We understand that it can be difficult to navigate through your options to deal with speech and language difficulties, so we’ve put together some helpful resources to make the path a little easier.

Useful Websites:

• https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

• https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/development

• http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/ages-and-stages/0-6-months

• www.hanen.org/Helpful-info

• National Disability Insurance scheme

• The Hanen centre

• Early Childhood Intervention Australia

• AutismSA

Developmental Milestones

Extract from: Birth to Five years, Children’s Developmental Progress, By Mary D. Sheridan. Revised and updated by Ajay Sharma and Helen Cockerill

At 0 to 6 months, children can usually:

• Turn head towards a sound when they hear it.

• Be startled by loud noises.

• Visually alert, looks at your face when you talk to them.

• Recognise familiar voices.

• Smile and laughs when other people smile and laugh.

• Follow dangly toy at 15-25 cm.

• Make sounds like gurgling and babbling.

• Respond with vocalisations to self and others.

• Have different cries for different needs .e.g. hunger, tired

• Suck well

At 6 to 12 months,  children can usually:

• Visually attentive to people, objects and happenings around them.

• Listen carefully and turn head to someone talking from further away.

• Make eye contact.

• Vocalise deliberately to communicate with others.

• Babble loudly in long repetitive strings of syllables e.g. dada, mumumum

• Respond to their name.

• Understand ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.

• React to where is mummy/daddy?

• Imitate sounds

• Understand about 10 words

• Enjoys action songs and rhymes

• Take turns in babbling or play conversation.

At 12 to 24 months,  children can usually:

• Enjoy games like Peek-a-boo and toys that make a noise.

• Understand simple words and simple instructions, like ‘don’t touch’, ‘give me the ball’.

• Sustain interest for two or more minutes when looking at picture books or playing.

• Point to familiar person’s, animal, toys when asked.

• Communicate their wants and needs by pointing, vocalising, gesturing or screaming.

• Understand between 200 and 500 words.

• Use up to 50 simple words such as ‘cup’, ‘daddy’, ‘car’, that will be recognisable to others.

• Imitate a lot of things that adults say.

• Start to put short sentences together with 2-3 words.

• Use most vowel sounds and a variety of consonants (m,n,p,b,k,g,h,w,t,d) sounds in their words.

• Start to enjoy pretend play, like feeding the dolly.

At 2 to 3 years, children can usually:

• Listen to and remember simple stories with pictures.

• Follow more complex instructions e.g. “give me the teddy and throw the ball”.

• Understand simple wh - questions such as: ‘Who’, ‘what’, ‘where’.

• Start using ‘mine’ and ‘my’.

• Know their full name

• Understand the concept of ‘same’ and ’different’.

• Sort items into groups e.g. toys vs foods.

• Use up to 300 words.

• Put 4 or 5 words together to make a short sentence, such as ‘want more juice’.

• Be intelligible to others.

• Use a wider range of Speech sounds.

• Play more with other children and are able to share and take turns.

• Ask lots of questions using ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’.

• Use action words and nouns.

• Talk about things in the past.

• Have a conversation but may not take turns.

• Sound as if they are stuttering as they are usually trying to share ideas before their language skills are ready.

At 4 years of age, children can usually:

• Answer questions about daily tasks.

• Understand most WH- questions.

• Speak grammatically correct and are completely intelligible.

• May have some immature sound substitutions.

• Asking WH-questions and the meaning of words.

• Understand some abstract concepts, e.g. ‘before’, ‘if’.

• Show awareness of initial and final sounds in words.

• Use words such as ‘but’ and ‘because’ to make sentences longer.

• Describe recent events.

• Use personal pronouns such as: he/she,me/you.

• Use negation such as: don’t and can’t.

• Count up to 20 or more and name some colours.

• Enjoy jokes.

• Know several nursery rhymes.

• Choose their own friends and playmates.

At 5 years of age, children can usually:

• Speak fluently and use well-formed sentences.

• Focus on one thing for longer without being reminded.

• Follow three part instructions, e.g.’ put your shoes on, get your backpack  and line up outside’.

• Enjoy being read to or told stories which are acted out in detail later.

• Give full name, age, address.

• Understands time and sequence concepts and uses them such: ’first’, ‘the’, ‘last’.

• Start to think about the meaning of words when learning.

• Take turns in increasingly longer conversations.

• Tell simple stories with a beginning, middle and end.

• Use past and future verbs correctly.

• Use most speech sounds, but still may have difficulties with: ‘s’,’r’,’l’, and ‘th’.

• Enjoy jokes and riddles.

• Use their language skills in learning to read, write and spell.

• Learn that the same word might have different meanings such as ‘bark’ or ‘orange’.

• Learn that different words can mean the same thing such as ‘minus’ and   ‘take away’.

• Understand feelings and descriptive words like ‘carefully’ or ‘funny’.

Common Terms:

• Communication:

  involves speaking, hearing, listening, understanding, social skills, reading, writing and using voice.

• Speech:

  Involves producing the sounds in words so that people can understand what is being said.

• Language:

  Involves the exchange of ideas using words.

• Receptive language :

  the ability to comprehend what is said e.g.  following instructions independently.

• Expressive Language Skills:

  the ability to express needs and wants effectively.

• Articulation:

  the ability to produce sounds and words correctly, in order to be intelligible to others.

• Fluency:

  Involves speaking fluently without any repetitions, interruptions or stops.

• Auditory Processing:

  the ability to process and organise information and sounds.

• Working / short term memory:

  to focus and retain new learned information.

• Literacy:

  involves phonological awareness, reading, understanding what is read and communicating in written form.

• Social communication:

  interact with others appropriately.  E.g. Starting, maintaining and ending a conversation as well as active listening and being able to understand what has been inferred. Reading others peoples cues are all vital components of successful social communication needed to develop a relationship with another person.

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC):

  any type of communication strategy for children and adults with severe speech and/or language difficulties who require other ways to communicate. This could be:

• Unaided:

  communicating through body language, gestures, sign language, facial expressions

• Aided communication:

  through an external aid such as communication books, cards, communication buttons, Assistive technology.

For more terms, click here.