Speech & Language Development Milestones (Birth to 5)
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Developmental NormsFree preview
Pre-Linguistic Stage (0 to 12 months)
| Age | Receptive | Expressive |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 mo | Startles to sound; recognizes caregiver voice; quiets when spoken to | Reflexive crying; vegetative sounds; cooing begins (~2 mo) |
| 4 to 6 mo | Turns to sound source; notices changes in tone of voice | Vocal play; marginal babbling; laughing; squealing |
| 7 to 9 mo | Responds to name; understands "no"; recognizes familiar words in context; looks at named objects | Canonical (reduplicated) babbling ("bababa"); gestures emerge |
| 10 to 12 mo | Follows simple commands with gestures; understands a growing set of familiar words | First true words; variegated babbling; jargon with sentence-like intonation |
High-Yield: Canonical babbling (~7 mo; ASHA lists babbling strings at 7 to 9 months) is a critical milestone. Onset after about 10 months is a risk marker: late canonical babbling is linked to hearing loss and predicts later speech and language delay.
The rest of this outline 5
- Early Linguistic Stage (12 to 24 months)
- Preschool Language Explosion (2 to 5 years)
- Brown's 14 Grammatical Morphemes: Acquisition Order
- Speech Intelligibility Benchmarks
- Sources to Know
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