2-Year-Old Speech Milestones:
What speech and language skills should a 2-year-old have?
On this page, we’ll show you what speech, language, and social skills a child should have by their second birthday. We’ll also show you how to help if a child is struggling to meet those milestones.
The following skills are all expected to emerge by or around 2 years of age. Not all children will acquire all of these skills by this age. If a child is missing a few skills, we generally don’t worry too much. However, if a child is far off from many of these skills, we like to get them in for a speech/language assessment/evaluation.
This page is recommended as a general guide to give you an ideas of skills you could address within this age bracket. It is not meant to diagnose a child or provide treatment recommendations. SLK Hub is for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide medical or psychological advice.
* To view the sources for this information, please scroll to the bottom.
2-Year-Old Speech Milestones (Sound Production)
- Is talking but may make many speech sound errors. Speech may be understood less than half of the time.
- Uses /p/, /b/, /m/, /h/, and /w/ in words
2-Year-Old Language Milestones
When we look at 2-year-old language milestones, we are looking at how a child is using words and putting those words together to communicate with those around them. A lot goes into language skills. Here is a checklist of the 2-year-old language milestones:
- Points to things in a book when you ask, like “where is the bear?”
- Says at least 2 words together, like “more milk”
- Points to at least 2 body parts when you ask him to show you
- Uses more gestures than just waving and pointing, like blowing a kiss or nodding yes
- Follows 1-step directions, such as “roll the ball” or “kiss the baby”
- Understands simple questions like “who’s that” and “where’s your shoe”
- Listens to stories, songs, and rhymes for a longer time
- Starts to name pictures in books
- Asks “what”, “who”, and “where” questions
- Uses I, me, you, my, and mine
2-Year-Old Social Skill/Interaction Milestones
Another aspect of 2-year-old speech milestones is how well they can interact with others. Here are some milestones related to social skills and interaction.
- Notices when others are hurt or upset, like pausing or looking sad when someone is crying
- Looks at your face to see how to react in a new situation
- Participates in verbal turn-taking with a limited number of turns
- Demonstrates simple topic control
- Includes daily routines in their play (such as putting a baby to bed or cooking dinner)
- Plays along side another child (parallel play). May imitate other child’s play and look at him but is not playing in a cooperative way with the other child yet
- Brings an object of interest to show or give to a caregiver
For more resources on teaching social skills to children, click here.
How to Help if a 2-Year-Old is Struggling to Meet These Milestones:
We know that there is a wide range of what’s “normal”. But if a child is struggling to meet these milestones, we can support them at home and in speech therapy with structured activities that boost language skills.
Our SLK Curriculum is specifically designed to provide a structured program for boosting speech and language skills at home or in therapy. Plus, it’s fully customizable so you can make sure to work on EXACTLY the skills that each child needs.
About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP
Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.
Fun Fact: When my son was three, he once got mad at me and told me he was going to send me to Antarctica in nothing but a t-shirt. He had an overly large vocabulary for a 3-year-old….along with an overly large amount of sass. He still has both to this day.
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Sources:
The following sources were used to provide the ages, skills, and milestones on this page. Keep in mind that different studies have found different results. We have tried selecting more recent studies and using information provided by reputable sources such as the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and the Center for Disease Control. However, we understand that there are other studies out there that may contradict this information somewhat.
Please use these resources as a general guide and use your own professional judgement as well. Parents should seek the advice of a licensed speech-language pathologist who can sort through this information and make recommendations based on a specific child’s situation and needs.
Speech Sound Intelligibility:
Hustad, Katherine C., et al. “Speech Development Between 30 and 119 Months in Typical Children I: Intelligibility Growth Curves for Single-Word and Multiword Productions.” 2021, https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
Speech Sound Age of Acquisition:
Crowe, Kathryn, and Sharynne McLeod. “Children’s English Consonant Acquisition in the United States: A Review.” 2020, https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00168. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
Speech Sound Development Page on ASHA Website:
“Speech Sound Disorders.” American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/speech-sound-disorders/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
ASHA’s Communicating with Baby Tips and Milestones Fliers:
“Communicating with Baby: Tips and Milestones from Birth to Age 5.” Identify The Signs, American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 20 Nov. 2017, https://identifythesigns.org/communicating-with-baby-toolkit/.
CDC’s Developmental Milestones:
“CDC’s Developmental Milestones.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 June 2023, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html.
ASHA’s Social Communication Benchmarks:
“Social Communication Benchmarks.” American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/social-communication-disorder/social-communication-benchmarks/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
ASHA’s Phonological Processes/Patterns Age of Elimination:
“Selected Phonological Processes.” American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/selected-phonological-processes/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
Mean Length of Utterance/Average Sentence Length:
Rice, Mabel L., et al. “Mean Length of Utterance Levels in 6-month Intervals for Children 3 to 9 Years with and Without Language Impairments.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR, vol. 53, no. 2, 2010, p. 333, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849178/ (2009/08-0183). Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.
Brown’s Stages of Morphology:
Bowen, Caroline. “Brown’s Stages of Syntactic and Morphological Development.” Brown’s Stages of Syntactic and Morphological Development, 9 Nov. 2011, https://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33:brown&catid=2:uncategorised&Itemid=117..
Pronoun Acquisition:
Vollmer, Erin. “Pronoun Acquisition: Child Development.” TherapyWorks, 2 Feb. 2023, https://therapyworks.com/blog/language-development/speech-strategies/pronoun-acquisition/.
Developmental Stages of Social Emotional Development in Children:
Malik F, Marwaha R. Developmental Stages of Social Emotional Development in Children. [Updated 2022 Sep 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534819/
helpful, thank you. hope to get more info
Great! Let me know if you have further questions!
Thanks Carrie.
It’s a good site you have created. I just explored what I already knew, that my 2 year old grandson is way behind but he loves books and exploring the world so I think it’s just a delay. He throws lots of tantrums when he can’t be understood but I have taught him lots of sign language and that has helped.
Please keep sending me your newsletters as I have worked alongside Speehies in Australia at a school and loved to pick up great hints and tips.
Debbie
Perfect! I’m glad my information and site are helping you. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks Carrie, my son is 4 and has autism. Your information are very useful. As my son communication is developing I need to regularly set some goal to work on it. I got some idea from your website what should I work on according to his developmental age . This what I really needs now. Thanks again.
Excellent! I’m glad it’s helping!
My daughter is 21 months old. I’m really struggling with getting her to learn things such as colors, shapes, objects, sounds, etc. She knows 2 and 3. She says mama, dada, and Ty (her brother). I’m not sure she has a learning disability or speech delay. She babbles and talks, but you have to really pay attention to hear the words and sentences. She just doesn’t seem interested and it is starting to discourage me.
Have you discussed this with your child’s pediatrician? I do not know what state you are located but there is likely an agency that will provide an assessment for you free of charge. It goes by a different name in each state but there should be a resource in your state that manages children with potential delays from 0-3 years of age. (3 and older are typically managed by the school system.) Your child’s doctor would be an excellent place to start to get a referral or a direction to pursue for help. It is hard for me to say if your child has a speech and language delay or something else going on just by discussing her online, but I have found that if a mom has a concern then it is best to trust your gut instinct. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to point you in the right direction.
Thank you for this! I have worried my son is language delayed for almost his entire life (he’s 2.5), but now I’m thinking he is doing just fine. I became so concerned last week when I read he should have around 400 words that I did create an Excel spreadsheet and began listing words I knew he’d used in categories such as transportation, animal, people… My last count was 243, but I know I’ve missed some. I’d guess 260 or so. We live in China (but are American), so some of his words are Chinese. He does use English to say “thank you” to a Western friends and will yell, “Xie xie, shu shu!” loudly (“thank you ‘uncle'”) to the taxi driver, so he’s even differentiating languages based on person. He’s always been extremely vocal with words – they were just his own language for so long. Is it myth or real that children regularly exposed to two languages have a bit of a delay?
I can never find any research that specifically supports this but I have definitely seen children learning two languages have a short delay for a while and then they catch up and have superior language skills after that. There probably is some research on this somewhere but I just can’t seem to get my hands on it.
hello carrie ,
i have 19 months old baby girl. she plays herself. and always stays in her own world by listening to music and rhymes and she is attracted towards green colour. and she watches tv (cartoons and advertisements) . but when i take her to other kids she doesnot interact with them she is so specific like she loves to swing so she directly goes near the swing and swings. she shows all signs like she points out she need this and that. she conveys with her actions but my main concern is she doesnot even respond to her name.. what should i do. she is my first child and iam literally worried does she have any problem
I’m so sorry to hear that your daughter is struggling! I highly recommend seeking an evaluation from a certified speech-language pathologist in your area. If you are in the United States, your state education department will have a free evaluation program set up. In Missouri, it’s called “First Steps”. You’ll need to search your state’s dept. of education website for information about your state’s birth-3 years program!
Hi my granddaughter was born with cataracts. She has had surgeries and now has her lenses. She is going to soeech & occupati therphy twice a week. She also has a waling problen just got her AFO braces which seeem to help they say it’s all related to her eyesight which they say she has poor torso strength. My grandson just went to his 2 year ckup and they suggested speech therapy he says a few words. Do you think its because his 6 year old sister does not talk that this is his delay? What would you siggest. Thanks Alma
Hello! I have not seen any research that indicates that being around a child with speech problems will cause other children to have them as well. I would guess that the 2-year-old is around many, many people in his life who do speak so it would be odd that he would model after the one that doesn’t talk.
Hi my son is about to be 2 in 3 months he is just sonbehing in speaking everything else i have never had any trouble with, he doesnt take botttle no more and sleeps on his own. He only says ma , pa ,ai and que . His pediatrician gave me the option to start him on speech therapy but i dont know what to do. She mentioned “boys take longer to develop and speak”. He is very attentive to tv commercials and we are currently not letting him watch tv for mord than 1 hr a day. Is he too young for speech therapy? Does it really help?
Hi, Susana-
Here are a few blog posts that may help: https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/screen-time-and-language-development/ and https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/?s=late+talker. I hope these are helpful. If you still have questions, please let us know!
Hello
My 2yr 8 month son is exposed to 3 different languages Spanish English and fujianese because of my husband and myself. He is starting to respond in 2 word responses in the 3 languages. But we are being told by a speech evaluator it’s not functional language. What is functional language for his age? Thank you for any input given
It’s not recommended for any child under 2 years of age to be watching any tv
Regarding TV I have raised 5 children and a few Grandchildren. They have all watched TV before 2 yrs old. They watch Childrens programs and it has helped to stimulate them and they all have seemed to know what they liked or did not like. My granddaughter loved Dora at 3 months, if you turned to another program or turned it off she would cry. You would put Dora back on and she would smile and laugh. My 2 yr old grandson is having a hard time with speech only because he is spoken to in both English and Spanish and I think it confuses him. But he communicates very well in what he wants or does not want.Two of my grandchildren listened to Baby Classical Music and were always above their grade level by 2-3 grades. One got honor roll from k-6 and got the President Award.
My two year twins baby girl dnt speech till. Now pls suggest me any therepy which is eay to convey n understand them easier
Hello
My son is 26 months old . He is not speaking yet , he is saying mamaaa and dadaaa nothing else . But I worried about he is not giving response when I m calling his his name.but else’ then that he know everything thing .some people say he has autism. But he is interesting with other kids . He is behaving normal . Plz help me that that only speech delay is concern about autism
Hi, GK-Here is a link to our free resources on Late Talking: https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/late-talker-resource-page/ and the link to our free resources on Autism: https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/autism-resource-page/. Please let us know if you need anything else.
In last sentence in intro, change “sites” to “cites.”
Great catch, Janie! It’s been updated. 🙂