Milestones

Every child is unique and develops at their own pace. However, there are some general milestones to look out for in your child's communication development: 

• Birth to 1 year

  • Makes eye contact and responds to facial expressions
  • Cries, coos, and gurgles to express needs and wants
  • Begins to imitate sounds and gestures 
  • Responds to familiar voices and sounds

• 1 to 2 years

  • Begins to use single words to communicate, such as "mama" or "dada" 
  • Understands simple instructions and commands
  • Points to objects of interest and names familiar items
  • Starts to use gestures like waving and nodding

• 2 to 3 years

  • Uses two to three-word phrases to express ideas
  • Asks simple questions like "What's that?" or "Where?" 
  • Follows two-step instructions, such as "Get your shoes and bring them to me" 
  • Engages in simple conversations and begins to share experiences

• 3 to 5 years

  • Uses sentences with four or more words
  • Asks more complex questions and engages in longer conversations
  • Tells simple stories and recounts events in sequence
  • Understands basic concepts like colours, shapes, and sizes
  • Stammering 

• 5 to 7 years

  • Understands long instructions, for example: "Put your toys back in the cupboard, go upstairs and find your swimming things"   
  • Talks for lots of different reasons, such as to share ideas, to solve problems or to tell jokes  
  • Uses long sentences and puts the right endings on their words, for example: "My teddy likes sitting on a bed because beds are softer"
  • Can take turns to talk in conversations with adults and children in lots of different situations, either with one person or in a group 
  • Talks clearly so that unfamiliar people can understand them almost all of the time. They might still make mistakes in tricky words, like saying "spash" instead of "splash"   

• 7 to 11 years

  • Uses sentences to talk about what they’re thinking and feeling 
  • Understands other points of view and can show that they agree or disagree  
  • Keeps a conversation going by giving reasons and explaining choices  
  • Starts conversations with adults and children they don’t know  
  • Understands longer instructions that have multiple steps

• 11+ years

  • Talks in longer sentences 
  • Joins sentences together using a range of joining words (for example meanwhile, however, except)
  • Uses sarcasm and knows when others are being sarcastic
  • Can change topic well within conversation
  • Uses more subtle and witty humour 
  • Understands the meaning of some common phrases (for example "put your money where your mouth is") 

• More information

  Ages and stages (Speech and Language UK)