Cultural and linguistic factors may influence appropriateness and/or relevance of benchmarks. Variability may exist in the acquisition of milestones due to a number of factors (e.g., linguistic diversity and neurodiversity).
Birth to 12 Months
- prefers looking at human face and eyes
- prefers listening to human voice
- looks for the source of voice
- differentiates between tones of voice (e.g., angry, friendly)
- smiles back at the caregiver
- follows the caregiver’s gaze
- participates in preverbal vocal turn-taking with the caregiver
- vocalizes to get attention
- demonstrates joint attention skills (sharing attention)
- uses gestures to make requests and direct attention
- plays simple interactive games, such as peekaboo
- seeks comfort or a safe haven from the caregiver
- expresses feelings
- develops object permanence
- discriminates facial expressions
- fears strangers
- develops relational memory (faces/voices)
- changes behavior to achieve a goal
- imitates gestures or oral movements
12–18 Months
- develops a range of communicative intentions (e.g., requesting, protesting, commenting)
- brings objects to show caregivers
- requests by pointing and vocalizing
- solicits attention vocally
- practices vocal inflection
- says “bye” and other ritualized words
- protests by shaking head and/or saying “no”
- supplements gestures with verbal language
- is aware of the social value of speech
- responds to others’ speech with eye contact
- demonstrates sympathy, empathy, and sharing nonverbally
- shows joy, fear, and anger
- displays an increase in autonomy
- resists control
- co-regulates interactions
18–24 Months
- uses single words to express intention
- uses single and paired words to command, indicate possession, express problems, and gain attention
- uses I, me, you, my, and mine
- participates in verbal turn-taking with a limited number of turns
- demonstrates simple topic control
- interrupts at syntactic junctures or in response to prosodic cues
- demonstrates secure or insecure attachment pattern
- exhibits emotion and behavioral regulation
- demonstrates an increase in autonomy
- develops emerging implicit perceptual access reasoning
- shows daily routine schemes in play
24–36 Months
- engages in short dialogues
- verbally introduces and changes topic
- expresses emotion
- begins to use language in an imaginative way
- relates own experiences
- begins to provide descriptive details to enhance listener understanding
- uses attention-getting words
- clarifies and asks for clarification
- uses some politeness terms or markers
- begins to demonstrate some adaptation of speech to different listeners
- can deceive and detect deception
- understands that others may feel differently than oneself
- follows rules
- shows common but not daily schemes in play (e.g., doctor, shopping)
- uses embedded requests
3–4 Years
- engages in longer dialogues
- anticipates next turn at talking
- terminates conversation; appropriately role-plays
- uses fillers—such as “yeah” and “okay”— to acknowledge a partner’s message
- begins code-switching and uses simpler language when talking to very young children
- uses more elliptical responses, such as “Mommy went home, I didn’t”
- requests permission
- begins using language for fantasies, jokes, and teasing
- makes conversational repairs when not understood and corrects others
- infers information from a story and infers indirect meanings
- uses primitive narratives—events follow from the central core
- uses inferences in stories
4–5 Years
- uses indirect requests; correctly uses deictic terms (e.g., this, that, here, there)
- uses twice as many effective utterances as 3-year-olds to discuss emotions and feelings
- uses narrative development characterized by unfocused chains—stories have a sequence of events but no central character or theme
- develops basic understanding of theory of mind, including judgment that another person may have a belief that differs from the truth
- shifts topics rapidly
- shows fantasy schemes in play
- understands that beliefs can result in predictable emotions
- understands that someone may feel the same way when experiencing a similar event
- uses comissives/promises
School-Age Years (6–12 Years)
- demonstrates increased understanding of theory of mind (predicting what one person is thinking about what another person is thinking or feeling; understands strategies to hide deceit, recognizes sarcasm)
- provides assistance and demonstrates altruism
- uses narrative development characterized by causally sequenced events using “story grammar”
- demonstrates improved conversational skills (e.g., topic maintenance, repair, and increased number of turns)
- extends topic of conversation
- demonstrates refined social conventions
- demonstrates metapragmatic skills—child is able to think about social and conversational rules
- uses language for varied functions, including persuading and advancing one’s opinion
- understands that people can feel multiple emotions at the same time
- practices increased self-regulation
- uses indirect requests
- uses inferential language
- uses ambiguous language (figurative)
- uses sarcasm
- uses double meanings (puns)
Older Adolescence Into Adulthood
- uses verbal and nonverbal language competently and flexibly
- navigates multiple registers flexibly and fluidly
- demonstrates refined understanding and use of nonverbal behavior
- can explain idioms and nuanced figurative language
- develops close friendships and romantic relationships
- continues to develop empathy
Related Research
Adams, C. (2002). Practitioner review: The assessment of pragmatics. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(8), 973–987. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00226
Gard, A., Gilman, L., & Gorman, J. (1993). Speech and language development chart (2nd ed.). Pro-Ed.
Hwa-Froelich, D. A. (in press). Social communication development and disorders (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis.
Russel, R. L. (2007). Social communication impairments: Pragmatics. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 54(3), 483–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2007.02.016
Wellman, H. M., Fang, F., & Peterson, C. C. (2011). Sequential progressions in a theory-of-mind scale: Longitudinal perspectives. Child Development, 82(3), 780–792. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01583.x
Westby, C., & Robinson, L. (2014). A developmental perspective for promoting theory of mind. Topics in Language Disorders, 34(4), 362–382. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000035