Speech Therapist’s simple guide to speech and language development

Speech and language develops at different rates for different children – how do you know if your child isn’t typical of their age group?

We see many children, to help them develop their speech and language to improve communication, help them to understand the people around them, play, interact, become less frustrated and learn.
Here’s our simple speech and language guide for one- to four-year-olds, ready to start school.

1-year-olds

They will understand a single word.
Say to them: ‘Where’s the apple?’
They will know to point to the apple.

By 12 months, children should be:

Turning to see someone speaking
Looking at you when they hear their name
Start to understand simple words like ‘bye-bye’ and ‘up’
Recognise familiar names ‘car’ or ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’.
Babble back to an adult – to join in with the conversation

Help them by:

Making different sounds to interest your child
Point to sounds to make them aware of the world around them
Encourage your child to look at you during everyday activities
Talk about everyday activities
Join in with their babble to start to teach conversation skills, taking their turn
Use actions with words  or simple signs – wave when you say ‘goodbye’
Following their lead in play

When to be concerned:

If your child doesn’t respond to noises by 9 months
Doesn’t point to things they are interested in by 12 months
If they don’t try to get your attention through eye contact, facial expressions or reaching

2-year-olds

They can understand two words in a sentence.
Say: ‘Can you give Teddy the apple?’
They will recognise the words Teddy and apple and most likely follow this simple instruction.

By 2 years, they should be:

Able to concentrate for longer on activities
Sit and listen to simple stories with pictures
Understand more simple questions and instructions (e.g: Where is your nose?)
Communicate with 2-3 word sentences (e.g: ‘More juice’)
Enjoy pretend play

Help them by:

Talking to them about everyday activities – to help them understand the world around them and be able to ask questions
Read books together – you can read, or simply look through and describe what’s in the pictures (lift the flap books help with concentration)
Repeat and expand on what your child says – if they say ‘juice’, reply with ‘more juice? Or ‘juice please’ or ‘juice gone’.
Avoid correcting – simply say the correct version of the word back to them
Being patient – they may have tantrums through the frustration of not being able to communicate – stay calm.
Keep using signs with them
Keep following their lead and showing an interest in what they are looking at/doing.

When to be concerned:

If they are slow to follow simple instructions
If they can’t say and use 25 recognisable words

3-year-olds

They are now at the three-word level.
Say: ‘Give big Teddy the apple’ They will choose the largest teddy and give them the apple.

By 3 years, they should be:

Listening to and remembering simple stories with pictures Understand longer instruction (e.g: “Make Teddy jump.”)
Understand simple who, what and where questions
Putting 3-4 words together to make a sentence even if it’s not grammatically correct or the sounds aren’t quite right
Asking lots of questions
Using action words and plurals
Play and share
They may even sound like they are stuttering  (normal non-fluency)– they will try to say things before their language skills are ready (don’t tell them to slow down – it will point out the bumps which isn’t useful to them)

Help them by:

Adding words to their sentences (e.g: Add ‘Brush’ to the start of their sentence ‘dolly’s hair’)
Allow them to help you with daily jobs so you can talk about them
Use puppets and pictures to help children listen to stories
Re-reading stories over and over – repetition helps them to remember words
Repeat words correctly without fuss – don’t tell them they’ve said it wrong

When to be concerned:

A child is only pointing rather than saying what they want
They say single words rather than joining them
They are slow to respond to instructions
They rely on being shown what to do rather than being told
You cannot understand most of what they say

4-year-olds

Now, they will be able to understand 4-word instructions.
Say: ‘Put the big apple under Teddy.’
Or: ‘Give Teddy the big red spoon.’

By 4 years, they should be:

Listening to longer stories and answering questions about a story book they have just read
Understanding and using colour, number and time-related words
Describe events that have already happened
Enjoy make-believe play
Make simple jokes - even if they don't understand them
Ask many questions using words like ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘why’
Still be making mistakes with verb tenses
Start to be able to plan games with others

Help them by:

Having time to talk about the day - this will help their memory skills
Use pictures, objects, puppets, acting, gestures and facial expressions to keep a child’s interest
Play games involving opposites like ‘on and off’ or ‘big and little’.
Join a child in pretend play and let them take the lead - talk about what they are saying and doing rather than asking lots of questions
Reversing roles - allow them to be the ‘mummy’ or the ‘teacher’
Play with and talk about sequences of coloured bricks or shapes, numbers and days of the week.

When to be concerned:

If they are struggling to turn ideas into sentences
If the language they use is jumbled and difficult to understand if they are unresponsive or slow to follow instructions.

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