Language is needed to communicate, make friends, and learn to read and write.

It is one of the most important skills a child will learn in the first few years of life. Parents play a big part in teaching their child to talk. The Sure Start Speech and Language Therapy Service is committed to providing parents, carers and early years workers with the support and information they need to help children learn to talk.

What to expect at different ages:

0 to 3 months

• Telling the difference between happy and sad expressions.
• Crying to express how they feel.
• Making cooing noises by about 3 months e.g. “ah”, “oo”.
• Recognising familiar voices such as their mum and dad.
• Laughing at around 3 months old.
• Smiling at around 5-6 weeks old.
• Responding to loud noises such as the vacuum cleaner, the door slamming.
• Sticking out their tongue and move their lips when you speak to them.
• Showing a real interest in your face.

3 to 6 months

• Babbling and making sounds such as “ba ba”.
• Taking turns making sounds. Taking turns means that your baby makes a noise, you say something back and then your baby makes another noise.
• Making a wider range of different sounds.
• Recognising familiar voices – people they hear frequently.
• By 6 months recognising very familiar words that you use with actions such as “no”, “up”, and “come”.
• Making Noises to get your attention.

6 to 12 months

• Listening attentively
• Looking at you when you speak
• Babbling strings of sounds
• Making noises to get your attention and looking at you when  doing so
• Smiling at people who are smiling at them
• Starting to understand words like “bye bye”, and “up”.

1 Year

• Turning to their name
• Pointing and making a sound to ask for what they want
• Making babble noises
• Understanding words they hear a lot e.g. car, drink, bath, cat.
• Understanding easy words when you gesture to help e.g. “give it to daddy”, “up you come”.
• Using some early words, e.g. “daddy”, “ball”, “cup”, don’t worry words will not be clear yet.

2 Years

• Using 50 or more single words
• Starting to put two words together e.g. “more juice”, “want ball”.
• Saying their own name
• Copying sounds and words
• Asking for names of objects and people
• Using more speech sounds, but don’t worry if you hear mistakes, at this age children miss the ends off words and make long words shorter, hat –“ha”, Banana – “nana”
• Joining in nursery rhymes and songs

3 Years

• Using up to 300 words
• Understanding and asking questions using “what”, “where”, “who”.
• Making short sentences, “want more juice now”
• Listen to longer stories
• Understanding longer instructions “where’s mummy’s coat?”
• Describing events that have already happened – “we went park”
• Still making mistakes “runned” for ran, “swimmed” for swam
• Still struggling to say some sounds, r, w, l, f, th, and s, sh, ch, j.

4 Years

• Using long well formed sentences “I’m going to nursery today”.
• Having longer conversations
• Understanding and using colour, number and time words, “red car”, “three fingers”, “yesterday”.
• Telling you what we do with familiar objects: Pencil – “draw with it”, Cake – “eat it”.
• Enjoying simple jokes
• Using most sounds but still having difficulty with words like “scribble”, or “Elephant”.
• Saying nursery rhymes.

English not your first language?

It is an enormous advantage to speak more than one language!

Over three quarters of the world’s population speak more than one language. Talk to your child in the language that you are most comfortable with. It does not have to be English. If you speak more than one language, use both languages at different times.

Here are a few ideas to help your child's language development:

•   Have fun with rhymes and poems.
• Tell your child stories in your language.
• Share books. Look at pictures in books and tell the story by using them. It does not matter what language the book is written in, you do not need to read the words.
• Encourage your child to tell the story in her own words, by using the clues from the pictures.

Do not worry if English is not spoken at home. Your child will quickly learn English when he starts school, particularly if he is already fluent in another language

 Where to go for help:-

If you are concerned that your child’s communication skills are not developing normally there are many people you can contact:-

• SureStart workers can offer support and information
• Your Health Visitor will offer help and advice and may refer you to a specialist.
• Contact your Sure Start Speech and Language Therapist.
• Contact the community clinic speech and language therapy service at St. Nicholas Health Centre on 01282 668053

The Chatterbox sessions at The Beacon Centre are open to all children whatever their level of language ability. Parents and children have the opportunity to play and learn together in a relaxed, informal environment.  Further information available on this website.

On the first Wednesday afternoon of each month, a speech and language drop-in session will be held during Baby Clinic at Yarnspinners. The Speech and language Therapist will be available to give information and discuss your Child’s speech and language development

For further tips and advice see the following links:-

www.talkingpoint.org.uk

www.stokespeaksout.org

www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk

www.literacytrust.org.uk

For more information on the Sure Start Bradley and Whitefield Speech and Language Therapy Service please contact Suzanne Metcalfe on 01282 606333.