Speech and Language Milestones: What’s Normal
Speech and language milestones serve as key indicators of your child’s growth. Speech is the production of sounds and words, while language involves comprehending and using words to communicate. Specific milestones signal when your child is progressing well and when additional support may help. This post will explore ways to foster a language-rich environment and leverage incidental learning, empowering you to nurture your child’s speech and language development. Signs indicating the need for a speech-language evaluation will also be covered. Learn more about Speech and Language Milestones: What’s Normal.
Language Milestones
First, here are typical language milestones for children:
- Birth-12 months (pre-linguistic stage)
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- 0-3 months: cries with different sounds for needs, cooing begins, and smiles in response to voices.
- 4-6 months: babbles with consonant sounds (ba, da), responds to tone of voice, turns toward sounds.
- 7-9 months: Canonical babbling (reduplicated “bababa”) responds to name, understands “no”.
- 10-12 months: variegated babbling (mix of sounds), first words may emerge (e.g., “mama”, “dada”), uses gestures like waving.
- 12-24 months
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- 12-18 months: vocabulary grows to ~10-50 words, uses single words to label/request, understands ~200 words.
- 18-24 months: vocabulary “explosion (~200-300 words by 2 years), begins 2-word combinations (“more juice”), follows simple 2-step directions.
Speech Milestones
Now we are going to define the normal speech milestones you would see in a child. Those are listed below:
- Birth-12 months
0-2 months: reflexive sounds (crying, fussing, some comfort sounds).
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- 2-4 months: cooing (vowel-like sounds: “oooh, ahhh”)
- 4-6 months: vocal play with pitch and loudness.
- 6-10 months: babbling begins—reduplicated (e.g., “bababa,” “dadada”)
- 10-12 months: variegated babbling (different consonants together), jargon (babbling with adult-like intonation).
12-24 months
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- 12-18 months: First words with consistent sounds, though not always clear.
- 18-24 months: uses early consonant sounds (p, b, m, d, n, h), speech is understood approximately 25% of the time to familiar listeners.
As you can see, there are many milestones that are similar when comparing speech vs. language. However, they both have different meanings. I focused on providing milestones for ages birth to 24 months, as these are the most crucial times for your children’s development. There are multiple habits that can both positively and negatively impact your child’s development.
Red Flags and Ways to Help
Some things to watch out for as your child develops coincide with both speech and language. As your child begins exploring the sound of their voice and babbling, it is important to note how much they do so. If your baby seems unusually quiet or rarely babbles, this could signal slower speech and language development. It is important to talk to your baby as much as possible in these stages. While they won’t understand what exactly you are saying, they will be exposed to it numerous times, increasing their chances of development. When your baby “coos” or babbles, do it back to them! It demonstrates turn-taking skills while also reinforcing the sounds they are making.
Therefore, if you do have a particularly quiet baby, it encourages them to make more sounds. If your child has not said a first word by 18 months of age or has fewer than 6 words at this time, this could be a good reason to do some further investigation. In this instance, it is important to narrate everything you do in front of your child to enhance your child’s labeling skills, increase vocabulary, and increase speech sounds.
To sum it up: speech and language milestones are powerful indicators of your child’s development. By creating a language-rich environment, you can support growth every day. But if you notice any red flags — such as no words by 18 months or unclear speech past age 3 — it’s worth reaching out to a speech-language pathologist for guidance. Early support makes a big difference!