Speech therapy online for kids and adults

By the age of one, your baby should be able to:

• Say words such as dada and mama
• Try to make familiar sounds, such as car and animal noises
• Respond to familiar sounds such as the telephone ringing, vacuum cleaner or a car in the driveway
• Understand simple commands such as “no!” and bye-bye
• Use gestures like pointing and waving
• Respond to their name
• Understand the names of familiar objects and people
• Enjoy songs, music and books.

By the age of two, most children start to talk to themselves, and you can see their language and communication skills developing:

• Listen to stories and say the names of the pictures
• Understand simple sentences, such as “where’s your shoe?”
• Say the names of simple body parts, such as nose or tummy
• Use more than 50 words such as “no”, “gone”, “mine” and “teddy”
• Engage in pretend play
• Sing simple songs such as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little star” or “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”
• Try simple sentences such as “Milk all gone”
• Use some simple pronouns such as “he”, “if”
• Should be able to say m, n and h correctly.

By the age of three, your child’s communication should be understood by family, close friends and regular carers, and they should be able to:

• Understand how objects are used, e.g. a crayon is something you draw with
• Recognise their own needs, such as hunger
• Follow directions
• Understand basic concepts (in/under, hot/cold)
• Use 3-4 word sentences
• Understand basic grammar
• Enjoy telling stories and asking questions
• Should be able to say p, b, m, n, ng, w, y, t, d, k, g and f

By the age of four, your child should be able to be understood most of the time by most people. If you find friends and acquaintances can not understand your child’s speech, then perhaps a visit to a therapist may be warranted. Your child should be able to:

• Identify different shape and colour names
• Understand “wh” questions such as “where are they going?” or “why did he fall?”
• Understand “time” words such as lunchtime, today, winter
• Use lots of words (900+) and understand complex sentences
• Produces grammatically correct sentences that are longer and more complex
• Use language when playing with other children
• Should be able to say s, z, sh, ch and j

This is by no means an exhaustive list. If you are concerned about any aspect of your baby or toddler’s speech or language, please give us a call.

Discover milestones for school-age children here.