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Birth Form
At birth, a baby begins to discriminate languages from different rhythmic classes and produces reflexive sounds. Baby Thomas is able to easily discriminate his native language (English) from other languages based on the rhythmic classes. He produces reflexive sounds such as burping after his mother feeds him in his nursery and crying when he accidentally spits his pacifier out and needs help putting it back in. -
Birth Content/Semantics
A birth milestone in semantics would be "Looking toward source of sound/ startles in response to sound" Thomas turns his head in the direction in which he hears sounds. Mom will be in the kitchen while he is in the living room. When he hears her, he turns his head to the kitchen and looks around. Whenever she drops something in the kitchen, he jumps and begins to cry.
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Birth Use
At birth, an infant prefers infant-directed speech rather than adult-directed speech. They also begin to tend to social partners.
Thomas displays attentiveness and responds positively to infant-directed speech. He turns towards his mom’s voice when she begins to coo at him but seems uninterested in conversation not directed at him. -
2 Month Form
Thomas continues to build on distinguishing between his language and non-native languages whenever he's taken out in public places such as a grocery store. Thomas has also began to make cooing and gooing sounds in response to outside stimuli such as his mom speaking to him or simply because he likes the way it makes his lips feel! -
2 Month Content/Semantics
At two months, an infant begins to briefly hold and inspects two objects and mouths some objects" Thomas is beginning to get a grasp on objects given to him such as his pacifier string or a soft toy. He will look at the toys and then stick them in his mouth as he is used to putting his pacifier in his mouth. -
2 Month Use
Thomas is now aware of strangers and unfamiliar situations. He is unfortunately not that great with strangers. He is an overall happy baby when being held by his parents. However, just the other day his Aunt Leah came to visit him, he had not met Aunt Leah until that moment. He displayed his dislike for strangers by immediately crying when Aunt Leah picked him up. -
4 Month Form
The 4-month phonology milestone for infants is being able to distinguish languages to same rhythmic class (e.g., English vs Dutch) and begin to produce vowel sounds, vowel glides, squeals, and growls. Thomas is able to move his mouth to produce vowel sounds such as "aaa", "ooo", and "eee". He squeals when something exciting happens like playing with his favorite toy and growls when he accidentally drops it. -
4 Month Content/Semantics
At 4 months an infant is able to distinguish between purposeful and accidental actions and begins to form object categories. Thomas reacts to his mom dropping a baby powder bottle rather than responding to her throwing his diaper away. Thomas has also begun to notice the different texture of a ball and his mother's hand. -
4 Month Use
Thomas is so smart, he recognizes his own name and fixates his attention on the individual who calls him. He picks up his head and turns to whomever calls his name, more specifically his mom and dad. He is able to recognize his own name, but he is more familiar with his parents faces. -
6 Month Form
Thomas can easily distinguish between allophones such as the /p/ in "stop" and "top". He can hear each segment of sounds when his mom talks to him in short sentences such as telling him "Look at your pretty blue eyes!" Thomas can also locate when words in sentences end and begin by the stress that his mom places. -
6 Month Content/Semantics
The 6 months milestone in semantics is "attempts to gestures/understands no" Mom makes faces at Thomas by raising her eyebrows and rounding her lips. While trying to imitate mom, Thomas tries to round his lips and raises his head instead of his eyebrows. Mom says no to Thomas as he sticks something in his mouth and therefore let’s go of that object. -
6 Month Use
Thomas engages in joint attention. Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. For example, he loves to join in with his mom when she begins playing with the plastic toy piano and the stack of rubber rings. -
8 Month Form
Thomas has begun to babble in order to experiment with different phonemes. He frequently says "mamama" and "bababa" much to the joy of his family! He's picked up on more detailed phonetics such as phonotactic patterns and easily discriminates English stress patterns from other languages. -
8 Month Content/Semantics
The milestone for 8 months is "looks in correct place for objects out of sight/ searches for partially hidden objects" Mom and Thomas play with a ball, when she hides it behind her back, Thomas crawls behind to find the ball. -
8 Month Use
He has begun to use intentional communication. He reaches his arms up in the air when he wants to be carried and reaches for his sipee cup to request he would like it now. Thomas is a feisty little baby! He already knows what foods he doesn’t like and pushes his mother’s hand away when she tries to feed him mushed peas. -
10-12 Month Form
Thomas has finally turned 1! He uses jargon while babbling and is getting very close to saying his first word. He knows the function words in utterances such as "a","the", "on" etc... Thomas can also identify words in speech that do not fit with the typical language stress patterns in English. -
10-12 Month Content/Semantics
The semantics milestone for 10 months is " understands rational actions as means to a goal/ produces first word/ understands 5-10 words" Thomas sees his mom get his bottle out of the cabinet and jumps of excitement knowing its time to eat. When he sees his mom with his bottle, he says “yay!”
Mom then begins to say “clap” and Thomas puts his hands together to clap.
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10-12 Month Use
Thomas has uttered his first true word, "dada," he also has started using imperative pointing. He points at objects to gesture a request. He points at objects he would like brought to him, typically his juice and his daddy's keys. He loves to jingle and play with his daddy's keys. -
12 Month Form/Phonology
In the 12-month mark, the phonological milestone consists of having “mostly unintelligible speech, except for a few words.” Thomas has started to say “mama” and “dada”, other than those words, his speech is mostly gibberish and not clear.
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12 Month Syntax and Morphology
More than half of Thomas’s utterances are consisting of single nouns. His vocabulary usually consists of the words “mama,” “dada,” “cup,” and “juice.” -
12 Month Content/Semantics
At 12 months a toddler should speak their first word. We are so proud of Thomas! He has spoken his first word, “dada.” It is common for toddlers to speak their first words at 12 months of age. -
16 Month Content/Semantics
Thomas’ word production is quite limited at the moment. He only has about 20 words in his vocabulary. The most common words he uses are “mama,” “dada,” “sippee,” “doggie,” and “Dani,” the name of our “doggie.” -
16 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas has begun to use negatives when speaking, they take up about 33% of his vocabulary. He sometimes fights mom during bath time by loudly exclaiming "no" and he says "no more" when he is done eating. -
16 Month Use
Thomas has become quite the talker. Whenever he's spoken to, he'll wait his turn and as soon as his mom finishes speaking he begins babbling away. While a few words can be distinct, Thomas' mom typically has to guess what he's trying to say! -
16 Month Form/Phonology
In the 16 month phonological milestone Thomas is supposed to “pronounces about 25% of all words intelligibly.” Thomas has begun to say a few words, such as “ball”, “no”, and “cup” among other words, although they are not very clear. -
20 Month Use
Thomas is now able to use gesture-word combinations and two-gesture combinations. When getting ready in the morning, he'll pick out his shoes by pointing and saying "these". Additionally, to clarify Thomas will point at the shoes he doesn't like while shaking his head and stating "not these". -
20 Month Content/Semantics
Thomas’ vocabulary has now expanded to about 50 words, while incorporating some verbs such as “hungry” and “eat” and adjectives like “big” and “happy.” -
20 Month Syntax and Morphology
He has now started to use grammatical morphemes such as "sings," "treats" and "peed." He also has a few "ing" ending words in his vocabulary like "running" and "playing." -
20 Month Form/Phonology
At 20 months the toddler should be able to “process spoken words incrementally”. Thomas is now understanding what mom is saying to him and is able to follow rules that she establishes to him. Mom told Thomas to pick his trash up and he did. -
24 Month Form/Phonology
At 24 months the child should be able to “ask questions with rising intonation and pronounce about 65% of all words intelligibly.” Thomas’s mom is able to distinguish when he is asking a question because of the rise in his voice. Thomas is also now able to say words more clearly, although not fully.
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24 Month Use
Thomas has begun to use imaginative, heuristic, and informative language functions. He loves to pretend play that he's an astronaut flying through space! Thomas is also a very curious boy, pointing at many household objects and asking "what's that?" Lastly, he loves to tell anyone that will listen about his favorite tv show, Paw Patrol. -
24 Month Content/Semantics
Thomas now comprehends up to about 500 words but is inly producing about 200. He is now using verbs such as “sings” and “hopped,” even if not in the correct context. -
24 Month Syntax and Morphology
At 24 months, a child should begin to use two-word combinations as well as prepositions in and on. They are also beginning to use plural and possessive morphemes and some irregular past tense verbs. Children have an MLU of about 1.92 and are in accordance with Brown's Stage II. Thomas has now begun saying "mommy hunwy" to indicate he is hungry and uses words such as "drank". -
28 Month Use
Mom sure has her hands full! Thomas will now walk up and strike up a conversation with strangers at the grocery store. However, Thomas is only able to maintain attention for about 2-3 exchanges before he changes the topic completely or his attention is changed to the candy aisle! -
28 Month Form/Phonolgy
The milestone at 28 months consists of “pronounces about 70% of all words intelligibly, demonstrates phonological processes (e.g. Final-consonant omission, substitution of consonants), Thomas’s words are getting better, but he is taking the final consonants of words such as “moo” instead of moon. He is also substituting consonants such as “baf” instead of “bath”. -
28 Month Content/Semantics
Thomas’ vocabulary is flourishing, but he does tend to overgeneralize on a few new words. For example, he thinks every circular spherical object is a “ball” and every vehicle is a “car.” -
28 Month Syntax and Morphology
In the 28 month milestone, a child is in Brown's Stage III and has begun using present progressive morpheme -ing mastery.
Thomas is now three-element sentences and is saying "Me is sleepy." -
32-36 Month Content/Semantics
At three years of age now, he understands approximately 900 words but only uses 500. He has also begun to ask simple questions such as “can I have a candy?” and “where is daddy?” -
36 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas uses four to five words in sentences such as "The slide is my favorite." He also uses compound sentences that includes "and" such as "The tree is green and brown." -
32-36 Month Form/ Phonology
A child during these 3 months will begin to “suppress most common phonological processes by this age and pronounce about 80% of all words intelligibly.” Thomas’s vocabulary has reduced the amount of times he deletes a final consonant from his words. He is starting to say some words completely and properly. He also uses some contractions such as "It's" and "that's". 25% of all of his utterances consist of single nouns and verbs such as "cup" and "walks". -
32-36 Month Use
By age 3, Thomas can clarify and request information during conversations. When Thomas gets hurt while playing at the park, he's able to tell his mom where he's hurting and what happened when she asks. He is also able to ask his mom if the boo-boo is bad and if she can kiss it better. -
36 Month Content
Thomas begins to engage In longer dialogues. Examples include: Thomas: "Mommy went to the store." Dad: "And what did she buy at the store?" "Thomas: "apples, milk, eggs, and bread!" Dad: Did you help her carry them in?" Thomas: "Yes, they were very heavy!" Dad: "I bet, you're so big and strong!" Thomas: "Yes, like a superhero!" -
36 Months Pragmatics
The 36-month pragmatic milestone consists of engaging in longer conversations. Thomas is now able to carry on a conversation about his school day and what he did. -
36 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas has begun to develop shallow phonological awareness. For example, Thomas is more aware of the sounds words create and how they all correspond with one another, such as rhyming, like "cat" and "hat." -
36 Months Pragmatics
The 36-month pragmatic milestone consists of engaging in longer conversations. Thomas is now able to carry on a conversation about his school day and what he did.
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40 Month Content
Thomas uses 1000-1500 words and comprehends 1500-2000 words. Thomas is now able to understand relational terms such as "Daddy is tall and Mommy is short." -
40 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas uses pronouns consistently and uses adverbs of time. Examples include: "She took the ball away." and "I go to school tomorrow!" -
40 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas’ articulatory skills continue to improve every day. At 40 months, he continues to refine his articulatory skills. -
40 Months Pragmatics
At 40 months, a child begins to use primitive narratives (telling story’s) and begins to make conversational repairs. Thomas tends to make up stories about his friend Sam about what they did at the park. Thomas will sometimes say something wrong within his sentences and will then correct himself, for example, “I’m going to put on my socks, I mean my shoes.” -
44 Month Content
Thomas understands kinship terms such as "mommy" and "daddy". He also uses syntactic information to narrow the possible meanings of new words. For example, when a word is the first in a sentence, Thomas can infer from the location of the word that it's probably a noun. "Tigers are orange and black with stripes." Thomas infers a tiger is a noun. -
44 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas has begun using articles, such as “a,” “an” and “the.” He also uses past tense and contractions consistently. Thomas uses contractions such as “can’t” and “don’t.” Some past tense words he uses are “fed” and “playing.” He usually uses these words when talking about the family dog. “I fed Buddy treats,” or “I was playing with Buddy.” -
44 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas has mastered most consonants at 44 months now, such as /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /s/, /y/, /h/. -
44 Month Pragmatics
At 44 months, a child starts to understand indirect requests accompanied by nonverbal pointing. Thomas’s mom will occasionally call his name and point at the toys laying across the floor. He immediately understands he needs to pick them up. -
48 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas has begun to decrease his use of phonological processes at 48 months. For example, he is displaying weak syllable deletion, meaning he is deleting the stressed syllable within words like “tomato” and “elephant.” He is instead pronouncing the words as “mato” and “ephant.” He also uses cluster reduction when speaking as well for words like “spider” and “cold.” Instead, Thomas pronounces them as “pider” and “coal.” -
48 Month Content
Thomas overextends words on the basis of object function. For example, when watching daddy work on the car he calls all tools that fix things a "hammer". Thomas also uses animacy information to infer the meanings of new words. For example, if his mom tells him to "Find Dax" in a picture book, he'll point to the picture of the boy. If she says "Find the dax" he'll point to the object that he doesn't know. He also uses reflexive pronouns such as "Daddy fixed it himself!" -
48 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas is combining four to seven words these days to create sentences. “I played with Buddy and he got dity.” “When is Daddy coming home?” Also, he uses contractible auxiliaries like “I can’t go” or “can I go play?” Lastly, he has begun to use irregular third person verbs such as “has,” “sings” and “watches.” -
48 Month Pragmatics
At 48 months' use of interpretive, logical, participatory, organizing functions, and constructions of true narratives occur. Thomas will describe his experiences at school; He is also expressing his wishes and feelings, for example, he will sometimes say “ugh I’m sad"
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52 Month Content
Thomas can now use "what do" "what did" and "what does" questions. Such as asking "What do you want to do?" "What does this button do?" and "what does that mean?" -
52 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas is doing amazing, he is using subordination and coordination in sentences, meaning he is combining two sentences together. He also uses irregular plural forms consistently like “men,” “people” and “girls.” -
52 - 56 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas is now producing very intelligible speech, meaning it is more clear and easier to understand. He has mastered almost all his consonants. However, they may not be mastered in all contexts. -
52 Month Pragmatics
At 52 months a child starts to use indirect requests. Thomas will occasionally cry over something while looking at the object, such as a toy that mom may have put away for him not to have, to indicate that he wants it. -
56-60 Month Content
Thomas can use 1500-2000 words and comprehends 2500-2800 words. He also uses deictic terms such as this, that, here, and there. "This dinosaur is green!" "That dinosaur stands on two legs!" -
56 - 60 Month Syntax and Morphology
Thomas is smart, he is now combining five to eight words together to create sentences, for example "Buddy and I played outside today!" -
56 - 60 Month Phonology and Form
Thomas wrote his name today, we’re so excited for him. He now knows the letters that make up his own name. He is showing only slight difficulties with the latter-developing sounds and he still displays some phonological process persisting, though not as much as he did at 48 months. -
56-60 Months Pragmatics
56-60 months- uses narrative with sequence of events but no main character or theme. Thomas had begun to tell stories although there is no main character, he will make a sequence of events but there is no main theme for example, “Dad went to the store today. Mom went to grandmas. I saw a lot of trees.” -
5-6 Years Pragmatics
Thomas uses mostly direct requests such as asking the teacher "Where are the scissors?" when they aren't in their usual spot. He also uses repetition for conversational repair. If his classmate didn't hear him and says "what?" he is able to repeat back what he just said. Thomas also produces four types of narratives- he can recount what happened in the story his mom read him, account to his mom what he did at school, event casts when playing pretend, and fictionalized stories he created. -
5-6 Years Phonology and Form
At 5, going on 6, Thomas uses a passive voice at times when speaking. He has also begun to use morphology to infer the meaning of new words. When a new word arises in his surroundings he listens to it and uses its familiar sound and compare it to words already in his vocabulary to figure out its meaning. For example, his father used the word "ginormous" the other day and Thomas was able to infer that it meant "big" because it sounded similar to "humongous." -
5-6 Years Syntax and Morphology
Thomas produces some sentences with passive voice such as "The cat was being chased by the dog."
He also begins to use morphology to infer the meanings of new words. When his teacher says it is "unkind" to tease classmates, he is able to infer that "unkind" means the opposite of kind- mean. -
5-6 Semantics
From age 5 to 6 years a child begins to learn how to read by decoding. Decoding is applying knowledge of letter to sound relationships and letter patterns to correctly pronounce words. Thomas is beginning to pay more attention to the words he can not read. What he will do is break the word down into parts that make it easier for him to read. For example, Thomas was having trouble reading "gray", therefore, he broke down each sound and knew what sound the letters a and y make together.
