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Auditory
Development Scale - Birth to Six Years Old
This list
was compiled from a number of sources on the Internet. You should
bear in mind that the "milestones" listed are averages -
some children will be more advanced and others will lag. It is merely
provided as a general guide of goals for your deaf / hard of hearing
child. Proper training is essentail!
Birth
- Exhibits
startle reflex in response to sudden loud noises; will stiffen, quiver,
blink, screw eyes up, fan out fingers and toes, or cry as a response.
- Sensitive
to a wide range of sounds, including prosodic and rhythmic cues
- Recognizes
and prefers mother's voice; quiets if crying.
- Sounds
of different frequencies have different effects on the infant.
- Low frequency
sounds and rhythmic sounds have a calming effect.
- Higher
frequency sounds result in a more violent reaction.
- Increases
or decreases sucking in response to sound.
Three
Months
- Awareness
of human speech; attends to voice.
- Shows
excitement at sound of approaching footsteps, running bath water, etc.
- Awakens
or quiets to sound of mother's voice.
- Vocally
responds to mother's voice.
- Imitates
own noises as he hears them - egs., ooh, baba
- Begins
to localize sound by means of turning eyes toward the general sound
source.
- Begins
to enjoy sound-making toys; listens to a bell near him.
- Listens
to music.
Four
Months
- Localizes
sound by turning head toward general source of sound.
- Searches
for human voice.
Five
Months
- Localizes
sound more specifically.
- Distinguishes
between friendly and angry voices, and reacts appropriately.
- Reacts
to music by cooing or stopping his cry.
- Very interested
in human voice.
- Discriminates
between sounds of strangers and familiar people.
Six
Months
- Specifically
locates sound anywhere such as the bell that is rung out of sight (downward
localization develops before upward localization).
- Responds
to human speech by smiling or vocalizing.
- Turns
immediately to mother's voice across the room.
- Shows
evidence of response to different emotional tones of mother's voice.
- Responds
to baby hearing tests at one and a half feet from each ear by correct
visual localization, but may show slightly delayed response.
- Association
of hearing with sound production is now evident, in that he repeats
selected heard sounds.
Eight
Months
- Turns
head and shoulders toward familiar sounds, even when he cannot see what
is happening.
- Begins
to understand words in context.
- Responds
to a telephone ringing, a human voice, his own name, "no-no,"
"bye-bye".
- Enjoys
games like pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo.
- Looks
at Daddy and other family members when named.
- Raises
arms when mother says, "Come up" and reaches toward
child.
- Responds
more discriminatingly to adult verbalizations.
- Listens
with selective interest; an increase of a "listening attitude"
to conversation.
- Understands
a few gestures and words for common items.
- Responds
when called to or when gestured to, such as "Come here," "Want
more?".
One
Year
- Jabbers
in response to human voice.
- Apt to
cry when there is thunder.
- May frown
when scolded.
- Enjoys
listening to sounds and words.
- His sound
imitations indicate that he can hear the sounds and match them with
his own sound production.
- Responds
to simple commands (at first, responds only when command is accompanied
by gesture), such as giving a toy on request or going some place as
directed.
- Understands
an assortment of action words (verbs) such as "drink",
"go", "come", "give",
as well as some simple directions such as "wave bye bye"
- No real
understanding of questions is shown.
- Interested
in environmental noises beyond his immediate surroundings.
- Likes
jingles and rhymes.
- Begins
to recognize twelve or more objects when he hears the names of them.
- Understands
about 50 words.
One-and-a-Half
Years
- Echoes
prominent or last word addressed to him.
- Understands
about 150-200 words.
- Understands
simple sentences.
- Knows
his/her own name.
- Begins
to understand prepositional phrases, but within the total unit, such
as putting something in or on something.
- Begins
to follow directions and short series of commands such as "Wipe
the doll's nose."
- Identifies
simple pictures from names, e.g., finding a baby in a picture when asked
to do so.
- Points
to own nose, ears, mouth, etc on request.
- Points
to objects when named.
- Looks
at correct picture as it is named'.
Two
Years
- Shows
interest in the sounds of radio or TV commercials.
- Listens
to reason of language.
- Listens
to simple stories.
- Responds
to command, "Show me the --."
- Understands
and answers simple "wh" questions, e.g., "Where is your --?"
- Responds
to yes/no questions by shaking or nodding head.
- Waits
in response to "just a minute."
- Identifies
five body parts.
- Understands
family names by selecting appropriate pictures.
- Understands
the phrase, "have candy after lunch"
- Carries
out 4 separate directions with a ball, egs., "Give it to me."
"Put the ball on the block."
- Repeats
two numbers, letters, or words.
- Follows
a direction with two critical elements.
- Comprehension
of vocabulary increases to an average of 300 words.
- Responds
differentially to directions involving prepositions: in, on, under.
- Understands
some action words by selecting appropriate pictures.
- Understands
the syntactic order of words when context, semantics, and prosody are
coherent.
Two-and-a-Half
Years
- Enjoys
listening to simple familiar stories read from a picture book.
- When he
hears pleasurable sounds, he reacts to them by running to look or by
telling someone what he hears.
- Responds
to descriptive or locative information about things from pictures such
as "Show me the one that is up in the sky."
- Enjoys
hearing and listening to songs.
- Distinguishes
between "one" and "many"
- Identifies
object by use: brush is for hair; spoon is for mouth.
- Understands
approximately 500 words.
- Follows
simple directions, egs., "Sit here," "Bring
it to me"
- Follows
a series of two related commands, e.g., "Pick up the ball and
give it to me."
- Understands
and responds to "what/where" questions, eg, "What
do you hear with?"
- Understands
"one" and "all"
- Understands
prepositions: in, on, under, in front of, in back of, around.
- Understands
"just one block" and can respond appropriately when
instructed to "give me just one block."
- Understands
differences between sentences varying in syntax: "Show me the
car pushing the truck" vs. "The truck is pushing the
car."
- Understands
gross size difference: big, little
- Understands
conjunction: and
- Understands
variety of verbs, including concept of polar opposites: come-go,
run-stop, give-take, push-pull, up-down
- Comprehends
nearly all sentence structures.
Three
Years
- Carries
out commands using two different prepositions.
- Responds
to two unrelated commands, e.g., "Put your cup on the table
and turn off the TV"
- Listens
eagerly to stories and demands his favorite ones over and over again.
- Identifies
the use of things in pictures such as "Show me the one you wear."
- Answers
simple questions (who, what, where?) and replies appropriately with
a word or gesture.
- Begins
to match simple sound tones.
- Recognizes
several melodies.
- Understands
approximately 900 - 1,200 words.
- Knows
"big/little" and "in front of/behind"
- Knows
third-person pronouns, e.g., he/she.
- Understands
"more", e.g., "more cats"
- Understands
regular past tense forms of verbs.
- Understands
articles: a, the
- Remembers
three items of a story.
- Recalls
three numbers, letters, or words.
- Follows
a direction with three critical elements.
- Repeats
only first, second, or third item of a series.
- Imitates
a 5-7 syllable sentence based on short-term recollection.
- Understands
taking turns.
- Understands
most common adjectives.
- Shows
an interest in explanations of why and how.
Four
Years
- Pays attention
to short stories and answers simple questions about them.
- Listens
to long stories.
- Carries
out, in order, a command of three parts such as "Pick up the
ball, put it on the table, and bring me the book."
- Carries
out four separate commands using different prepositions: in front
of, beside, behind.
- Knows
"between/above/below/top/bottom"
- Follows
a four-step command; a direction with four critical elements.
- · Carries
out more complex commands with 2-3 actions.
- Understands
and replies appropriately with a word or gesture to questions such as
"What do you do when you are sleepy?" "Which
one is bigger?"
- Comprehends
time phrases: all the time, all day, for two weeks.
- Understands
irregular plurals, e.g., child/children.
- Understands
possessives: dog's.
- Understands
approximately 1500 - 2500 words.
- Understands
the number three, e.g., "Give me three"
- Imitates
a 12-syllable, 9-word sentence, based on short-term recollection.
- Remembers
four items of a story.
- Repeats
two numbers backwards.
- Recalls
four numbers, letters, or words.
- Identifies
four colors.
- Understands
dependent clause: if, because, when, why
- Hears
and understands most of what is said at home and school.
Five
Years
- Loves
stories.
- Comprehends
more complex time phrases: for a long time, for years, a whole week,
in the meantime, two things at once.
- Knows
heavy/light, loud/soft, like/unlike, long/short.
- Understands
comparatives and superlatives: tall/taller/tallest, same/more/less,
most/least, several/few, some/many, before/after, now/later.
- Understands
all pronouns and contractions.
- Understands
"the opposite of - is -"
- Understands
"zero" represents nothing.
- Points
to coin when named.
- Understands
2,800 - 13,000 words
- Imitates
a 14-syllable sentence, based on short-term recollection.
- Remembers
five items of a story.
- Recalls
five numbers, letters, or words.
- Responds
correctly to complicated sentences, but may still be confused by long
complex sentences, particularly those contains compound clauses.
Six
Years
- Knows
right and left of his own body.
- Understands
approximately 20,000+ words.
- Understands
irregular comparatives, e.g, good/better/best.
- Responds
appropriately to numbers such as "Give me four pennies."
- Imitates
a 16-syllable sentence, based on short-term recollection.
- Remembers
six items of a story.
- Repeats
three numbers backwards.
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