Developmental Language and Literacy Milestones

Birth to eight months

• Cries to communicate pain or discomfort
• Smiles or vocalizes for social interaction
• Responds to human voices
• Uses vocal and non-vocal communication to express self
• Uses all sorts of sounds as babbling
• Engages in private conversations when alone
• Understands names of familiar people and objects
• Laughs
• Listens to conversations
• Laughs
• Listens to conversations

Eight to eighteen months

• Understands many more words than can say
• Looks towards 20 or more objects when named
• Creates long, babbled sentences
• Shakes head no
• Says two or three clear words
• Looks at picture books and points to objects
• Uses vocal signals to gain assistance (other than crying)
• Begins to use me, you, I

Eighteen Months to three years

• Combines words into simple statements
• Listens to stories for a short while
• Has a speaking vocabulary that may reach 200 words
• Uses fantasy in language and plays pretend games
• Begins to use rhyming language and nonsense words in play
• Defines use of many common household items
• Uses compound sentences
• Begins to use adjectives and adverbs
• Recalls events of the day
• Recognizes specific books by cover
• Listens to stories being read
• Pretends to read books
• Begins to understand how to handle books
• Interacts with adults during read alouds
• Labels objects in books and comments on characters
• Requests that adults read or write with them
• May begin to attend to specific print such as letters in name
• Uses scribble writing for a purpose and begins to use some letter like forms