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1 month
3 months
4 months |
- Responds to voice and sounds
- Coos (oo, ah)
- Responds to noise and voice by turning to sounds |
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6-9 months |
- Babbles (ba, goo)
- Understands “no, own name, where's Daddy?”
- Uses intonation (sing song) patterns like adult speech
- Copies others waving bye bye
- Turns in response to own name |
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9-12 months |
- Two part babbling (dada, googoo)
- Babbles to self and with others
- Tries to copy sounds and noises (brmm for car)
- Uses sound patterns that are meaningful to baby but are not real words
- Waves or claps when asked |
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12-18 months |
- Uses gestures, actions and facial expression to express wants/needs
- Points to named objects
- Begins to use single words e.g:
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- naming words (mummy, ball)
- doing words (drink, fall down)
- negatives (no)
- number words (more) |
- Uses one word for many meanings e.g. drink
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- more drink (object)
- drink juice (doing word)
- mummy drink (possession) |
- Uses sounds in patterns like real words but cannot be understood by adults
- Attempts to imitate new words and familiar songs |
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18-24 months |
- Begins to use 2 words together in different ways
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- Person/object + action (Daddy drink)
- Action + object (drink milk)
- Action + place (go up)
- Person/object + place (Mummy home)
- Owner + object (Billy car)
- Description + object (big car)
- That/this + object (that bird) |
- Vocabulary of 25-50 words
- Listens to a short story
- Understands simple questions e.g. “where's the cat?”
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2-3 years |
- Uses 3-5 word sentences
- Talks in present tense (Daddy sit down)
- Begins to use some grammatical word endings
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- In/on (in car)
- “ing” (me eating)
- “s” plural (more dogs)
- “I, me, it you” (my car) |
- Vocabulary about 50-200+ words
- Identifies objects by function e.g. “Which one do we sleep in?”
- Discriminates between basic objects such as animals (dog/horse) and furniture (table/chair)
- Understands basic concepts (big/little, in, on, under, not)
- Not all sentences will be correct |
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4 Years |
- Uses 5+ word sentences with correct sentence grammar most of the time. Can tell news, but not well sequenced
- Can understand and answer more complex wh- questions ( ‘Why did this happen? & What will happen next?') |
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5 Years |
- Tells news in sequence and can problem solve and reason
- Understands abstract concepts (eg, ‘before/after/until and opposites) |
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School Age |
- Produces various text types (eg, information report, narrative, procedure, debate) with good language style, sequence, tense, conjunctions,
descriptivelanguage etc.
- Uses specific vocabulary ie. not words like “thingy, stuff, ‘cause” and can predict, reason and problem solve with ease.
- Click here to download a checklist for you school age child. |
Language Use (Expressive Language)
Signs of Expressive Language Difficulties
A child who is experiencing delay or difficulty with expressive language may exhibit the following signs:
• Uses only short &/or simple sentences
• Uses incorrect words, omits words or puts words in the wrong order in a sentence
• Uses incorrect grammatical constructs or leaves off word endings altogether (eg. plurals)
• Has a reduced vocabulary
• Uses non-specific language when describing something or telling a story (eg, thing, thingy, stuff)
• Changes topic inappropriately
• Has difficulty formulating questions, or initiating conversation
Strategies for Improving Expressive Language
• Provide repeated models of specific vocabulary
• Expand on what the child says, adding extra vocabulary that is relevant to the conversation eg, CHILD : ‘there's a train' YOU SAY: ‘Yes an old rusty steam train'
• Model new or complex grammatical structures Eg. irregular plurals/tense
• Correct your child's errors in word choice, grammar or pronunciation in the context of the conversation
• Introduce activities that target development of concepts eg. differences & similarities
• Model the use of different types of language eg. describing, questioning, instructing etc
Games for Expressive Language Development
• Games that promote the use of describing. For example:
• barrier games (giving directions)
• describing objects in the room for others to identify
• Games that imitate real-life interactions. For example: |
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- Shopping
- Schools |
| • Games that involve taking turns at giving instructions using prepositions &/or conjunctions. For example: |
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- Simon Says
- Treasure hunt > telling others where to find the next clue |
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