Speech Language Spot

954-261-9864

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Assessment
    • Language Development
    • Oral Motor/Early Feeding
    • Fluency/Stuttering
    • Voice Disorders
    • Articulation/Speech Sound
    • Social Language/Pragmatic
    • Preschool/KG Screenings
    • Tongue Tie Assessment
    • Gender Affirming Voice
    • Accent Reduction
  • Milestones
    • 0-12 months milestones
    • 12-24 months milestones
    • 2 to 3 years milestones
    • 4 years old milestones
    • 5 years old milestones
    • Oral/Feeding Milestones
    • Social/Lang Milestones
  • Lactation & Myofunctional
    • Myofunctional Therapy
    • Myofunctional Spot
    • TINY MYO
    • Lactation Spot
    • The Voice Spot
  • FAQ
  • Forms
  • More
    • Home
    • About
    • Contact
    • Assessment
      • Language Development
      • Oral Motor/Early Feeding
      • Fluency/Stuttering
      • Voice Disorders
      • Articulation/Speech Sound
      • Social Language/Pragmatic
      • Preschool/KG Screenings
      • Tongue Tie Assessment
      • Gender Affirming Voice
      • Accent Reduction
    • Milestones
      • 0-12 months milestones
      • 12-24 months milestones
      • 2 to 3 years milestones
      • 4 years old milestones
      • 5 years old milestones
      • Oral/Feeding Milestones
      • Social/Lang Milestones
    • Lactation & Myofunctional
      • Myofunctional Therapy
      • Myofunctional Spot
      • TINY MYO
      • Lactation Spot
      • The Voice Spot
    • FAQ
    • Forms

954-261-9864

Speech Language Spot
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Assessment
    • Language Development
    • Oral Motor/Early Feeding
    • Fluency/Stuttering
    • Voice Disorders
    • Articulation/Speech Sound
    • Social Language/Pragmatic
    • Preschool/KG Screenings
    • Tongue Tie Assessment
    • Gender Affirming Voice
    • Accent Reduction
  • Milestones
    • 0-12 months milestones
    • 12-24 months milestones
    • 2 to 3 years milestones
    • 4 years old milestones
    • 5 years old milestones
    • Oral/Feeding Milestones
    • Social/Lang Milestones
  • Lactation & Myofunctional
    • Myofunctional Therapy
    • Myofunctional Spot
    • TINY MYO
    • Lactation Spot
    • The Voice Spot
  • FAQ
  • Forms

Social Language/Pragmatic Milestones

Source: ASHA.org

Social Communication Benchmarks

Cultural and linguistic factors may influence appropriateness and/or relevance of benchmarks. Variability may exist in the acquisition of milestones due to a number of factors (e.g., linguistic diversity and neurodiversity).


Birth to 12 Months

  • prefers looking at human face and eyes
  • prefers listening to human voice
  • looks for the source of voice
  • differentiates between tones of voice (e.g., angry, friendly)
  • smiles back at the caregiver
  • follows the caregiver’s gaze
  • participates in preverbal vocal turn-taking with the caregiver
  • vocalizes to get attention
  • demonstrates joint attention skills (sharing attention)
  • uses gestures to make requests and direct attention
  • plays simple interactive games, such as peekaboo
  • seeks comfort or a safe haven from the caregiver
  • expresses feelings
  • develops object permanence
  • discriminates facial expressions
  • fears strangers
  • develops relational memory (faces/voices)
  • changes behavior to achieve a goal
  • imitates gestures or oral movements


12–18 Months

  • develops a range of communicative intentions (e.g., requesting, protesting, commenting)
  • brings objects to show caregivers
  • requests by pointing and vocalizing
  • solicits attention vocally
  • practices vocal inflection
  • says “bye” and other ritualized words
  • protests by shaking head and/or saying “no”
  • supplements gestures with verbal language
  • is aware of the social value of speech
  • responds to others’ speech with eye contact
  • demonstrates sympathy, empathy, and sharing nonverbally
  • shows joy, fear, and anger
  • displays an increase in autonomy
  • resists control
  • co-regulates interactions


18–24 Months

  • uses single words to express intention
  • uses single and paired words to command, indicate possession, express problems, and gain attention
  • uses I, me, you, my, and mine
  • participates in verbal turn-taking with a limited number of turns
  • demonstrates simple topic control
  • interrupts at syntactic junctures or in response to prosodic cues
  • demonstrates secure or insecure attachment pattern
  • exhibits emotion and behavioral regulation
  • demonstrates an increase in autonomy
  • develops emerging implicit perceptual access reasoning
  • shows daily routine schemes in play


24–36 Months

  • engages in short dialogues
  • verbally introduces and changes topic
  • expresses emotion
  • begins to use language in an imaginative way
  • relates own experiences
  • begins to provide descriptive details to enhance listener understanding
  • uses attention-getting words
  • clarifies and asks for clarification
  • uses some politeness terms or markers
  • begins to demonstrate some adaptation of speech to different listeners
  • can deceive and detect deception
  • understands that others may feel differently than oneself
  • follows rules
  • shows common but not daily schemes in play (e.g., doctor, shopping)
  • uses embedded requests


3–4 Years

  • engages in longer dialogues
  • anticipates next turn at talking
  • terminates conversation; appropriately role-plays
  • uses fillers—such as “yeah” and “okay”— to acknowledge a partner’s message
  • begins code-switching and uses simpler language when talking to very young children
  • uses more elliptical responses, such as “Mommy went home, I didn’t”
  • requests permission
  • begins using language for fantasies, jokes, and teasing
  • makes conversational repairs when not understood and corrects others
  • infers information from a story and infers indirect meanings
  • uses primitive narratives—events follow from the central core
  • uses inferences in stories


4–5 Years

  • uses indirect requests; correctly uses deictic terms (e.g., this, that, here, there)
  • uses twice as many effective utterances as 3-year-olds to discuss emotions and feelings
  • uses narrative development characterized by unfocused chains—stories have a sequence of events but no central character or theme
  • develops basic understanding of theory of mind, including judgment that another person may have a belief that differs from the truth
  • shifts topics rapidly
  • shows fantasy schemes in play
  • understands that beliefs can result in predictable emotions
  • understands that someone may feel the same way when experiencing a similar event
  • uses comissives/promises


School-Age Years (6–12 Years)

  • demonstrates increased understanding of theory of mind (predicting what one person is thinking about what another person is thinking or feeling; understands strategies to hide deceit, recognizes sarcasm)
  • provides assistance and demonstrates altruism
  • uses narrative development characterized by causally sequenced events using “story grammar”
  • demonstrates improved conversational skills (e.g., topic maintenance, repair, and increased number of turns)
  • extends topic of conversation
  • demonstrates refined social conventions
  • demonstrates metapragmatic skills—child is able to think about social and conversational rules
  • uses language for varied functions, including persuading and advancing one’s opinion
  • understands that people can feel multiple emotions at the same time
  • practices increased self-regulation
  • uses indirect requests
  • uses inferential language
  • uses ambiguous language (figurative)
  • uses sarcasm
  • uses double meanings (puns)


Older Adolescence Into Adulthood

  • uses verbal and nonverbal language competently and flexibly
  • navigates multiple registers flexibly and fluidly
  • demonstrates refined understanding and use of nonverbal behavior
  • can explain idioms and nuanced figurative language
  • develops close friendships and romantic relationships
  • continues to develop empathy


If you are concerned about your child’s social language development, contact your Pediatrician and/or schedule an assessment with a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP). 

Learn More

Do you feel that your child struggles in the areas of Social or Pragmatic Language? Early Intervention is important in identifying areas of social language weakness. A Pragmatic Language Assessment can provide information about your child's pragmatic/social language skills and determine if any additional referrals or speech therapy is warranted.

Schedule an assessment today

Copyright © 2024 Speech Language Spot - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by GoDaddy

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Language Development
  • Oral Motor/Early Feeding
  • Fluency/Stuttering
  • Voice Disorders
  • Articulation/Speech Sound
  • Social Language/Pragmatic
  • Preschool/KG Screenings
  • Tongue Tie Assessment
  • Gender Affirming Voice
  • Accent Reduction
  • 0-12 months milestones
  • 12-24 months milestones
  • 2 to 3 years milestones
  • 4 years old milestones
  • 5 years old milestones
  • Oral/Feeding Milestones
  • Social/Lang Milestones
  • Myofunctional Therapy
  • Myofunctional Spot
  • TINY MYO
  • Lactation Spot
  • The Voice Spot
  • FAQ
  • Forms

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

Accept