What to expect when

Gaze at faces and copy some facial movements from an adult e.g. sticking out tongue or opening mouth Turn to main carer’s voice across the room Play by exploring objects - putting them in my mouth, hitting and shaking them Use different cries to express different needs Make cooing, gurgling, laughing and squealing sounds in response to someone else e.g. when spoken to or played with Make sounds to get someone’s attention Activities to support your child's development at 0-6 months

Respond to my name by looking Watch a toy being hidden then look for it Recognise what objects can be used for and show this by my actions e.g. brushing my hair with a hairbrush/ putting toothbrush in mouth Give an object to an adult when asked (although I might take it straight back) Hold up and show objects to other people React with smiles and movements to familiar games such as peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake and favourite songs Recognise the names of family members e.g. look to Mummy when someone says “where’s mummy?” Wave my hands or put my arms up when I hear ‘bye bye’ or ‘up’ Show understanding of a few everyday words and simple commands like ‘no’, ‘clap hands’ ‘where’s your shoes?’ Shake my head to tell someone ‘no’ Reach towards things of interest or to show I want something Babble tunefully and make sounds deliberately to communicate with other people Copy playful voice sounds e.g. blowing raspberries or kisses Activities to support your child's development at 6-12 months

Look when an adult points Put related objects together when playing e.g. put a spoon in a cup or put trains on a track Copy pretend actions from an adult e.g. feeding a teddy Point to show someone something interesting Use familiar gestures such as clapping, blowing a kiss, thumbs up, high five Understand a number of different words including parts of the body, clothes, objects around the house and simple pictures in books Follow simple instructions e.g. ‘give me the cup’ Tell someone I want something by urgently pointing, reaching and making sounds Copy symbolic sounds such as vehicle and animal sounds during play Copy an adult to say familiar words and to join in with parts of favourite nursery rhymes Use some first words of my own Activities to support your child's development at 12-24 months

Pay attention to activities I enjoy but may need to ignore everything else to concentrate Enjoy pretending in play e.g. give dolly a bath or pretend to feed dinosaurs Seem to understand more and learn new words each week Understand a few action words (verbs) such as ‘sit down’, ‘clap’, ‘jump’, ‘sleep’ Understand simple instructions and questions e.g. ‘get your shoes’ ‘who’s that? Name a range of familiar things and like to copy new words. Words may not be fully clear yet. Use my own name to talk about myself Put two words together to say simple phrases e.g. ‘more bubbles’ ‘Daddy gone' Activities to support your child's development at 2-3 years

Listen eagerly to stories and request favourites over and over Use imagination in play e.g. have a tea party with toys or pretend a cardboard box is a car Understand use of objects e.g. ‘show me what you can ride’ – ‘a bike’ Understand describing words e.g. big, little, wet, dirty Understand position words ‘in’ ‘on’ and ‘under’ e.g. ‘put teddy under the table’ Answer ‘what, where, who’ questions Use 4-5 words or longer in a sentence when talking Use different types of words including objects, actions and describing words Ask questions e.g. ‘What’s that?’ ‘Where’s teddy?’ ‘Who’s that?’ Make errors with pronouncing the sounds in words but parents can usually understand Activities to support your child's development at 3-4 years

Concentrate on activities I enjoy but can stop what I am doing to listen Play make-believe games with other children Understand complex instructions e.g. put the big spoon under the table Understand negatives e.g. no, not Understand questions about the past, present and future e.g. ‘what happened yesterday?’ Answer simple ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ questions Use longer sentences of 5-8 words and link sentences together with words like ‘and’ and ‘because’ Talk about categories of words e.g. apples and pears are ‘fruit’, pigs and sheep are ‘farm animals’ Talk about an activity or event e.g. how to make a sandwich or what I’ve done at school today Activities to support your child's development at 4-5 years

Play cooperatively with other children following games with simple rules. Focus on an activity for longer without needing reminders Hold simple conversations, listening and responding appropriately Use pronouns e.g. I, he, she, we, they Understand concepts of time, sequence and quantity e.g. first, last, before, after, whole, half Retell a short familiar story when looking at the pictures Use descriptive words (adjectives) to describe people and objects e.g. shiny, loud, slowly Understand emotion words such as happy, excited, scared. Tell you what words mean e.g. a mouse is a small furry animal. Use plurals e.g. tooth-teeth, man-men Use accurate endings on words to show past, present and future e.g. ‘played, playing, will play’ Understand and enjoy riddles and simple jokes Pronounce most sounds clearly, except for possible errors with ‘r’ ‘th’ and complex words