DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

LISTENING

AGE / MILESTONES
0-3 months / Discriminates between speech and non-speech sounds
Startles to loud sounds
Recognizes primary care-giver’s voice
Smiles / quiets when spoken to
3-6 months / Moves eyes in direction of sound
Discriminates between friendly/unfriendly sounds
Reacts to changes in tone of voice
Attends to music / musical toys
Listens to a speaker
6-12 months / Stops an activity when name is called
Recognizes words for common items
Begins to respond to simple requests, e.g., ‘sit here’
1-2 years / Follows 1-step instructions
Understands simple questions, e.g., ‘where’s daddy?’
Points to named pictures in a book
Follows directions to find 2 similar objects
Listens to simple stories
2-3 years / Responds to commands such as ‘show me your hand’
Follows 2-step instructions
Understand several verbs by selecting corresponding image
3-4 years / Attends to name being called from another room
Understands simple wh- questions
Begins to learn from listening
4-5 years / Attends to a short story and answers questions about it
Repeats 4 digits when repeated slowly
Hears and understands most of what is said at home and school
5-6 years / Repeats sentences containing up to 9 words
Follows 3-step instructions

ANSWERING QUESTIONS

AGE / MILESTONES
1-2 years / Chooses an object when given a choice of two, e.g., “Do you want water or juice?”
Looks in appropriate place when asked, “Where’s Mum?”
Answers “where”questions
Answers “What’s this?” re familiar objects/pictures
Answers “Yes/No”questions
2-3 years / Points to objects when described, e.g., “What do you wear on your feet?”
Answers simple wh- questions logically
Answers questions such as “What do you do when you are cold?”
Answers questions such as “Where…?”, “What’s that?”, “What’s … doing?”, “Who is…?”
Answers / understands “Can you…?”questions
3-4 years / Answers more complex questions logically, e.g., “Who”, “Why”, “Where” and “How”
Answers “If… what?” questions, such as “If it starts raining, what would you do?”
Answers questions about functions of objects, such as “What are plates for?”, “Why do we wear gloves?”
4 years / Answers “when” questions
Answers “how many” questions (where the answer isn’t more than four)

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Obtained from Lanza & Flahive 2012.

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