Birth to Three

physiological flexion

tightness in newborn; knees touch elbows, chin touches chest

• oral cavity is very squished

• tight from being in womb

• because of this position, all babies are mouth breathers (hyper nasal)

until babies are 9mo, they need to move to make sound

through reflexes, learn volitional movement

1-3mo

babies use gravity & start to elongate; push into ground w shoulders

• ribcage begins to move down

• lip mobility, coos, neutral vowels

• respond to voices, look at speaker, show interest in people & cry to get attention

• different cries for different reasons: emotional development builds language

4-5mo

more elongated, move diagonally forward, which opens up ribcage further

• babble CVCV & diphthongs

• looking, reaching, interacting w people & environment

• learn conversational roles: stop babbling while you speak

• recognize name

• understand happy vs angry tones

• eye contact is consistent & intentional

• play & explore

6mo

reach & open ribcage/intercostals; gain more mobility

• position (supine, prone, etc) impacts how they sound. sitting = alveolars, prone = velars

• louder, more vocal

• produce consonants w front & back of tongue

• learn pressure for bilabials

• more facial expressions, exploring; shove hand in mouth to feel tongue, lips, pressure

7-8mo

creep (up on all fours) & crawl (body on ground)

• higher visual field = can explore much easier, initiate communication

• stop activity when name is called

• love music, singing, pictures, & books; anticipate play routines

• receptive vocab grows. expressive = use gestures for up, hi, bye

• canonical CVCVCV babbling

9-10mo

more stable for sitting up. play with toys, interactive play

• follow 1 step commands w gesture

• stop when told “no”

• variegated babbling: different consonants within CVCV string

• may speak first words

• tongue clicking

• vocalize /m, d, b, w/

• imitate speech sounds

• “uh oh” or “oooh”

11-12mo

pull up to stand, more stable trunk, may take a few steps btwn furniture

• more stable surface = stabler shoulder girdle, can move lips/tongue/jaw more

• new visual level

• consistent w following directions

• look for familiar gestures

• jargon: intonational variations w/in CVCV strings; conversational

• first words uttered

13-14mo

begin to walk. stability, but lots of tension in shoulder/jaw area

• when learning new motor patterns, they stabilize w breath & mouth & tongue (clench jaw, hold breath)

• imitative, make animal/environmental sounds

• use ~5-8 words

• play functionally w objects based on exposure (spoon, bowl)

• more words & vocalizations in conversation, take turns

15-17mo

balance on one foot, more motion & range

• 10-15 words, repeat more words

• imitate words hears

• activity & vocalization loudness increases

• narrower stance

• ask questions w inflection

• say no, protest, say “more”

• identify body parts, common objects, follow 1-step commands w gestures

• play w a toy in more than one way

18-21mo

use feet to gain stability (foot on table, chair etc)

• body position key for language & feeding

• MLU increases, occasionally 2-word phrases

• have /t, d, n, h/

• understand verbs in play

• identify pictures & objects

• imitate housework activities

• follow 1-step commands w/out gestures

21-23mo

have 20-30+ words

• use personal pronouns

• ask for food & liquid, identify different objects/actions in environment

• identify an object in a field of 5

• MLU 1.5-1.63

• receptive vocab increases

• begin to understand semantic relationships (verb-object)

24-26mo

have 50+ words; regularly use 2-word phrases

• more intelligible

• semantic relationships present (agent-action-object)

• have /k, d, g/

• identify actions in pictures, size concepts, “one”

• match familiar objects

• pretend play

• self-care, self-feeding