Birth-3 Months:
- Alerts to sound/social stimuli
- Coos and makes sounds, like "ooo, ahh, mmm"
- Recognizes familiar voices of people/loved ones
- Reciprocates sounds when spoken to
4-6 Months:
- Giggles and laughs when spoken to/playing
- Vocalizes different vowel sounds, sometimes paired with consonants, like "daah, maah, ummm"
- Looks at objects of interest/follows with gaze
- Reacts to toys that make sound
7-9 Months:
- Looks when name is called
- Repetitively babbles strings of sounds, like "mamama, bababa"
- Raises arms to be picked up
- Recognizes names of some people/objects
10-12 Months:
- Points, waves, shows/gives objects
- Attempts imitation of vocalizations/gestures
- Responds to familiar phrases, like "let's go bye bye"
- Produces 1-5 high frequency words, like "mama, baba, hi, bye"
13-18 Months:
- Recognizes words for most common objects
- Follows simple directions, like "come here, give me ball"
- Increases single word vocabulary
- Pairs gestures with spoken language
19-24 Months:
- Understands and uses at least 50 words
- Puts 2 or more words together, like "more water"
- Follows 2-step directions, like "get your cup and bring it to mommy"
- Speech may not always be clear, like producing "dah" for "dog"
2-3 Years:
- Uses word combinations and phrase-level speech often
- Correctly produces "p, b, d, h, w, m, n, y" sounds
- Speech is becoming more clear, but still may be difficult for others not familiar with your child to fully understand
- Understands most of what is said to them and produces over 200 words
