g., get the ball and the car)
  • Understands “what” and “where” questions
  • Asks simple questions using correct intonation
  • Says 200+ words
  • Is at least 50% intelligible
  • Uses 2 word phrases consistently
​2- 3 Years Old​
  • Is at least 70-80% intelligible
  • Correctly produces the following phonemes (sounds) consistently: /p, b, m, t, d, n, h, w/, along with all vowels and diphthongs (“ay” “ow” “oi” “oh” etc)
  • Answers questions with yes/no
  • Responds to “what”, “where” and “who” questions
  • Asks simple questions
  • Uses 3-4 words consistently
  • Is beginning to take conversational turns
  • Play and talks to other children
​3-4 Years Old
  • Correctly produces the following phonemes (sounds) consistently: /k, g, f, v, y, l, s, sh, ch, z/
  • Is at least 80-90% intelligible
  • Uses possessives, pronouns, verb tenses
  • Describes use of objects
  • Expresses ideas and feelings
  • Can complete simple analogies (e.g., You see with your eyes, and you hear with your….)
  • Uses at least 4 words per utterance consistently
​4-5 Years Old
  • At least 90% intelligible
  • Correctly produces the following phonemes (sounds) correctly /j, th/
  • Asks and answers Who, What, Where and Why questions
  • Uses at least 5 words per utterance
  • Initiates and ends conversation appropriately
  • Takes several conversational turns
​5-6 Years Old
  • Self-monitors speech in conversation​
  • At least 90-95% intelligible in conversation
  • Uses at least 8 words per utterance
  • Is able to understand and use sequential terms to describe events
  • Uses regular plurals, prepositions, superlatives, future progressive verbs
​6-8 Years Old
  • Articulation should be typical by age 7​​​
  • Is able to relate well formed narratives independently
  • Grammar has appropriately stabilized