Speech Therapy Checklist
From Robert E Owens Jr 1996 “Language Development – An Introduction” and Speech Pathology Australia
- Looks intently at a speaker
- Listens to voices
- Establishes eye contact with mother
- Quiets when held and also quiets when hears human voice (1 month)
- Makes gooing or gutteral sounds (2 months)
- Visually searches for sounds (3 months)
- Smiles spontaneously (1 month)
- Turns when hears human voice (3 months)
- Responds vocally to the speech of others (3 months)
- Makes predominantly vowel sounds (3 months)
- Coos single sound syllables (consonant vowel)
- Vocalises to indicate pleasure and displeasure
- Laughs, gurgles, squeals, cries, screams
- Responds to familiar faces – visually discriminates different people and things and recognises mother (3 months)
- Begins exploratory play – explores own body (3 months)
- Reacts to sounds and turns his/her head to locate the sound
- Looks in direction of person leaving the room
- Smiles at notice of another baby
- Anticipates being lifted
- Laughs when played with
- Discriminates different faces – joyful vs. angry
- Babbles strings of consonants
- Varies pitch and imitates tones
- Smiles at person speaking to him/her
- Visually follows a vanishing object
- Is capable of a 3 hour visual memory
- Explores objects by mouthing and touching
- Reacts differently to smiling and scolding
- Vocalises to toys
- Discriminates angry and friendly voices
- Responds to name
- Smiles and vocalises to image in mirror
- Imitates some sounds
- Vocalises pleasure and displeasure and squeals with excitement
- Varies volume, pitch and rate
- Prefers people games such as “peek-a-boo”
- Explores face of person holding him/her
- Differentiates social responses
- Looks and reaches smoothly and quickly
- Inspects objects and reaches to grab dropped objects
- Visually searches briefly for toy that disappears
- Plays vocally
- Imitates a physical act if in repertoire
- Teases (beginning of humour)
- Produces several sounds in one breath and listens to vocalisation of others
- Recognises some words
- Repeats emphasised syllable
- Imitates gestures and tonal quality of adult speech; echolalia
- Is clearly attached to mother
- Shouts for attention
- Explores shape, weight, texture, function and properties (e.g. in/out)
- Prefers relatively complex toys
- Explores other babies
- “performs” for family and imitates play
- Plays action games
- Uses social gestures
- Imitates coughs, hisses, clicks, raspberries
- Anticipates outcome of events and return of persons
- Uncovers object if observes act of hiding first
- Displays moods
- Helps dress and feed self
- Imitates adult speech if sounds in repertoire
- Obeys some commands
- Points to body parts
- Searches for a hidden object but usually in a familiar place
- Seeks approval
- Anticipates mother’s goal and tries to change it by protest or “persuasion”
- Associates properties with objects
- Imitates inflections, rhythms, facial expressions
- Expresses people’s preferences
- Expresses many different emotions
- Searches in a location where an object was last seen
- Uses common objects appropriately
- Can reach while looking away
- Recognises own name
- Speaks one or more words
- Follows simple motor instructions especially if accompanied by a visual cue (bye bye)
- Reacts to “no” intonation
- Practices words he/she knows
- points to clothes, persons, toys and animals named
- uses jargon and words in conversation
- has 4 to 6 word vocabulary
- plays in solitary manner
- pushes toys
- likes music and dancing
- looks for adults when left alone
- imitates housework
- begins to use two word utterances
- has approximately 20 word vocabulary
- identifies some body parts
- refers to self by name
- “sings” and hums spontaneously
- Plays question-answer with adults
- Explores reactions of others; tests others
- Enjoys solitary play engages in increased cooperative play from her on
- Pretends to feed doll
- Uses a stick as a toy
- Imitates adult object use
- Remembers places where objects are usually located
- hugs spontaneously
- plays near but not with other children
- likes toy telephone, doll and truck for play
- likes rhyming games
- pulls person to show something
- tries to “tell” experiences
- uses “I” and “mine”
- knows shapes
- sits alone for short periods with book
- notices little objects and small sounds
- has 200-300 word vocabulary
- names most common everyday objects
- uses short, incomplete sentences
- uses some prepositions (in, on) and pronouns (I, me, you) but not always correctly
- Uses some regular verb endings (-s, -ed, -ing) and plural ‘s’
- Enjoys parallel play predominantly
- Cooperates with adults in small household tasks
- Communicates feelings, desires and interests
- Imagines toys have life qualities
- Prefers action toys
- Orders others around
- Can role play in a limited manner
- Matches familiar objects
- Comprehends “one” and “many”
- follow more complex two part instructions (e.g., give me the teddy and throw the ball)
- understand simple wh-questions, such as ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘who’
- understand the concepts of ‘same’ and ‘different’
- sort items into groups when asked (e.g., toys vs food)
- recognise some basic colours.
- say four to five words in a sentence
- use a variety of words for names, actions, locations and descriptions
- ask questions using ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘who’
- talk about something in the past, but may use ‘-ed’ a lot (e.g., ‘he goed there’)
- have a conversation, but may not take turns or stay on topic.
- answer most questions about daily tasks
- understand most wh-questions, including those about a story they have recently heard
- understand some numbers
- show an awareness that some words start or finish with the same sounds.
- use words, such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’, to make longer sentences
- describe recent events, such as morning routines
- ask lots of questions
- use personal pronouns (e.g., he/ she, me/you) and negations (e.g., don’t/can’t)
- count to five and name a few colours.
- follow three part instructions (e.g., put on your shoes, get your backpack and line up outside)
- understand time related words (e.g., ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘now’ and ‘later’)
- start thinking about the meaning of words when learning
- understand instructions without stopping to listen
- begin to recognise some letters, sounds and numbers.
- use well formed sentences to be understood by most people
- take turns in increasingly longer conversations
- tell simple, short stories with beginning, middle and end
- use past and future verbs correctly (e.g., ‘went’, ‘will go’)
- use most speech sounds, but still may have difficulties with ‘s’, ‘r’, ‘l’ and ‘th’.