SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT - ONE YEAR OLDS
“When should we be worried about our one year old’s speech and language?”
As parents, we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to encourage our child’s development. First time parents are often anxious when we see our children “lagging behind” a same aged peer. While there is WIDE variability in skills at age one, it can be hard for us not to make comparisons when we see same-aged peers in different developmental levels than our own children. So, what is normal and when should we be concerned?
12 TO 18 MONTHS
Receptive Language Skills - What does your child understand?
Understands simple 1-step commands
Responds to name consistently
Responds to “no”
Identifies 2 or more familiar objects from a group of 3-4 objects by touching/pointing
Begins to look more selectively at pictures to recognize them when named
Expressive Language Skills - What does your child say?
Uses 3-20 single words meaningfully/consistently
Uses gestures like shaking head for “no” or waving for “bye” or “hi”
Answers question “What is it?”
Uses words to get attention (mama) and to request (milk)
Articulation Skills - How precise are their speech sounds?
Uses words of more than one syllable and varied vowels (e.g., baby)
18 TO 24 MONTHS
Receptive Language Skills- What does your child understand?
Understands/points to body parts and clothing items
Recognizes many common objects and pictures as they are named
Understands simple yes/no questions
Understands/responds to simple “what” and “where” questions
Expressive Language Skills- What does your child say?
Uses at least 20-100 words meaningfully
Points to objects and gains attention
Imitates animal sounds (moo, woof, etc) and other environmental (vroom, whee, etc) sounds in play
Begins combining words to form 2+-word phrases (e.g., big car, hot food, mommy go, bye-bye car, baby sleeping).
Uses ‘my’ to declare ownership
Begins pretend play
Articulation Skills - How precise are their speech sounds?
Sounds emerging p, b, m, w, h, n, t, d (other sounds may begin developing too, but these are typically the first consistent ones)
Variety of vowel sounds
May omit sounds at the end of words (“da” for dog) or middle of words “muh-ee” for monkey
May substitute sounds for other sounds (“tea” for key)
COMMON CONCERNS AND RED FLAGS:
Late talking - By age 2 a child should have a MINIMUM of 50 words and should be combining words into 2-3 word utterances consistently. If your child is not meeting these milestones, consider connecting to a speech language pathologist.
Difficult to understand - By age 2, unfamiliar listeners should be able to understand at least 50% of what your child says. Leaving off end sounds in words is typical at this age, but leaving off initial sounds is not developmentally typical at any stage. If you consistently have difficulty understanding your child and unfamiliar listeners cannot understand him/her, consider connecting to a speech language pathologist.
Thumb Sucking/Pacifier - We recommend weaning the pacifier between 18-24 months or earlier. Babies are born with fat pads in their cheeks that facilitate sucking for nutrition. As a child ages, the fat pads decrease, the mouth grows, and the tongue moves back in the mouth. Keeping a pacifier or thumb or bottle in a toddler or young child’s mouth can perpetuate an immature sucking pattern and a habit of the tongue being in the front of the mouth which can lead to difficulties with speech and dentition later.