Speech/Language Development Checklists

I am a Hanen certified clinician and support parents in facilitating their very young child's early communication 
development. 


By 6-7 months, young children should be babbling (moving their jaws while vocalizing thereby producing long repetitive consonant-vowel utterances). Early communication assessment with children as young as 12-18 months is recommended if the child is showing one or more of the following:

• not producing a variety of oral sounds by 12 months 
• not attempting to say part or full words  e.g. mm/milk, dada/daddy
• not using gestures {waving hi or bye, pointing to or reaching for items he/she desires which is out of reach (distal point), showing recognition of items  or pictures in a book (proximal point), showing items to others (clothing, toys), or imitation of motor actions}  
• showing little to no eye contact with familiar people(to show recognition of others and to attend to others when being spoken to)
• not responding to their own name consistently by 12 months of age
• relying on gestures instead of sounds or words to communicate but seems to understand well
• feeding issues (gagging, reflux, limited repertoire of foods to eat) and speech/expressive delays

For further reference See: Ontario Ministry of Children and Social Services http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/earlychildhood/speechlanguage/index.aspx