Children grow at different rates, both physically and cognitively. Some are born chatterboxes and others remain the strong and silent type until they suddenly speak in full sentences. The first three years of life are critical, for this is when a child’s brain is most receptive to speech and language development. Delays are like canaries in the coal mine, red flags for possible cognitive or learning disabilities.
Make sure your child is on track by checking out these age-related developmental milestones.
The First Year
Hearing is vital to developing early speech and language, thus many of the early milestones involve attention and focus. By his first birthday, your child should:
- Clearly hear you when spoken to, and turn in direction of sounds
- Recognize some words, like bottle
- Use simple gestures like waving and lifting arms to be picked up
- Use “nonsense” sounds (other than crying) to get attention
- Respond to simple requests like “wave to grandma” or “want more?”
The Second Year
During the second year, your child is developing the cognitive capacity to understand more complex language and vocalize it as well. By his or her twenty-fourth month, your child should:
- Be adding more words to his vocabulary every month
- Be able to vocalize harder consonant sounds, mostly at the beginning of words
- Point to familiar things that you specify, such as the family pet or a toy
- Listen to songs and rhyming patterns
- Put two words together as questions or descriptions, such as “Daddy hat” or “more cookie”
- Respond to simple questions and commands like “Kick the ball” or “Where is Grandma?”
The Third Year
Though your child has been cognitively developing language for two full years, this is generally the period he or she refines skills and uses them so that both speech and comprehension appear to blossom. By your child’s third birthday, he or she should be able to:
- Sit and be absorbed by a book for longer periods of time
- Understand the difference between simple opposites such as “up” and “down” and “in” and “out”
- Know a name for most things and ask if he doesn’t
- Follow simple two-part directions
- Be generally understandable, even though he may trip over words or stutter
If your child doesn’t seem to be reaching early developmental milestones, consider consulting an audiologist or a speech-language pathologist. Early intervention can do wonders to put your child back on track.