BY AGE ONE YEAR
- Recognizes name
- Says 2-3 words besides “mama” and “dada”
- Makes consonant sounds p, b, m,d,t,w
- Engages in vocal play
- Enjoys reciprocal games like peak-a-boo
- Attempts to get others attention via squeals and cries
- Demonstrates eye contact and joint engagement with others
- Imitates familiar words
- Understands simple instructions
- Recognizes words as symbols for objects: Car- points to garage, cat- meows
BETWEEN ONE AND TWO YEARS
- Understands “no”
- Demonstrates a growing vocabulary with at least 50 words by the age of two years
- Imitates words and sounds spoken by others
- Combines two words such as “daddy bye-bye”
- Waves good-bye and plays pat-a-cake
- Engages in giving/showing activities by pointing and bringing objects to others
- Makes the “sounds” of familiar animals
- Gives a toy when asked
- Uses words such as “more” to make wants known
- Points to his or her toes, eyes, and nose
- Brings object from another room when asked
- Demonstrates knowledge of basic routines (bath time, dressing, bedtime)
BETWEEN TWO AND THREE YEARS
- Identifies body parts
- Carries on ‘conversation’ with self and dolls
- Speech is mostly understood by immediate family members
- Asks “what’s that?” And “where’s my?”
- Uses 2-word negative phrases such as “no want””
- Forms some plurals by adding “s”; book, books
- Has a 450 word vocabulary
- Gives first name, hold up fingers to tell age
- Combines nouns and verbs “mommy go”
- Understands simple time concepts: “last night”, “tomorrow”
- Refers to self as “me” rather than by name
- Tries to get adult attention: “watch me”
- Likes to hear same story repeated
- May say “no” when means “yes”
- Talks to other children as well as adults
- Solves problems by talking instead of hitting or crying
- Answers “where” questions
- Names common pictures and things
- Uses short sentences like “me want more” or “me want cookie”
- Matches 3-4 colors, knows big and little
BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR YEARS
- Can tell a story
- Has a sentence length of 4-5 words
- Speech is understood most of the time by people outside of the immediate family
- Beginning to use grammatical markers to indicate tense (past, present, future)
- Use of pronouns my, yours, his hers, he she etc.
- Has a vocabulary of nearly 1000 words
- Name basic colors
- Understands “yesterday,” “summer,” “lunchtime,” “tonight,” “little-big”
- Begins to obey requests like “put the block under the chair”
- Knows his or her last name, name of street on which he/she lives and several nursery rhymes
BETWEEN FOUR AND FIVE YEARS
- Has sentence length of at least 4-5 words consistently
- Uses past tense correctly
- Has a vocabulary of nearly 1500 words
- Points to colors red, blue, yellow and green
- Identifies triangles, circles and squares
- Can speak of imaginary conditions such as “I hope”
- Asks many grammatically correct questions, asks “who?” And “why?”
- Uses a variety of grammatical forms to indicate tense, plurality, possession
BETWEEN FIVE AND SIX YEARS
- Has a sentence length of at least 5-6 words consistently
- Speech is understood by all listeners, all of the time despite some developmental articulation errors on L, R, and TH
- Has a vocabulary of around 2000 words
- Defines objects by their use (you eat with a fork) and can tell what objects are made of
- Knows spatial relations like “on top”, “behind”, “far” and “near”
- Knows his/her address
- Identifies a penny, nickel and dime
- Knows common opposites like “big/little”
- Understands “same” and “different”
- Counts ten objects
- Asks questions for information
- Distinguished left and right hand in herself
- Uses all types of sentences, for example “let’s go to the store after we eat”
- Uses a variety of grammatical forms to indicate tense, plurality. Possession