Resources

The Gift of Speech offers a specialised team of professionals when it comes to common speech and communication obstacles experienced by children from all different cultural backgrounds. This page offers you information about common speech and language development so that you can work out if you would like to see a speech pathologist for more advice.

Speech Sounds

Speech sounds refers to the ability to differentiate and produce a variety of sounds correctly in words. These errors are normally used by children to simplify adult speech and it is normal for young children to produce these speech sound errors as their language develops. However, for those with articulation or phonological disorders, these errors will require speech pathology intervention to remediate. For further information on the different types of speech sound errors and the ages of elimination, click on the button below.

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Language Stimulation Strategies

Language stimulation is the use of a range of interaction strategies to assist in the language development of a child. It encourages the use of language from a child and helps provide a language rich environment. It can be used across settings, such as in the car, at the store, at home and/or during dinner.

Developmental Milestones

The following table provides a summary of typical language developmental milestones in children across different age ranges, which includes: 12 months, 1 – 2 years, 2 – 3 years, 3 – 4 years and 4 – 5 years of age.

It is important to remember that every child is different and each child will reach the milestones at different ages. Please consult with your family doctor or contact a speech pathologist if you have concerns about your child’s speech and language development.

Age	Understanding	Speaking
12 months	Respond to their name Make eye contact Recognise words for common items Begins to respond to simple requests (e.g., “sit here”) Responds to “no” Recognise greetings and gestures of “hi” and “bye”	Continues to babble and tries to “talk” to listener Points to learn new vocabulary Coos and squeals for attention Copies simple actions of others Tries to communicate by actions and gestures
1 – 2 years	Follows one step instructions Understands simple questions (e.g., “Where’s Daddy?”) Follows directions to find familiar object named Follows simple spatial directions (e.g., in, on) Listens to simple stories and points to named pictures in a book	Waves “bye-bye” Engages in parallel play and uses objects in pretend play (e.g., talking on the phone) Starts to use question forms beginning with “what’s that?” Answers “yes/no” question, possibly with a head nod or shake Answers “What’s this?” questions about familiar objects or pictures
2 – 3 years	Understands number concepts of one and two, size differences (e.g., big/little) Distinguishes between in and under, one and many Responds to instructions involving body parts (e.g., “Show me your foot”) Follows two step directions (e.g., “Get your cup and bring it to me”) Recognises family labels (e.g., “grandpa”)	Begins to use adjectives for colour and size Asks “where…?”, “what…?”, “what…doing?” questions Says “no” when they do not want something Answers simple wh-questions (e.g., “where?”, “what’s that?”, “who is…?”)
3 – 4 years	Follows two step related directions Follows quantity directions (e.g., empty, a lot) Understands next to, between, beside Answers questions about functions of objects (e.g., “What are spoons for?”) Answers “If…what?” questions (e.g., “If it starts raining, what do you do?”)	Take turns and play cooperatively Expresses ideas and feelings Identifies colours Points to objects that are different from others Asks one word “why” questions Uses “what”, “where”, “when”, “how” and “whose” when asking questions Asks “is” questions
4 – 5 years	Follows three step instructions Understands comparative and superlative adjectives (e.g., big, bigger, biggest) Understands time concepts (e.g., yesterday, today, tomorrow, days of the week)	Speaks of imaginary conditions such as “What if…” Uses positional concepts (e.g., first, middle, last) Asks “do you want to…?”, “are we going to…?”, “can you…?” questions