Communicating and Speaking

Before children can speak, they use gaze, sounds, and actions to tell you I want that or look here. From babble and gesture to full conversation, communication develops as children become better able to make their needs and ideas understood and to learn more through exchange.

0–9 months: Use sounds and actions in back-and-forth interaction. Babies try different vocal forms and bring expression, sound, and gesture into exchange. Communication has already begun before the first word.
9–18 months: Bring an intention to you. Pointing, offering objects, babbling, and emerging words let children express interest and needs more actively; an inquisitive tone and gesture can also ask a question.
18 months–3 years: Make meaning more specific. Words and gestures combine to express what a child wants and ask what something is. Children also notice whether they were understood and try again or change the expression.
3–5 years: Help a listener follow. Talking about the day, adding several details, and linking sentences require children to select and organize information and increasingly adjust expression to listener and setting.

Note for multilingual families: Count and interpret spoken words within the language your child is using. A spoken word is not the same as a written character, and word boundaries can work differently across languages. Look first at whether the expression communicates a relationship, sequence, cause, need, or idea—not whether it fits an English-only word count.

Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.

4 months

Uses sounds, such as cooing or babbling, to engage familiar adults in social interaction.

What to notice: During a back-and-forth exchange, does your baby's sound come after your speech and continue after your response, perhaps with another sound, expression, or movement? Notice that they are talking with you, not whether pronunciation is accurate.

How to support it: A baby's voice begins to take part in human exchange: signaling, hearing a response, and expressing again. Receive these sounds actively with imitation, expression, and brief speech, then leave time for the baby to continue.

Keep in mind: The goal is communicative use, not early production of a fixed syllable or uninterrupted adult talk.

Will copy sounds they hear.

What to notice: Listen from another angle: do the ending, pitch, or rhythm of your baby's sound resemble something you just made? Notice variation in sound form without requiring an accurate copy.

How to support it: Imitation connects heard sound with a baby's own vocal attempt and opens exploration of pitch, rhythm, and form. First imitate a sound the baby already makes, model one small variation, and respond warmly to the next attempt.

Keep in mind: Keep the exploration in an easy exchange rather than emphasizing correction.

9 months

Takes turns in non-verbal conversations by using facial expressions, sounds, gestures, or signs to initiate or respond to communication.

What to notice: When your baby raises a toy, looks at you, or vocalizes, might they be inviting you to look, asking for help, or wanting more information? Use context and what happens next to infer what they wanted the expression to accomplish.

How to support it: Communication begins before words: expression, sound, and gesture can initiate as well as answer. Interpret the signal actively, respond to confirm your understanding, and recalibrate from the baby's next reaction.

Keep in mind: Connecting initiation and response matters more than replacing the signal with one required form.

Explores sounds common in many languages, such as "ma-ma" or "ba-ba."

What to notice: Do similar syllables begin to repeat? Hearing ma-ma at this stage does not always mean the baby is naming a parent; first notice the sound combination, then use gaze and context to understand possible meaning.

How to support it: Repeated syllables show exploration of language sound patterns, but form and stable reference are not yet the same. Offer natural language models around familiar people and events, imitate and extend existing sounds, and respond to the baby's simultaneous interest.

Keep in mind: Support sound experimentation and communication before demanding correct naming.

12 months

Their babbles sound more like speech.

What to notice: Beyond a single syllable, does the babble have speech-like intonation, pauses, or rhythm? Even without a clear word, gaze, action, and context may reveal a communicative intention.

How to support it: Intonation and pauses make babble increasingly speech-like even when word meaning is unclear. Use context, gaze, and action to interpret, respond briefly to confirm, and model relevant language.

Keep in mind: Receive what the child may be trying to communicate without assigning every string of babble a definite sentence.

15 months

Asks simple questions using signs or words, with variations in pitch and intonation.

What to notice: Pointing, looking back at you, and making a rising hm? can function as a question. Notice whether your child uses expression to obtain information without requiring a complete question such as what is that?

How to support it: Early questions can be expressed through pointing, expectant gaze, and questioning intonation. Answer genuine curiosity, model a brief question form, and leave opportunities for the child to initiate in their current way.

Keep in mind: Support the purpose and the exchange rather than requiring a full sentence or continually asking and answering for them.

2 years (24 months)

Combines words or signs (from one or more languages) into phrases and sentences (3-4 words) to communicate needs, wants, or ideas, such as "More milk," "I want juice," "Mas leche," or "Quiero juice."

What to notice: Can your child help you understand more precisely what they want or intend—for example, pointing to a block, saying that one, then correcting you when you choose the wrong one? Notice communicative purpose rather than a required number of words.

How to support it: Combining words and gestures makes needs, wishes, and ideas more precise. Begin by interpreting the intention positively, use your response to confirm it, allow correction or addition, and naturally model a clearer form.

Keep in mind: Feedback to real meaning matters more than increasing word count or requiring repetition before help.

Says at least 2 words together, like “More milk”.

What to notice: Does your child combine words so the expression conveys a relationship one word alone would not, such as moving from water to drink water? Focus on the relationship being expressed rather than counting written symbols.

How to support it: Word combinations express relationships among actions, people, and objects and move language beyond isolated words. Receive what your child already says and extend it slightly without changing the intended meaning.

Keep in mind: Continue responding to the real need or interest, leaving space to hear, understand, and try rather than demanding an immediate copy.

2½ years (30 months)

Seeks information and meaning of words by asking questions in words or signs, such as "What's that?" or "Who's that?" or "Why?"

What to notice: When your child encounters an unfamiliar person, name, or event, do they actively ask you about it? The examples in the Skill are possibilities, not a checklist; an incomplete question may still have a clear information-seeking intention.

How to support it: Questions allow children to obtain information and make sense of unfamiliar words and events. Answer what they genuinely want to know, then add a small amount of relevant context. If the question is unclear, help confirm it rather than replacing it with a teaching topic.

Keep in mind: Let asking prove useful.

3 years (36 months)

Repeats or re-phrases questions until a response is received.

What to notice: When someone does not hear or understand, does your child ask again, change a word, or add a gesture? Repetition may be an effort to keep communication working, not merely asking the same thing again.

How to support it: Repeating or rephrasing after no response is an attempt to make communication effective. State what you did understand, use a brief confirmation or prompt to help add information, and make clear when the question has been received.

Keep in mind: Do not pretend not to understand in order to make the child prove they can ask.

Says first name, when asked.

What to notice: When asked their name, does your child recognize that it is their turn and provide the information requested? Reluctance with an unfamiliar person does not directly mean they cannot do this.

How to support it: Giving a name in a question-and-answer exchange requires both an available expression and understanding what the other person asked. Model natural exchanges, begin in familiar relationships, and offer support when communication broadens.

Keep in mind: Respond positively to willingness without using performance with strangers as the only evidence.

4 years (48 months)

Talks about at least one thing that happened during her day, like “I played soccer.”

What to notice: Can your child bring an experience that is no longer present into conversation so someone who was not there learns something about it? Notice sharing information rather than reporting an entire day's schedule.

How to support it: Talking about a nonshared event requires selecting remembered information for a listener. Listen seriously, let the child choose the experience, and ask only genuinely useful follow-up questions.

Keep in mind: Help them see what the listener needs without organizing the whole account for them or turning daily conversation into a report.

With some prompting, can offer multiple (two or three) pieces of information on a single topic.

What to notice: With support, can your child give two or three related pieces of information about one animal, creation, or experience before moving to another topic? Prompts are explicitly allowed at this stage.

How to support it: Adding information around one topic requires selecting relevant experience and sustaining expression. Continue from what the child already said, use specific and limited prompts, and model how to add a feature or detail.

Keep in mind: Keep the child as the main speaker rather than asking repeatedly just to reach a number.

4½ years (54 months)

Can produce and organize multiple sentences to offer multiple pieces of information on a topic, such as giving directions or telling a story, including information about the past or present or things not physically present, with increasing independence and answer simple questions.

What to notice: Can several sentences stay about one event well enough for a listener to follow? Telling a story, explaining a game, or recalling an experience can all show this; every question type need not appear at once.

How to support it: Organizing several sentences means sustaining one topic and increasingly considering the listener. Listen to the child's structure first, then restate the main line, ask for a missing detail, or offer a memory cue so they can add and organize it.

Keep in mind: Focus on connections among information, not just longer individual sentences.

5 years (60 months)

Uses longer sentences (more than 5 words), as well as sentences that are slightly more complex (sequence and causal relations), such as "I need a pencil because this one broke."

What to notice: Beyond greater length, does your child's sentence make a relationship clear—what happened first, what followed, or why something was needed? Interpret length within the language your child is using.

How to support it: More complex sentences connect sequence, cause, and result so relationships among ideas become clearer. Extend the child's existing expression naturally and use confirmation or a genuine question to help reveal the intended relationship.

Keep in mind: Let language serve meaning rather than drilling sentence frames or counting words.

Sources and notes

Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Communicating and Speaking Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.

The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.

Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.

This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.

Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026