Babies 0-12 Mths

NOTE: Please read THIS FIRST.

Babies 0-3 Months

By 3 months your baby should:

Listening and Understanding

•        Turn towards a familiar sound or voice
•        Be startled by loud noises
•        Recognise parent’s voice
•        Often be calmed down by a familiar friendly voice (eg. parent’s)

Speech Sounds / Talking

•        Make vocal sounds, eg. cooing (“ahh”), gurgling
•        Frequently cry when unhappy or uncomfortable

Social Skills

•        Look at faces
•        Copy facial movements, eg. sticking out tongue
•        Smile

Babies 3-6 Months

By 6 months your baby should:

Listening and Understanding

•        Watch someone’s face when they talk
•        Turn towards a familiar sound or voice
•        Be interested in new sounds and toys with sounds
•        Enjoy music and rhythm
•        Show excitement at the sound of approaching voices
•        Respond to “no”

  Speech Sounds and Talking

•   Laugh
•        May begin to babble, eg. say “baba”, “gaga”
•        Blow raspberries
•        Make vocal noises to get attention
•        Grunt, frown or cry when sad or angry

Social Skills

•        Cry in different ways to express different needs
•        Make eye contact
•        Sense different emotions in parent’s voice and may respond through laughing, smiling, or quietening
•        Make sounds back when talked to

             Play

•        Play simple games such as making sounds back when talked to
•        Explore toys with mouth by putting toys in mouth
•        Enjoy looking at self in a mirror

Babies 6-9 Months

By 9 months your child should:

Listening and Understanding

•        Watch someone’s face when they talk
•        Turn towards a familiar sound
•        Listen when spoken to
•        Show excitement at the sound of approaching voices

Speech Sounds and Talking

•        Laugh during play
•        Babble, eg. “baba”, “gaga”
•        Babble to self
•        Make vocal noises to get attention
•        Grunt, frown or cry when sad or angry

Social Skills

•        Cry in different ways to express different needs
•        Make eye contact
•        Sense different emotions in parent’s voice and may respond through laughing, smiling, or quietening

Play

•        Have favourite toys
•        Play simple games such as peekaboo
•        Play simple games such as making sounds back when talked to

Babies 9-12 Months

By 12 months your child should:

Listening and Understanding

• Respond when you call her name
• Turn and look in the direction of sounds
• Listen when spoken to
• Understand words for some common things eg. cup, food
• Respond to some simple instructions eg. “Come here”
• Respond to some simple questions eg. “Do you want more?”

Speech Sounds and Talking

•         Babble using long and short groups of words eg. tata, bibibi
•         Early sounds include: d, m, n, h, w, t.
•         Have at least one word by about 12 months**
•         Simplify words, eg. may call bottle “bo”
•         Imitate different speech sounds

Social Skills

•         Babble to get and keep attention
•         Use gestures to communicate – eg. hands up for “pick me up” and wave for “bye”, pointing
•         Take turns in conversations using babble
•         Show affection towards familiar people

Play

•         Play simple games such as peekaboo
•         Have favourite toys

** A word is a word used consistently by the child for the same thing; the sounds need not be correct, as long as they use that word consistently to refer to the same thing. A word may include animal noises such as “baa”.

For more information

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Learning Two Languages by ASHA

Find a Speech Pathologist with Speech Pathology Australia

Disclaimer:

This information is not intended to replace the recommendations of a Speech Pathologist for an individual with a communication impairment. If you have concerns about your child’s speech and language development, please contact a Speech Pathologist.