Communication Milestones

Communication is complicated. There are so many things we need to be able to do successfully in order to communicate with each other, it’s no wonder so many children have a difficult time mastering these skills. Milestones are skills that most children can achieve by a certain age. Milestones are behaviors that children learn over time, with later milestones building on earlier milestones. Pediatricians often use milestone checklists to measure how your child’s skills are developing. As a parent, you can also use milestones to track your child’s development.

A child who has difficulty communicating may:

• Be hard to understand or have mistakes in the way they make their sounds (speech)

• Have difficulty understanding what is being said to them (receptive language)

• Use no words or very few words (expressive language)

• Make grammatical errors or leave out important words from their sentences (expressive language)

• Have trouble learning social skills or norms, such as asking for help or making eye contact (social-pragmatic language)

• Repeat or elongate sounds, words, or phrases, or have frequent pauses when they speak (fluency or stuttering)

Speech-language skills are important for a child’s cognitive, social-emotional, and academic success. Researchers generally agree that the earlier a child receives help for speech-language difficulties, the better the long-term outcome. Communication milestones can help you decide if it’s time to get a speech-language evaluation.

Other resources:

1. CDC's Developmental Milestones (also check out their app!)

2. American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Communication Milestones:

   • Birth to One Year

   • One to Two Years

   • Two to Three Years

   • Three to Four Years

   • Four to Five Years