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Child Speech-Language Milestones – the Stages of Development

 

Child Speech and Language Milestones

The rate at which children reach their speech and language milestones, depends on each individual, their genes and the environment that they grow up in. Some children will reach certain developmental milestones quicker than others, and some children will be slow to develop certain speech and language skills compared to their peers, even if there are no related problems. However, despite a bit of difference between children, we expect most children to develop certain skills within a certain time-frame.

This information below and other pages relating to milestones is just a general guideline to the stages of development. Many experts vary considerably on what they believe to be the normal stages of development. There may also be some difference between boys and girls and when they develop certain skills.

 

You will see that many skills mentioned in the content below are repeated over several age groups as children are all different and some take longer to develop these abilities. So just use this chart as a very general guideline rather than read too much into it.

To try and make this information easier to read we have created a made-up child called Bill. Bill was lucky, he had a childhood free of any illness or accidents and he had pro-active parents who played with him and gave him lots of quality one-to-one attention.

 

Each age group in the Milestones section covers five specific areas of development.

  • Speech and Auditory Awareness
  • Expressive Language and Semantics
  • Social use of Language (use and pragmatics)
  • Receptive language (comprehension, perceiving and understanding) and cognition
  • Gross and fine motor skill

 

Click on the ages below to show the milestones and development of Bill as he grows:

 

Click on the links below for the milestones relevant to your child.

Age 0 – 12 months

Age 12 – 18 months

Age 18 – 24 months

Age 24 – 30 months

Age 30 – 36 months

Age 36 – 48 months

Age 48 – 60 months

Age 60 – 72 months

Age 72+ months

 

 

Go to our Milestones Resources section for Downloadable facts-sheets about child speech and language development milestones. Click Here

 

Recommended Reading:

 

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