Milestones of Communication

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Humans have the capacity to hear even before birth. The cochlea, the sensory organ of hearing, attains full adult size and is functional by the 20^th week of pregnancy. After birth, a newborn’s cochlear sensitivity is similar to an adult’s, but babies must learn how to use their hearing to form the foundations of communication.

Localization
One of the earliest and easiest auditory skills to observe in your baby is localization, the ability to pinpoint the source of a sound. Because we hear through two ears (binaurally), we can localize sounds with great accuracy.

Observing your child’s localization
In general, newborns will move or widen their eyes when they hear a sound. A loud sound should induce a startle reflex.

When your infant gets older, about five or six months, you can better observe a true localization response by making soft sounds behind or to the side of your infant while your baby is looking straight ahead. (Be sure you are out of view when making the sounds!) A soft rattle shake or whisper should prompt your baby to turn his or her head toward the sound.

While we expect infants to startle when presented with very loud sounds, it is most important to see how well your baby responds to soft sounds (such as the speech sound "s").

During the first year, your baby will refine listening skills and should alert to and look for the sources of common sounds around the home, such as a ringing doorbell or telephone, slamming door, children playing, a musical toy and speech.

Your Child’s Speech and Language Development

Age developmental milestones

9 months: Demonstrate an understanding of simple words "mommy," "daddy," "no", "bye-bye".

10 months: Babbling should sound "speech like" with single syllables strung together ("da-da-da-da").

1 year: One or more real words spoken.

18 months: Understand simple phrases, retrieve familiar objects on command (without gestures) and point to body parts. Also should have a spoken vocabulary between 20 and 50 words and use short phrases ("no more", "go out," "mommy up").

24 months: Spoken vocabulary should be at least 150 words coupled with the emergence of simple two word sentences. Most speech should be understandable to adults who are not with the child daily. Toddlers also should be able to sit and listen to read-aloud picture books.

3 to 5 years: Spoken language should be used constantly to express wants, reflect emotions, convey information and ask questions. A preschooler should understand nearly all that is said. Vocabulary grows from 1000 to 2000 words, which are linked, in complex and meaningful sentences. All speech sounds should be clear and understandable by the end of the preschool period.

These milestones are rough "rules of thumb", for the majority of children. If your child is more than 2-3 months delayed compared to the above-mentioned age groups, it might indicate a hearing loss or a delayed speech-language development.