Language Developmental Milestones: Speech Birth-3 Months At 1 month, baby can discriminate among individual speech sounds.

. Reflexive cries, vegetative cries. Makes pleasure sounds(cooing, gooing). Cries differently for different needs. Smiles when sees a person. 3-6 Months Can discriminate among sequences of sounds. Variety of vocalizations significantly increase. Repeats the same sounds. Transitional or marginal babbling single-syllable and consonant-like sounds. Babbling sounds more speech-like with many different sounds, including /p/, /b/ and /m/. Vocalizes excitement and displeasure. Makes gurgling sounds when left alone and when playing. Uses sounds and gestures to indicate wants. 6-12 Months Babbling has long and short groups of sounds, such as "ta-ta, up-up, bibibi." Reduplicated babbling ("bababa"). Uses speech or non-crying soundsto get and keep attention. 10 months First words emerge. Imitates different speech sounds. Has one to three words (bye-bye,da-da, mama). Understands "no" and "hot." Responds to simple requests. Understands and responds toown name. Uses song-like intonation pattern when babbling. Uses echolalia. Variegated babbling ("dadu"). Jargon babbling (intonational changes added to syllable production). Uses speech sounds rather thancries to get attention. Uses nouns almost exclusively. 18-24 Months Uses words more frequently than jargon. Has receptive vocabulary of 50 to 100 or more words. Has receptive vocabulary of 300 or more words. Combines nouns and verbs. Begins to use pronouns. Answers "What's that?" questions. Knows five body parts. Accurately names a few familiar objects. 2-3 Years Uses two- to three-word sentences. Understands concepts of "one" and "all."

 Requests items by name. Points to pictures in books. Asks one- to two-word questions. Uses three- to four-word phrases. Speech is understood by familiar listeners most of the time. Names objects to direct person's actions. Begins to use appropriately irregular verbs. Beginning of morphemes: articles, pronouns, present progressive (-ing), plurals, past tense, contractions, "is." Has receptive vocabulary of 500 to 900-plus words. Has an expressive vocabulary of 50 to 250-plus words. Shows multiple grammatical errors. Frequently exhibits repetitions. Speaks with a loud voice. Uses vowels correctly. Consistently uses initial consonants. Frequently omits medial consonants. Frequently omits or substitutes final consonants. Uses approximately 27 phonemes. 3-4 Years Morphemes become consistent. Irregular forms of verbs used (see/saw, eat/ate). Simple sentences: negatives, imperatives, questions, relative pronouns. Talks about activities at school and home. Understands simple question words: who, what, where, why. Follows two- and three-part commands. MLU = 4.3 to 4.4 words. Produces simple verbal analogies. Uses language to express emotion. Repeats six- to 13-syllable sentences accurately. Identifies objects by name. Uses nouns and verbs most frequently. Comprehends 1,200 to 2,000 words. Uses 800 to 1,500 words. Masters 50 percent of consonants and blends. Speech is 80 percent intelligible. Sentence grammar improves, although some errors still persist. Appropriately uses "is," "are" and "am" in sentences. Tells two events in chronological order. Engages in long conversations. Uses some contractions,irregular plurals, future tenseverbs and conjunctions. Consistently uses regular plurals, possessives and simple past verbs. 4-5 Years Continues to develop relative clauses, passives, other complex sentences, reflexive pronouns, comparatives, adverbial word endings, irregular comparisons and grammar. Comprehends 2,500 to 2,800 words. Uses 1,500 to 2,000 words. Uses "could" and "would." Errors of noun/verb and adjective/noun agreement. MLU = 4.6 to 5.7 words. Uses grammatically correct sentences.

 Asks for word definitions. Enjoys rhyme, rhythms and nonsense syllables. Produces consonants with 90 percent accuracy. Significantly reduces number of persistent sound omissions and substitutions. Talks about experiences at school and friends' homes. Relays a long story accurately. Pays attention to a story and answers simple questions about it. Uses some irregular plurals, possessive pronouns, future tense, reflexive pronouns, and comparative morphemes in sentences. Makes indirect requests. Uses deictic terms(this, that, here, these). 5-6 Years Children continue to master complex grammar and new linguistic meanings during school years. Comprehends 13,000 words(by age 6). Uses all pronouns consistently. Uses superlatives. Uses adverbial word endings(e.g., "slowly"). MLU = 6.6 words. Describes location or movementwith prepositions (through, away, from, toward, over). 6-7 years Comprehends 20,000 to 26,000 words. Understands "if" and "so" clauses. Develops perfect tense with"have" and "had." Uses nominalization clauses. Uses irregular plurals. MLU = 7.3 words. Refines syntax. Language Developmental Milestones: Hearing Intrauterine At 20 weeks gestation, the hearing system begins processing sounds that filter through amniotic fluid. At 6 months gestation and beyond, fetus processes linguistic sounds, qualities of mother's voice, and language she speaks and becomes sensitive to prosody. During last three months in womb, baby eavesdrops on mother's conversations. Birth-3 Months Eye widening, eye blink, startles to sound. Eye widening, eye shift, eye blink, quieting, beginning head turns by 4 months. 3-6 Months Head turn on lateral plane toward sound, listening, attitude. Responds to changes in tone of voice. Notices toys make sounds. Pays attention to music. 6-12 Months Direct localization of sounds to side, directly below ear level, indirectly above ear level. Understands and responds to simple commands. Direct localization of sound to side, directly below ear level, indirectly above ear level.

 Enjoys games like peek-a boo and pat-a-cake. Listens when spoken to. Recognizes common words for items like "cup," "shoe" and "juice." Begins to respond to requests like "Come here" and "Want more?" 12-24 Months Direct localization of sounds on side, above and below. Points to a few body parts when asked. Follows simple commands and understands simple questions like "Roll the ball," "Kiss the baby,"and "Where's the shoe?" Enjoys listening to simplestories, songs and rhymes. Points to pictures in a book when named. 2-3 Years Direct localization of sounds on side, above and below. Understands differences in meaning of "go/stop," "in/on," "up/down." Follows two requests (e.g., "get the book and put it on the table"). 3-4 Years Hears when someone calls from another room. Hears TV or radio at same loudness level as other family members. Understands simple questions asking who, what, where, why. 4-5 years Pays attention to a short story and answers simple questions about it. Hears and understands most of what is said at home and in school. Language Developmental Milestones: ASL Birth-3 Months Finger movements evolve into rule-governed finger babbling. At 3 months, fingerbabbling increases, and baby attends to faces, movement and signs. 3-6 Months Fingerbabbling increases. Visual attention increases. Fingerspells to self. Makes facial expressions. Fixates to face. Finger babbles back to conversations. 6-12 Months Uses syllabic manual babbling and manual jargon to self and objects. First sign reported at 8 months, first single signs "frozen" with no inflections. Understands meaning of specific interpersonal communication. Distinguishes facial expressions (anger, friendliness) when accompanied with appropriate behavior. Communicates with gestures, pointing and pulling. Produces some meaningful communications. Responds to simple commands, questions and statements. Use some "true signs" to satisfy needs or wants.

12 months ASL sign babbling. Uses baby signs (which approximate adult signs). One-word signs include non-linguistic pointing (pointing used gesturally instead of part of syntax). 12-24 Months Manual jargon babbling continues. First 10 signs produced. Passes 50-sign milestones. Follows simple commands and statements. Understands names of things in environment. Expands vocabulary from about five words to more than 250. Enters two-word stage with full range of semantic relations at two-sign stage. Sign order shows semantic relations (e.g., "doggie outside," "doggie run outside"). Uses facial adverbs (puff, mm, th). Child who is deaf will over-generalize the pronoun you, usingit to refer to self. 2-3 Years Single signs expand to two to three signs with facial expression and pointing. Morphology using movement begins after age 2 and continues until age 5. Begins to use classifiers to show objects and handshapes. Headshake or negative word "no" plus sign demonstrates negations. Can distinguish yes-or-no questions with facial expression. Can make "wh" question with raised eyebrows and slight head tilts. Acquisition of sign word order(SV, VO, SVO). Begins fingerspelling. Sporadically marks nouns and verbs with appropriate features but not systematically. Begins to use verbs that require agreement but produces them in uninflected form ("I give you"). Uses words or signs more than motor activity to communicate ideas and desires. Understands and carries out more complex commands. Answers simple questions of who, why, where, how many. Masters pronominal pointing. Uses object classifiers(cup, baseball bat). 3-4 Years Morphology increases, and morphological over-generalizations are worked out. Uses facial adverbs:pah, pow, int and ps. Uses simple handshapes, substitutes simple handshapes for more complex ones. Combines three to four signs, including indexing and facial expressions. Uses compound signs (friend-chum). Acquires nominal establishment (establishes location with present object that is present). Uses space for location. Begins classifier predicates. Begins discourse skills. Seeks eye contact before initiating conversation. Begins to use topicalization (straw-house wolf blow). Increases sign language vocabulary to more than 1,000 signs (receptively and expressively). 4-6 Years Acquires more fingerspelling. Uses more complex handshapes ("3" bug, "V" see, "Y" play,"L" library).

 Uses simple sentence types with complex sentence construction emerging, including topicalization, rhetorical questions. Complex sentences such as nominal references, classifier morphology, aspects of discourse. Begins to use conditional clauses with "if" or "suppose." Complex verbs of motion("Vehicle go around"). Complex facial adverbs emerge(sta, cha, cs). Establishes a special loci and assigns it a person, place or concept that is not present. 6 and older Complex verbs of motion continue. More complex ASL grammar emerges. Sign vocabulary increases.