Expressive Language Developmental Milestones

BIRTH - 3 MONTHS

• Makes cooing sounds.
• Cries change for different needs.
• Smiles at people.

4 - 6 MONTHS

• Coos and babbles when playing alone or with you.
• Makes speech-like babbling sounds, like pa, ba, and mi.
• Giggles and laughs.
• Makes sounds when happy or upset.

7 - 12 MONTHS

• Babbles long strings of sounds, like mimi upup babababa.
• Uses sounds and gestures to get and keep attention.
• Points to objects and shows them to others.
• Uses gestures like waving bye, reaching for “up,” and shaking his head no.
• Imitates different speech sounds.
• Says 1 or 2 words, like hi, dog, dada, mama, or uh-oh. This will happen around his first birthday, but sounds may not be clear.

1 – 2 YEARS

• Uses one-, two-, and sometimes three-word utterances e.g., “more apple,” “no bed,” and “mommy book.”
• Uses intonation to ask yes/no questions.
• Uses a lot of new words.
• Uses p, b, m, h, and w in words.
• Starts to name pictures in books.
• Asks questions, like “What’s that?”, “Who’s that?”, and “Where’s kitty?”
• Puts 2 words together, like

2 – 3 YEARS

• Uses in, on and under.
• Talks about things that are not in the room.
• Uses k, g, f, t, d, and n in words.
• Uses two- or three- words to talk about and ask for things.
• Asks “Why?”
• Puts 3 words together to talk about things. May repeat some words and sounds.
• Can already be understood by other people.

3 – 4 YEARS

• Increases in length of words due to use of auxiliaries (is, be etc.).
• Increases use of wh– questions.
• Uses interrogative reversals (e.g., “Can I go,” “Is it,” etc.).
• Answers simple who, what, and where questions.
• Says rhyming words, like hat–cat.
• Uses pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they.
• Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses.
• Uses some present progressive words like crying, jumping.
• Uses some possessive words like girl’s hat.
• Most people understand what your child says.
• Asks when and how questions.
• Puts 4 words together but may overgeneralize the past tense words, like “I goed to school.”
• Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.

4 – 5 YEARS

• Uses locatives (e.g., up, down).
• Uses 'and' as main conjunction.
• Says all speech sounds in words. May make mistakes on sounds that are harder to say, like l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, and th.
• Responds to “What did you say?”
• Talks without repeating sounds or words most of the time.
• Names letters and numbers.
• Uses sentences that have more than 1 action word, like jump, play, and get. May make some mistakes, like “Zach gots 2 video games, but I got one.”
• Tells a short story.
• Keeps a conversation going.
• Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place. Your child may use short sentences with younger children. He may talk louder outside than inside.