How is your child communicating?

Laughing and squealing

Looking toward and/or react to new sounds and speakers

Babbling with consonant sounds (i.e., mamamam, dabadtama)

Vocalizing happiness and sadness, pleasure vs. displeasure

Responding with gestures and body movements to familiar routines

Beginning to participate in joint attention - purposeful sharing of attention in a social interaction (i.e., child sees a bird, looks back at you to make sure you see it too)

Pointing to an object - particularly to ask for it or direct your attention to it

Gesturing in response to a question (i.e., wave good-bye when asked or shake head when protesting)

Following simple spoken directions with gestures - Give this to mama, Put this in the trash, Touch mama’s nose

Imitating gestures and sounds

Using 1 word by 12 months

Using 5-10 words consistently by 18 months

Saying “mama” and “dada”

Participating in established joint attention - purposeful sharing of attention in a social interaction (i.e., child sees a bird, looks back at you to make sure you see it too)

Following 1-step directions without gestures

Using 50 words

Pointing to 10-15 pictures in a book

Knowing the name of 2 playmates or characters on favorite videos

Using 2- word phrases (dada work?, more cookie, no nana)

Increasing interest in social interactions - playing with others for at least 1 minute

Singing words of simple kids songs and moving body along (i.e., Wheels on the Bus)

Following 1-2 step instructions and suggestions without gestures

Using 2, 3, and 4 word sentences

Describing what they are doing - (i.e., playing, eating, brushing)

Using plurals - cats, dogs,

Asking “what” and “where” questions

Understanding and using positional words (i.e., under, beside)

Being understood 50-75% of the time

Answering questions about a story - Who ate the porridge? Where did they live? What do you think he’s going to do?

Using contractions (he’s, they’re), regular past tense (jumped, walked), and pronouns (you, she, they, I)

Defining at least 5 simple words

Making statements about cause and effect - He can’t lift the car because it’s too heavy.

Understanding negatives in sentences - Which one is not big?

Naming and identifying 4-5 colors

Saying full name

Using words that talk about time - before and after

Being understood 75-90% of the time