Milestones

Milestones refer to key developmental stages that mark a child's progress in speech, language and communication skills. These milestones indicate typical age rangers when children are expected to achieve certain abilities. These help with tracking child's development.

At 1 years old, most children can...

Smile when sees you
Moves eyes in direction of sounds
Responds to changes in tone of your voice
Responds to their name
Pays attention to music
Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake
Listens when spoken to
Recognizes words for common items (cup, book, shoe, spoon)
Begins to respond to requests (want more?)
Responds to ‘no’, ‘wait’ and ‘stop’
May point to objects or people

At 2 years old, most children can:

Points to simple body parts when asked (nose, mouth)
Follows simple commands and understands simple questions (roll the ball, kiss the baby)
Listens to simple stories, songs, and rhymes
Points to pictures in a book, when named
Understands simple prepositions (on/off, in/out, up/down)
Understands simple ‘what’ questions (what’s this?)
Understands yes/no
Shows interest in reading

At 3 years old, most children can:

Follow two step related instructions e.g. "get your socks and put your shoes on"
Understand prepositions (top/bottom, under/over)
Understand quantity concepts (empty/full)
Understand basic concepts (hard/soft, big/little, same/different)
Point to body parts (simple- eyes, complex- eyebrows)
Knows function of body parts and objects
Understands ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘what’ questions (what’s the dog doing?)
Understands negatives (no shoes, not running)
Recognises simple colours (red, blue, green)
Name actions from pictures (running, jumping)
Understand gender (boy/girl)

At 4 years old, most children can:

Understand prepositions (front/back, next to)
Understand concepts (long/tall/short)
Understand quantity concepts (most/many)
Understand sequence concepts (first/last)
Understands ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions
Recognises colours and shapes
Follow 3 step instructions (pick up your shoes, put them on and walk to the door)
Sort pictures/objects into categories

Uses eye contact consistently throughout conversations
Uses approximately 900-1000 words (or over), in 4-5 word sentences
Answers why and how questions
Grammatically correct sentences with a few mistakes
Uses pronouns (he/she, her/him, his)
Uses a variety of descriptive words and concepts
Uses ‘and’ and ‘because’ in sentences
Sequences and re-tells two-three events in order of occurrence (first we put on our shoes, then we went outside)

At 5 years old, most children can:

Understand sequence concepts (first/second/third/last, beginning/middle/end)
Recognise items that don’t belong in categories
Understand ‘when’ questions
Start to understand time concepts (day/night, morning, afternoon, night)
Understand opposites and comparatives (big/biggest, wet/dry)
Follow three part instructions, including time words (get your shoes before you get your hat)
Understand numbers, letters and shapes

Use complex sentences with correct grammar
Use all pronouns correctly (he/she, her/him, he’s/her’s, I/me, them, us)
Talks about events that happened, might have happened or that are going to happen
Talks in details, using a variety of descriptive words and vocabulary
Talks about feelings and emotions
Answer ‘when’ questions
Explain why items don’t belong together
Start to use some irregular verbs (fell)
Can count to 1-15 or onwards
Identify some letters
Identify most shapes
Can write their name and draw a person (doesn’t have to be perfect!)

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