Does my child need speech therapy?

WHAT THEY SAY

18 months

• Understands names of many objects (i.e. points to pictures in a book when you name them)
• Can point to a few body parts (e.g. nose, eyes, tummy)
• Can follow simple commands (e.g. “Push the car”; “Don’t touch!”)
• Understands simple questions (e.g. “Where’s daddy?”)
• Listens to simple stories, songs and rhymes
• Gives a toy when asked
• Waves good-bye and plays patty-cake

• Uses 10-20 words or word approximations (it is common for children to simplify words – “bah-bah” for “bottle”)
• May use some 2-word phrases (e.g. “more juice”)
• Begins to use consonants such as /p, b, m, w, h/

2 years

• Understands 2-part commands (e.g. “Get your shoes and put them on the shelf.”
• Points to simple pictures of objects and at least 5 body parts
• Knows the names of most common pictures and objects
• Understands difference in meaning in contrasting concepts (e.g. hot / cold; stop / go; yummy / yucky; big / little)
• Begins to understand objects by what they do (e.g. “What do we use to comb our hair?”)
• Begins to recognize actions in pictures

• Can say 50-100 words
• Uses 2-3word phrases (e.g. “Sammy eat”; “Mommy sit”; “Me play ball”)
• Can label common pictures and things
• Begins to form some plurals by adding –s (e.g. book à books)
• Mispronunciations and leaving sounds off in the middle and at the end of words is common
• May use jargon (i.e. “gibberish” that sounds like a conversation but no one understands him/her)

3 years

• Understands simple “Who?”, “Where?” and “What?” questions
• Understands simple time concepts such as “Last night” and “tomorrow”
• Likes to hear same story repeated
• Understands longer sentences
• Matches 3-4 colors
• Understands words for some shapes (e.g.  circle, square)
• Can follow 3-part instructions

• Learns words quickly
• Uses 3-4 word sentences
• Uses pronouns, past tense verbs and questions
• Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time
• Uses consonant sounds /k, g, f, t, d/
• Often asks for or directs attention to self (e.g. “Look! Watch me!”)and objects (e.g. “Elephant!”)
• Asks “Why?”
• May hear disfluencies (stuttering) in connected speech
• May refer to self as “me” instead of using his/her name

4 years

• Knows size and color adjectives
• Understands physical needs (e.g. “What do you do when you are hungry?”)
• Begins to follow requests containing more advanced spatial concepts (e.g. “Put the block under the table”)
• Knows his/her last name, name of street on which he/she lives and several nursery rhymes

• Can tell a story
• Has a sentence length of 4-5 words
• Has a vocabulary of nearly 1,000 words
• Answers many types of questions
• Can show feelings with words
• Asks “When?” and “How?” questions
• Understood 90% of the time
• Says most sounds but may substitute of make mistakes on the sounds /l, s, r, v, z, ch, sh, th/

5 years

• Understands words for order, such as “first, next, last”
• Understands words for time, such as “yesterday, today, tomorrow”
• Follows longer directions, such as “Put your PJ’s on, brush your teeth, and pick out a book.”
• Follows directions in class, such as “Draw a circle around something you eat.”
• Understands “same vs. different”

• Names numbers and letters
• Keeps a conversation going
• Can speak of imaginary conditions (e.g. “I hope…”)
• Asks “Who?” and “Why?” questions
• Defines objects by their use (e.g. “You eat with a  fork”)
• Asks questions for information
• Uses all types of sentences (e.g. “Let’s go outside after we eat.”)