List of Skills by Age

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1-2 Months

No observable skills

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2-4 Months

No observable skills

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4-6 Months

No observable skills

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6-8 Months

No observable skills

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8-10 Months

No observable skills

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10-12 Months

No observable skills

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12-15 Months

No observable skills

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15-18 Months

Imitates animal sounds

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18-21 Months

Listens to songs and nursery rhymes and imitates words

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21-24 Months

Imitates rhyming words (loo-loo, goo-goo) and makes up nonsense words

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24-27 Months

Listens with interest to books with alliteration (uses same sounds in beginning and other parts of words)

Repeats the alliterative words with these sounds more easily /w, p, b, d, t, m, n, h, y/

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27-30 Months

Claps with a drumbeat

Understands the difference between words with similar phonemes such as “pat” and “path”

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30-33 Months

Identifies and imitates sounds in the environment

Claps to syllables in two-to-three syllable names

Repeats alliterative words starting with /f, v, s, z, g, k/ in pairs or sequences

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33-36 Months

Recites familiar phrases of songs, books and rhymes

Produces rhymes in a vocal game (e.g., fat, sat, cat, rat)

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36-42 Months

Indicates enjoyment when hearing alliteration stories

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42-48 Months

Identifies rhymes and rhyming sounds in familiar words

Attends to beginning sounds in familiar words

Tries to write own name, but does not understand that the letters represent the sounds in name

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48-54 Months

Notices words that have letters like those in own name and asks what the word “says”

Identifies simple, high-frequency words

Counts syllables in names and simple words

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54-60 Months

Understands that letters function to represent the sounds in spoken words

Identifies what letter is needed in a word by listening to the word being said, especially if there is a letter name match (e.g, OK.)

Selects an appropriate letter to represent a sound that an adult isolates