Here's an idea of what you can expect, and when. But remember it's completely normal for your child to reach these milestones a little earlier or later.
|Birth to 3 months||Crying is your baby's first form of communication. Your newborn makes quiet, cooing sounds when he's happy or content. These are typically single vowel sounds, such as "ooh" and "ah" with his tongue and lips.|
|2 to 3 months||Your baby alters his cry according to the situation. As you get to know your baby, you may be able to distinguish a hunger cry from the cry he makes when he's tired or uncomfortable.|
|3 to 4 months||Your baby cries less frequently but will still cry when he's uncomfortable or annoyed. He utters mostly vowels, but cooing and gurgling is now a little more sophisticated, with more varied sounds added. Consonant sounds will begin to mix with vowels, such as "baba" or "yaya".|
|5 to 6 months||Your baby practises making his voice rise and fall (intonation), often in response to your baby talk and facial expressions. He'll be able to make sounds to get your attention, and will babble to himself and laugh when he plays.
Ask for help if ... If your child isn't making vocal sounds or eye contact with you by the time he's six months old, talk to your doctor.
|7 to 12 months||Your baby is babbling with greater diversity by now, making new sound combinations and intonations. He tries to copy your speech by putting consonants and vowels together, such as "bah-BAH-bah" or "no-no".
He'll have pretend conversations with you, taking turns to talk. He'll recognise the names of familiar objects and toys, such as "car" and "teddy".
Ask for help if ... If your child isn't saying any words by the time he's 15 months old, talk to your doctor.
|12 months||The all-important first words will have been spoken by now, and were probably "mummum" or "dada". Your toddler may know up to five words well enough to use them, but not all may be clear to understand.|
|15 months||Your toddler raises his voice at the end of a question and makes hand gestures to complement his speech, such as pointing and waving. He may even be able to say up to six simple words.
Ask for help if ... If your child isn't saying any words by the time he's 15 months old, talk to your health visitor.
|16 months||Talking rather than just babbling out loud has started, even if it isn't all that clear. He calls you to get your attention and nods and shakes his head for yes and no. Common consonant sounds such as t, d, n, w and h become part of his speech.|
|18 months||Your toddler may have a vocabulary of between six and 20 words, including nouns "mama", verbs such as "eat", and adjectives such as "cold".|
|18 to 24 months||Your toddler may have started to put two and three-word phrases together to form simple sentences, such as "Daddy go," "go home now", and "milk mess".
By 19 months about half of all children will be doing this. He'll sometimes ask questions about the names of people and objects around him.
|24 months||Your child may know as many as 50 words by now, including some descriptive language. He'll use short sentences consisting of two or more words with lots of pauses, such as "want milk", "Baby ... fall down!" and "Me go... swings?".|
|2 to 3 years||Your child knows up to 300 words by now, including lots of verbs, and will be able to carry on a simple conversation about something in his immediate environment.
He'll be asking simple questions, such as "What?", "Where?" and "Who?" a lot. Phrases expand from three-word sentences to five. He may stutter or stammer while he's thinking what to say, but this is normal.
Ask for help if ... If your two or three-year-old echoes your questions rather than answering them, or has been stuttering for more than six months, speak to doctor.
|3 to 4 years||Your child will make words past tense by adding a "d" sound to verbs, such as "runned", and can talk about things in the future as well. He'll make plurals by adding an "s" sound to nouns, such as "mans" and can use pronouns (I, she, we) correctly.
He can talk and play at the same time, knowing between 800 words and 1,000 words. He can say sentences of four to six words and repeat his favourite words such as "why," "what," and "who" often.
You can understand him most of the time, and he can describe what happened if you were out of the room. By five years speech is generally grammatically correct.
Ask for help if ... Your child may sound as though he's stuttering if he trips up on his words in his excitement to communicate. This is perfectly normal.
If his stuttering lasts for more than six months, or if he tenses his jaw or grimaces while trying to speak, he may be referred to a speech therapist.
Last reviewed: December 2011