6 Month Milestones
Language Development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood. From birth to age five, children develop language at a very rapid pace. The stages of language development for humans are universal, however the age and the rate at which a child reaches each developmental milestone can vary greatly among children. A child’s development should not be compared to that of other individual children but rather be compared to norms. Generally girls develop language at a faster rate than boys. More than any other aspect of development, language development reflects the growth and maturation of the child’s brain. For a child after the age of five it becomes much more difficult to learn language. Early Intervention is critical. A typically developing child usually develops receptive language development (the ability to understand language) faster than expressive language (ability to communicate).
If your child is missing any of the items in the appropriate age milestones, please complete the “Referral Form” or contact us. Early intervention is vital to your child’s speech and language development.
Social/ Emotional
- Knows familiar faces and begins to know if someone is a stranger
- Likes to play with others, especially parents
- Responds to other people’s emotions and often seems happy
- Likes to look at self in mirror
Language/ Communication
- Responds to sounds by making sounds
- Strings vowels together when babbling (“ah”, “oh”) and likes taking turns with parent while making sounds
- Responds to own name
- Makes sounds to show joy and pleasure
- Begins to say consonant sounds (jabbering with “m” and “b”)
Cognitive (Learning, Thinking, and Problem-solving)
- Looks around at things nearby
- Brings things to mouth
- Shows curiosity about things and tries to get things that are out of reach
- Begins to pass things from one hand to the other
Movement/ Physical Development
- Rolls over in both directions (front to back, back to front)
- Begins to sit without support
- When standing, supports weight on legs and may bounce
- Rocks back and forth, sometimes crawling backwards before moving forwards