Language Milestones & Literacy Targets for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Development from 12 to 24 Months

Kiddos in this age range aren’t babies but haven’t fully grown into the mobility, speech, and expression we often associate with toddlers yet, either. Susie Allison, creator of the popular Busy-Toddler Instagram account, proposes taby (to rhyme with baby) as the name for this group that has “all of the ideas of a toddler but none of the motor skills to make it happen.”

Indeed, these kiddos are stacking blocks, pouring sand and water, nesting cups, and hustling to combine a lot of different skills. Meantime, they’re grasping for the words they need to express themselves, too. One year in and children are beginning to speak: mama, dada, uh-oh, and the like. After 18 months, kids are often talking like crazy and learning several new words a day, so their spoken vocabulary usually takes off.

By 24 months, kids’ vocabularies typically have doubled in size, and most will begin pairing words to create two-word phrases and sentences, such as want ball and car go. The average 24-month-old hasn’t mastered all the prepositions and “glue” words, but they are communicating with clarity and directness. They can point to the pictures and objects you say or that they see in a book. They can name people close to them and some body parts. 

Whatever their vocabulary size, keep treating and responding to any speechlike (non-cry, non-digestive) sounds coming from your child as genuine talk. When you respond within five seconds, there’s strong evidence that those “conversational turns” may help bolster your little one’s brain structure and brain function now, as well as their language skills and IQ scores down the road.

Gestures come into play in a bigger way now, too. One-year-olds are already doing some pretty sophisticated coordination of their sounds, gestures, and eye gaze to get your attention. Kids in this age range also shake their heads yes and no and use their arms to signal pick me up or hand me that.

Your little one may even start following your directions to pick up toys or point to an object they want. You can name things in books and ask them to point at them. They may make sense of longer questions from you: Where are Daddy’s keys? They’ll also start asking parents a lot of questions, too: What’s that?

All this early speech and vocabulary learning is critical for later reading, because for an emergent reader to make sense of a word in print, they need to have heard it before. (Or, usually, many times before.) 

Selecting books that reflect daily life deepen the learning at this age. Little narratives about kids playing, putting on clothes, or having breakfast may pique your toddler’s interest. You can even make your own books featuring pictures of friends, family, and familiar places. When you make it personal, they’ll pay attention.

Select 12-to-24-Month Milestones & Targets 

Oral Language

• Puts two words together, like go inside and more water
• Uses possessives, like my ball and Mommy’s cup
• Follows directions like come here or give me the toy
• Understands and uses words for some familiar objects, actions, and people
• Uses long strings of sounds, syllables, and real words with speech-like inflection

Book Behavior

• Picks up, holds, and walks with books
• Turns pages in board books
• Enjoys being read to
• Recognizes the covers of familiar books
• Points to and names familiar characters and objects in books
• Points to things they want you to name
• Looks at pictures when the object or person in it is named

Development from 2 to 3 Years

Kids may say up to three hundred words and understand even more by 3 years old. Counting aloud while pointing out objects is now a possibility, as are maneuvering puzzle pieces into place and climbing to reach things. Play gets more social. Little ones start watching and copying what their playmates are doing and may even (gasp!) share their toys a bit. 

More verbs (run, walk, fall, jump) and more names for places and things (house, park, cake) emerge now, although longer words with more syllables and consonant clusters may still get clipped. An avocado may just be a cado, a banana a nana, a squirrel a skirl. One helpful habit to shore up now is affirming and acknowledging whatever communication attempt they make. Yes, that is an avocado! Yes, it’s a banana! Yes, that’s a squirrel! Whatever they say can be followed with yes, plus a word and correct pronunciation of your own.

At this point, your little one’s conceptual understanding may be taking off. Kids this age often comprehend time and position (today, tomorrow, in, on, and under) and are full of questions, especially why. You have an opportunity here to step up your teaching in two big ways: explaining what words mean and nudging your toddler to use the words, too. You can facilitate this learning just by naming the foods you eat, the clothes you put on, and the objects in your environment, as well as adding in some descriptive terms to support their word knowledge. The cold water, the rough sandpaper, the soft pillow.

In choosing and sharing books, keep in mind that while there’s a time and place for longer children’s literature, you shouldn’t overlook the power of five-minute stories read on a regular basis. It’s not the length of the story but the cumulative impact of engaging with you, print, and oral language that enriches a child’s life and skills. 

Many parents learn to love short, colorful books because they can read them in a minute. Knowing that you can make an impact in a minimal amount of time may give you the nudge you need to read to your little one in the moment, versus putting it off in the hope of finding the “perfect” time.

Once you get started, you can always do repeated reading of the same books (toddlers love and benefit from repetition) or read multiple short stories to extend reading time. You just need to get started.

Select 2-to-3-Year Milestones & Targets 

Oral Language

• Uses three-word phrases, like Sam is running.
• Says their name when asked
• Asks and answers who, what, where, why, and how questions
• Engages in two or more back-and-forth exchanges in conversations
• Uses some -s, -ed, and -ing word endings

Speech-Sound Awareness

• Hears and produces rhymes and alliteration
• Claps syllables
• Blends syllables verbally, e.g., cup plus cake equals cupcake

Print Awareness

• Recognizes logos in the environment, e.g., McDonald’s
• Identifies a letter or letters in their own name

Emergent Writing

• Scribbles with intentional circles and dots

Book Behavior

• Turns book pages
• Enjoys looking at books independently
• Pretends to read familiar books
• Recalls book characters and straightforward storylines
• Points to and discusses pictures in books

Development from 3 to 4 Years

Kids’ spoken language typically is quite developed at this point. Even total strangers can follow what they’re saying. They’re full-on conversational partners, who answer questions, respond to requests, and speak up if they feel cut off (It’s my turn!). Feelings and everyday life become regular topics of conversation now that they have the vocabulary to support it.

Their attention to and interest in longer stories takes off, and they can show off their comprehension by answering questions about what they just heard. They’re speaking in longer sentences and linking the ideas in those sentences together. They can follow (and appreciate) a clear storyline from beginning to middle to end. You can ask questions during read-alouds that prompt them to think more, guess what will come next, and connect stories to their own experiences. What fun!

You’ll want to stick more closely to the text as printed on the page now, too, if you were prone to freestyling or skipping passages to keep their interest. Making speech-to-print connections is on their horizon, so the verbal-written match should be more consistent. Also, be sure to read nonfiction titles, too, which grab kids’ attention, pique their curiosity, and build their vocabularies.

If books and reading aloud have been a part of your family life since your child’s infancy, they may already recognize some letters, such as their own first initial. Begin gradually, yet inten- tionally, calling attention to more letters at this age—in isolation, in your daily environment, and in the books you read. Point to letters, name them, and describe their lines, dots, and curves.

Select 3-to-4-Year Milestones & Targets 

Oral Language

• Speaks clearly and forms four-word sentences, like Mommy is eating breakfast.
• Uses more pronouns: they, us, hers, his, them, her, my, me, mine, you
• Uses possessives: dog’s toy
• Talks about objects and their functions
• Can share something that happened earlier in the day
• Identifies some colors, shapes, and letters
• Follows multistep directions, like Put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, and then get in bed

Speech-Sound Awareness

• Identifies, claps, and counts syllables in words
• Identifies and produces rhymes
• Identifies and produces alliteration
• Isolates and compares initial letter sounds in words

Print Awareness

• Recognizes print in their environment
• Recognizes their own name in print, plus some familiar words
• Names letters on everyday objects, signs, and posters

Emergent Writing

• Makes letter-like scribbles to represent words
• Attempts to print their own name

Book Behavior

• Follows the structure of a story
• Makes predictions about what will happen next in a tale
• Connects text to personal experience
• Points to print as the source of information in a story
• Recognizes and prefers favorite characters in books

Edited and reprinted with permission from Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, published by AVERY, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Copyright © 2022 by Maya Payne Smart.