As your child grows older, his understanding of language and speech deepens. He would have achieved these 30 language milestones by the age of 2 and these 51 language milestones by the age of 4.
Within the next 3 years, your child will start talking like an adult, comprehending the nuances of the language. He will even begin to understand puns and jokes around them, which you should look forward to!
So here are the milestones your child should reach by age 7. Again, these are mere guidelines. You need to be concerned if he raises red flags.
What Are Language Milestones
Language milestones are markers that indicate when your child is learning to communicate. It’s important to help your child reach these milestones as soon as possible because the earlier you help them begin communicating, the better their chances of developing a strong language foundation.
What Are the Stages of Language Developmental Milestones
The stages of language development are:
- Cooing: Babies make sounds like “ah” and “oooh” while learning to speak.
- Babbling: Babies combine their coos and oohs into words—like “mama” and “dada”—and often repeat those same sounds repeatedly.
- Receptive Language Development: This is when babies can understand the meaning of words but can’t yet speak themselves. They might point at objects or pictures in books or on TV, or bring you toys named by others nearby.
- Expressive Language Development: When babies start using words on their own, they’ve reached this stage! They can also use single words to communicate their needs (like asking for milk) or two-word combinations like “No milk!”
Why It’s Important to Track Language Milestones
It’s important to track language milestones because you can use them to determine if your child is on track for his or her age. If your child is not meeting the milestones for their age, then you can seek help from an expert to ensure that they are developing properly.
Developmental Milestones for Speech and Language
Are you worried your child isn’t making enough progress in developing speech and language? You would be surprised how much the average child improves in the first three years of life. Let us break down developmental milestones for speech and language development per age.
Remember that every child develops at his or her own pace, and this is only a general guideline.
Language Milestones: Age 4 – 5 Years
- He can point to and identify colours and shapes, for instance, ” What is the triangle’s colour?”
- Pays attention to a story and answers simple questions about it
- Identifies objects by their function- “where does the water come from?”
- He can identify different coins and banknotes
- Understands “morning”, “afternoon”, “next”
- Follows 3 related instructions e.g. “get your colour pencils, draw a picture and give it to mummy”
- Has a sentence length of 4 to 8 words
- Names common animals and can classify them as wild, domestic, pets, zoo, etc.
- Uses grammatically correct sentences
- Describes objects and events in his winding way!
- He can describe how his day went and articulate his feelings about it.
- Accurately relays a long story
- Answers complex 2-part questions involving reasoning logically, for instance, “What do you do when it starts to rain?”
- Answers senses-related questions, for instance, “What do you do with your eyes/nose/ears?”
Red flags for language milestones (age 4-5 years)
- Your child is unable to follow directions.
- He uses incomplete sentences.
- Your child stammer or stutter.
Language Milestones: Age 5 – 6 Years
- Understands ‘left’ and ‘right’
- Understands most concepts of time
- Uses more complex descriptions
- Understands spatial relations like ‘on top’, ‘behind’, ‘far’ and ‘near’
- Knows his address
- Understands ‘same’ and ‘different’
- Has a sentence length of 5 – 6 words
- Defines objects by their use and can tell what objects are made of
- Asks simple questions like” mum, where are you going?”
- Names letters (a-z) and numbers (1-20)
Red flags for language milestones (age 5-6 years)
- He has trouble coping in kindergarten.
- Unfamiliar adults find him difficult to understand when he talks.
Language Milestones: Age 6-7 Years
- Identifies most sounds phonetically
- Can form most sound-letter associations, and so, can attempt spellings
- Segments sound into the smallest grammatical units
- Starts observing punctuations while reading and writing.
- He can narrate short stories, (many of them, made up!)
- Understands time and space concepts e.g. before/after, second/third
- Understands mathematical concepts such as “few”, “many”, “all” and “except”
- Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs
- They should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words
- Should know his age
- They must have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while, tomorrow, yesterday, today
- Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences
Red flags for language milestones (age 6-7 years)
- He has trouble coping in school.
- Unfamiliar adults find him difficult to understand when he talks.
What Are the Factors Affecting Language Development of a Child
There are many factors affecting the language development of a child.
The first one is the environment. The environment means everything, including the people around the child, all the people they meet, and all the things they see. The environment also includes the language spoken in the home, even if it is not native to them.
Another factor affecting language development is age. The younger a child is, the more quickly they will learn and use new words correctly. Age also involves how quickly a child can understand what others are saying to them.
A third factor affecting language development is how much time children spend with their parents or caregivers. This encourages conversation between parent and child and allows children to practice using their new words in context at home before using them outside of it (such as at school).
This type of interaction also helps children better understand their parents’ expectations for appropriate behaviour so that they can behave appropriately without being told what those expectations are each time something happens instead of simply reacting automatically (which could make things worse)
My Child Has Missed a Few Language Milestones
It is okay to miss a few milestones early on in life. Most children start understanding languages at a different pace. It is especially true for children who are bilingual or trilingual. However, after age 6, your child should be able to meet most of the milestones.
However, you must act and consult your child’s doctor if you spot any red flags. He will refer your child to a speech specialist. Again, there is no need to worry if this happens, as early intervention can work wonders in speech and language learning disabilities.
How to Improve Language Development of a Child
The first thing to remember is that language development is a process and will happen over time. You do not need to worry if your child has not started speaking yet. It is common for children to begin talking later than other children their age, so do not be concerned. However, if you have noticed that your child does not speak at all or only speaks a few words, then it is time for some action.
It can be difficult to know where to start when trying to improve language development in your child, but there are things that you can do every day that will help them learn more words and speak more clearly. Here are some easy tips on how to improve language development in your child:
Include talking as part of everything that you do with your child. For example, when you are playing with them or reading them books, ask questions about what they see around them or what they are doing at any given moment – this will encourage them to tell stories about themselves which will help them develop expressive language skills;
Read books together as often as possible;
Talk about what they see around them while out shopping or visiting friends/family members;
Offer praise when they say something clearly but also ask questions about what they said so that they can
Updates from Pheona Ilagan
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