This guide helps you organise what you're noticing about your child's speech, language and social communication. It is educational and non-diagnostic — a paediatric review looks at the whole child in context.
Babble and first words (0–18m)
Cooing, babbling with variety, responding to name, first meaningful words.
Word combinations (18m–3y)
Two-word phrases, growing vocabulary, following simple instructions.
Intelligibility
How much of your child's speech can unfamiliar adults understand for their age?
Understanding language
Following multi-step instructions, answering questions, understanding stories.
Social communication
Eye contact, gestures, back-and-forth conversation, sharing interests with others.
Multilingual context
In multilingual families, look at total communication across all the languages your child hears, not one alone.
Important
This educational guide is not a diagnosis, medical assessment, emergency service or substitute for consultation with a qualified professional.
Common questions
- My child is multilingual — should I worry about mixing languages?
- Mixing is normal. What matters is total communication across all the languages your child hears.
- Do we need speech therapy first?
- Sometimes. A developmental review helps clarify whether speech therapy alone is enough or whether other areas need looking at together.