CHILDREN’S SPEECH, LANGUAGE & HEARING CHECKLIST

By 6 months – does the child:

•  Startle to loud sudden noises?
•  Smile or use other facial expressions to respond to familiar people?
•  Coo, babble, and vocalize?
•  Respond to his/her name and sometimes to “up”?

By 12 months – does the child:

•  Try to imitate simple actions and sounds in turn-talking routines?
•  Use a range of simple gestures, e.g. Points, waves bye, shakes/nods head?
•  Vocalize to gain your attention?
•  Understand a few simple commands when gestures are used, e.g. “come here”?

By 18 months – does the child:

•  Communicate for different reasons, e.g. To protest, request things or to be social?
•  Use at least 20 single words?
•  Respond with words or gestures to simple questions, e.g. “Where’s ball?”
•  Follow simple directions, e.g. “show me your nose”?

By 2 years – does the child:

•  Frequently try to interact and communicate with you?
•  Have a vocabulary of around 100-150 words?
•  Use 2 word combinations, e.g. “my hat”?
•  Follow simple 2 step commands, e.g. “Get teddy and put him in the bed”?

By 3 years – does the child:

•  Create sentences using five to eight words?
•  Ask and answer simple questions (who, what, where and why)?
•  Talk about past events and tell simple stories?
•  Have a wide and varied vocabulary, e.g. labels, actions and description words, etc.?

By 4 years – does the child:

•  Speak using almost adult-like grammar and pronunciation?
•  Tell stories with a beginning, middle and end?
•  Follow directions involving 3 or more steps?
•  Listen to books as well as generate rhymes and match some letters with sounds?No – to any of the age appropriate questions on this checklist indicates the need to refer to a Speech-Language Pathologist and/or Audiologist to have the child assessed.