About Us | Ages and Stages | Terms | Reading with your Child | Sitemap

• By 3 months
• By 6 months
• By 12 months
• By 18 months
• By 2 years
• By 30 months
• By 3 years
• By 4 and 4 ½ years
• By 5 and 5 ½ years

By 18 months - Ages and Stages

The developmental milestones listed below mark the progress of young children as they learn to communicate and develop their speech and language skills.

You will find:

• Milestones

• Things you can try at home

• Information on play development

• Teachable moments

• What to watch out for

If your child is not meeting one or more of the developmental milestones or if you are concerned about your child's speech and language development please contact us at:

1-888-503-8885

Milestones:

• Tries to copy your sounds (sounds of our language)

• Uses at least 20-50 words consistently; words do not have to be clear

• Understands many more words than she can say

• Understands simple directions or questions e.g. "Where is your nose?" "Get the ball."

• Demonstrates some pretend play with toys e.g. "Give Teddy a drink"

• Enjoys tickle, bounce and nursery rhymes

• Makes at least four consonant sounds from p,b,m,n,d,t,w,h

• Identifies pictures in a book e.g. "Show me the baby."

• Enjoys being read to and looking at books

• Points to familiar people

• Understands the concepts of in and out, off and on

• Points to three body parts when asked

• Says "No"

• Asks for something by pointing and using sounds or words

• Imitates animal noises

• Tries to get attention by calling out, repeating words and pointing

Things to try at home:

• Have fun with action songs singing them over and over. Try songs like "Itsie Bitsie Spider", and "Little Rabbit Foo-Foo". Stop in the middle of the song and wait for your child to take a turn or do an action, then continue together.

• Make a kitchen band! Take turns banging on different kitchen items: pots, pans, plastic containers. Talk about what you are doing and the different sounds.

• Put objects in plastic containers and shake them. Open and close them, then dump them out. Use words like "in", "out" "more" and "shake" while you talk.

• Take turns stacking blocks, cars, cups, and books. Then knock the towers down.

• Put on your child's sock and say "Too small." Have your child try on your hat and you say "Too big, Mommy's hat!"- Try lots of other clothes too!

• Pretend play: "Cooking" supper is a great pretend play. Use plastic bowls and wooden spoons, and cereal as food

• Look at simple books. Read stories or talk about family photos. Your child should point at different pictures using one finger.

Play:

• Likes to play with toys that make sounds and have buttons to push such as: Jack-In-The-Box, musical toys, and the remote.

• Moves to music (Definitely dancing!).

• Looks at you when you are talking and playing together.

Teachable Moments:

• Point to, and name, body parts when dressing and at bath time.

• Go for a walk. Point to and name the sounds your child hears.

• Point to the things he/she sees.

• Talk about what he/she is doing in simple words, repeating them over and over again

• Read books together! Wait for your child to point to something on the page, say the word back to him/her, then add a little bit more. For example: "Bird, that's right…bird. The bird is flying."

Watch out for:

• A child who is not trying to talk.

• A child who snores or sounds nasal/congested even without a cold

• Repeated ear infections that can affect your child's ability to learn.

5 To the top