Hearing and Speech Milestones for a Baby

Hearing enables babies to develop speech and language over a period of time. Right from the birth, babies’ starts paying close attention to the nearby voices.

One can identify the hearing loss among the infants if aware of all below-mentioned milestones.

Newborn babies up to 3 Months old

From the birth, newborn babies will pay very close attention to the loud sounds. They will try to respond to the familiar sounds by looking at the speaker’s face and make cooing noises. Even loud music or sounds can wake them up and also the soothed music can help to keep them calm.

Babies in between the age group 3 to 6 Months

A child can identify any new pitch around and a quick response is very common. A child can reproduces his or her own voice and enjoy playing with sound making toys that gain attention. Loud voice may scare them and they starts to repeat sounds (like “ooh”, “aah”, and “ba-ba”).

Babies in between the age group 6 to 9 Months

A 6 months old baby will start responding to his own name, ringing of the cell phone and any familiar voice. They also start noticing the things if any nearby person are talking about them. The child in this age group responds well to the music and songs.

Babies in between the age group 9 to 12 Months

Babies start to imitates speech of others and also understand simple words like ‘ball’, ‘dog’, ‘daddy’ etc. The child may be able to recognize the favorite songs and also try to take part in it. This may be the time when one may hear the first sound from the baby.

Babies in between the age group 12 to 18 Months

This is the phase when the development of speech started and the child may be able to understand some new words each week. Also, the child may follow certain instructions like “get the ball”, “don’t do this” etc. The child during this age group can points to the objects when pointed.

Babies in between the age group 18 to 24 Months

Baby can listen to simple stories and songs and respond accordingly. They can understand simple phrases and many action points like run or jump. They can also identify the objects and points to them when asked.

If you still unable to recognize the hearing loss among the children, it’s better to go for a full audiological investigation.