Speech/Language Development Checklists
I am a Hanen certified clinician and I support parents to facilitate their very young child's early communication development.
Early communication assessment with children as young as 12-18 months is recommended if your 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
Use this links below to check communication milestones including new research on Gestures and Actions with Objects for children 16 months of age:
https://www.firstwords.ca/milestones
https://babynavigator.com/16-gestures-by-16-months/
https://firstwordsproject.com/16-actions-with-objects-by-16-months/