HealthInfo Waitaha Canterbury

Communication development ages & stages

By 1 year, most children

• respond to common words such as “no”, “bye bye”
• know the names of familiar things, for example, māmā, teddy
• will show you objects to get your attention
• are starting to use some single words
• enjoy repetitive games with others, for example, peek a boo
• take turns in conversations with adults by babbling, for example, “mumma mumma”
• use their words and gestures to be social, to ask and to show
• start to show an interest in looking at pictures in books
• enjoy listening to songs and nursery rhymes.

By 18 months, most children

• understand simple phrases, for example, “where is your drink?”, “shoes on”
• will give a toy to an adult on request
• repeat actions to make someone laugh
• are starting to use more than 20 common words, for example, “milk”, “daddy”, “more”
• are starting to turn pages in books and to point at pictures.

By 2 years, most children

• understand instructions containing two key words, for example, “give your cup to dad”
• can listen to a simple story
• use over 50 single words
• are starting to combine words, for example, “go car”, “more drink”, “titiro pāpā!”
• ask simple questions, for example, “what that?”, “where ball?”
• talk about what they can see and hear right now
• enjoy pretend play with their toys, for example, feeding teddy, putting dolly to bed
• join in with waiata (songs) and nursery rhymes with actions
• enjoy interactive books, for example, lift-the-flap books such as Spot, Little Kiwi, Hairy Maclary
• can be understood by familiar adults most of the time.

By 3 years, most children

• understand instructions containing three key words, for example, “get the spoon and the big cup”
• use a vocabulary of several hundred words, including describing words, such as "fast" and "small"
• can combine three or more words into a sentence, for example, “What is daddy doing?”
• play imaginative games, for example, pretending a block is a phone
• can talk about things that are not present
• take an interest in other children's play and sometimes join in
• take an interest in playing with words, for example, rhyming words
• are starting to recognise a few letters
• can be understood by unfamiliar adults most of the time, for example, the librarian or relatives they do not see often.

By 4 years, most children

• understand more complex language structures, for example, "why.... because"
• ask lots of what, where and why questions to find out new information
• take part in longer and more complicated make-believe play sequences with peers, for example, buying a ticket, going on the bus, getting off at the right stop then getting back on
• enjoy simple jokes – even though their jokes may not make sense!
• can recognise their own written name
• know some letter names
• can recognise some printed words in the environment, for example, a stop sign
• are attempting to write their name
• are starting to use talking to make friends and to solve problems
• can talk about what they have done and what they might do, for example, they can tell Nana about their trip to the park, then talk about what they want for dinner
• can be understood by unfamiliar adults almost all of the time.

By 5 years, most children

• understand and use more concept words, such as tallest, same, bigger, medium
• can respond to instructions while busy doing something else
• generally use complete, well-formed sentences
• are still developing some aspects of more complex language structure, such as using irregular past tense, for example, they may say runned for ran
• are able to take turns in much longer conversations
• will ask the meanings of words, and try to use new words
• are able to retell stories they have heard in the right order, using some story phrases, for example, “once upon a time”, “the end”
• are able to ask for help appropriately, for example, “excuse me, can I have....?”
• are able to adapt their talking to a listener's level of understanding, for example, when talking to a baby sister
• are able to identify first sounds in words, for example, “puku starts with p”
• are starting to link letter names with letter sounds, for example, "s" = "ssss"
• can recognise some familiar written words
• can write their own name
• can be understood by unfamiliar adults all the time. A few sounds may still be developing, for example, th, r, l and some consonant blends, such as string, cloud, spider, tree.

On the next page: Tips for helping your child's communication skills

Adapted from Much more than words | Manuka takoto, kawea ake, Ministry of Education (2014) by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Page created July 2023.

Sources

Page reference: 1189970

Review key: HISCD-79694