Speech milestones for babies and toddlers
GET ACCESS TO ALL PREMIUM CONTENT WITH NO ADS FOR $4.99/MONTH
A lot of developmental milestones involving sounds and language with kids is during the first two or three years of life. A baby at two months of age, should be babbling, cooing, and making sounds. A baby four or five months of age should be babbling more and answering you. A baby six or seven months of age should be developing consonants. Should be "mama" or "dada," it's just as likely a "gaga" or a "baba." Through the second half of the year, nine and ten months of age, babies should be understanding words. They should understand the sounds around their names. Most kids don't actually have words, a "mama," "dada," or "dog." In the second half of the year, there are much bigger milestones to observe. There should be a progression. A twelve to thirteen month old should be understanding a lot of what you are saying, but can't talk much at all. They should be understanding simple requests. "Where's the dog?" "Where's daddy?" In the second half, the middle of that second year, you've got a real critical time where kids should be adding words to their vocabulary. Sometimes it's very slowly, especially for boys. It should be a month to month increase. You can read very rigid guidelines. "A child fifteen to eighteen months should be forming two-word sentences." This isn't invariable. It's not so much the point of time as a continuum. Kids should have more and more words as they age. If you have any doubts, evaluation of language, Speech Therapies, are interventions that should be done earlier, rather than later.
Watch Jay Gordon, MD's video on Speech milestones for babies and toddlers...
Related Videos
Transcript
Expert Bio
More from Expert
Jay Gordon, MDPediatrician
Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.
In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.
Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.
When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”
After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live.
Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets. Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”
Login or Register to view and post comments