Speech, language and communication stages

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From birth to 6 months, your baby: 

• Moves their head or body to find sounds when they hear them
• Makes noises when they hear a sound, or someone speak
• Smiles at you or moves their arms, legs, and body when you talk to them
• Listens when you sing songs to them or play with them
• Stops what they are doing when they hear a new voice or sound
• Is startled by loud noises
• Has a different cry to get their needs met, e.g. one cry for hunger and another when they are tired

For more information, see NHS Start for Life 0-6 months. 

From 6-12 months, your baby can:

• Look at you when you call their name
• Recognise the name of familiar objects such as “dog” and “teddy”
• Babble strings of sounds such as “DaDa” 
• Understand words that are important to them such as blanket or milk and will look for them or point to them
• Smile and laugh back at people
• Get your attention by making noises or pointing at what they want

For more information, see NHS Start for Life 6-12 months.

From 12-18 months, your baby can:

• Join in the actions to nursery rhymes and songs
• Understand words for everyday objects
• Find an object that you name
• Understand two-word phrases such as “more milk” or “where’s Mummy?”
• Say approximately 20 single words such as dog or car, even if they are not clear
• Sit and look at a picture book with an adult

From 18-24 months, your toddler can:

• Understand between 200 and 500 words
• Put a 2–3-word sentence together such as “more milk” or “bye, bye daddy”
• Sit and listen to a simple story and look at the pictures
• Use approximately 50 single words but recognise many more
• Copy sounds and words
• Enjoy pretend play with their toys

For more information, see NHS Start for Life 1-2 years. 

From 2-3 years, your child can:

• Understand simple questions such as “Who?”, “Where?” and “What?” 
• Make short sentences using 4-5 words such as “Want more milk” or “Daddy read my story”
• Use up to 300 words
• Ask lots of questions to find out the names of new words
• Use action words such as play and run as well as name things 
• Understand longer questions such as “where are your shoes?”

For more information, see NHS Start for Life 2-3 years. 

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From 3-4 years, your child can:

• Use longer sentences
• Sit and listen to longer stories and ask questions about what they have been read
• Understand and use time, colour, and number related words such as “play tomorrow”, “yellow bus” and “two dogs”
• Enjoy “pretend” play such as making a cup of tea
• Describe something they have done such as “played in park”
• Ask lots of “what?”, “when?”, “where?” questions

From 4-5 years, your child can:

• Engage in conversation and take turns talking and listening
• Understand spoken instructions without stopping what they are doing
• Listen to their friends if they are interested in what they are saying
• Join in with rhymes and stories, talk about them and guess what happens next
• Understand sequences such as “First put your coat on, then we will go to the park.”
• Use and understand positional language such as behind, below, in front of

For more information, see NHS Start for Life 3-5 years. 

Speech and Language UK also has more information on ages and stages. 

The content of this page has been co-produced in partnership with the iHV.

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