Listen to, distinguish and respond to intonations and the sounds of voices.
Quietens or alerts to the sound of speech.
Turns quickly to your voice across the room.
Responds differently to different tones of voice or speech sounds.
Is calmed by soft speech or song.
Makes sounds such as gurgles and coos.
Produces and copies non-speech sounds such as coos, raspberries, effort grunts, shrieks and squeals.
Vocalises back when talked to (making own sounds) especially to familiar adult and when a smiling face is used.
Begins to develop and use vowel sounds from the language used at home, for example, 'a' as in hat or 'e' as in pet.
Begins to babble by repeating a series of the same sounds (reduplicated babble), for example, "Ba-ba-ba", "Ma-ma-ma".
Begins to develop and use some consonant sounds, for example, 'g-g', 'mmm', 'h', 'd-d'.
Makes sounds for pleasure, for example, vocalises with tuneful voice for minutes at a time to self when lying in cot or at play.
The sounds and signs babies make.
How young babies respond to different tones of voice used by adults speaking to them.
Examples of young babies being calmed by soft speech or song.
The range of sounds young babies make.
Encourage playfulness, turn-taking and responses, including peek-a-boo and rhymes.
Try singing while feeding and bathing babies.
Rock babies rhythmically to songs, music and good-night routines.
Make your voice fun to listen to by varying your intonation and facial expressions. Use stress and intonation to highlight parts of speech, for example, "What a good girl!".
Use higher pitch and vary your pitch to attract babies' attention. Add contrast to your speech, for example put higher pitch and emphasis on "Up we go!" and "Down the stairs".
As you walk around with a baby in your arms, talk about the different sounds you hear in the setting.
Talk to babies in quiet situations. It's more difficult for them to hear your words in a noisy environment.
Copy the sounds the baby makes.
Repeat familiar words and phrases, such as "Here's your milk", "Where's your Mum? Ooo, there she is!".
Play with sound-making toys, such as rattles and drums and other noisy things around the setting.
Repeat rhymes and play routines, as babies will enjoy listening to the patterns of your speech.
Play music to and with babies.
Share books with babies, repeating key phrases and noises as you do so.
Plan times when you can sing with young babies, encouraging them to join in exploration of their fingers and toes.
8-20 Months
Enjoy babbling and increasingly experiment with using sounds and words to represent objects around them.
Turns immediately to familiar voices across a room.
Responds to music by swaying, bouncing and so on.
Locates the direction sounds come from by looking appropriately in the direction of the sound.
Recognises the voices of key people in their life.
Associates meaning with some environmental sounds, for example, hears a telephone and immediately looks at it.
Enjoys singing or rhyme games.
Anticipates actions, tickles and so on from sounds and tunes of songs and rhymes, for example, giggles at the end of 'Round and Round the Garden' waiting for the tickle to come.
Bounces rhythmically when being sung to or when listening to music.
Begins to imitate the voices of others, especially the vowels and 'ups and downs' of speech (intonation).
Begins to imitate sounds and may copy you if you copy the child's sounds first.
Voice starts to have the tone and rhythm (patterns and stresses of familiar phrases) of the language spoken at home.
Imitates and joins in babble of others.
Babbles, using consonants and vowels such as 'baba', 'gaga'.
Tries lots of ways of making consonants in babble: - most common 'b', 'p', 'd', 't', 'g', 'k' are called stops; - 'm', 'n', 'ng' are called nasals.
Produces and copies mouth movements for speech sounds, for example, putting lips together for 'm' and rounding lips for 'oo'.
Begins to use varied double syllable sounds, for example, "Dadi", "Babu" or uses a variety of syllables in continued babbling, such as "Badago" (variegated babble).
Copies and uses voice spontaneously as part of games or familiar routines, for example, "Bye-bye" or "All gone".
Copies symbolic noises and parts of words (for example, "Chooo") and later produces them spontaneously (for example, "Aaah!" when cuddling toy).
Uses a range of vowels from the language heard at home, such as 'i' as in bit, 'a' as in bat, 'e' as in bet and 'u' as in but.
Imitates familiar consonants and vowel sounds associated with frequently-used toys and or pictures (for example "Baa-baa" for a sheep, "Moo-moo" for a cow).
Babbles freely when alone or playing.
Uses a wide range of consonants and vowels in babble or jargon.
Own vocalisations sound more like speech and are recognised as 'words': you may say "That's his word for... ".
Vocalises as attempts to copy words and later tries to imitate familiar spoken words.
The wide variety of sounds and words a baby produces.
The ways in which babies show they are learning to locate the direction from which sounds and voices are coming.
How babies respond when they hear a familiar voice or when their name is called.
Examples of how babies respond to singing and rhymes.
How babies imitate the sounds and intonation patterns of speech they hear around them.
The range of speech sounds used by babies as they begin to babble.
Share the fun of discovery and value babies' attempts at words, for example, by picking up a doll in response to "baba".
Watch and interpret children's behaviour and praise word-like sounds.
Play peek-a-boo and action games to support babies' attention, sometimes over long periods of time. They also help to develop anticipation and offer children many opportunities to imitate and join in, which they will now do increasingly.
Imitate the noises babies make, such as laughter and other vocalisations.
Use bubbles to encourage repetition of the 'pop, pop, pop' sound you make as the bubble bursts.
Don't correct children's attempts at words, but simply repeat what they are trying to say correctly.
Respond to children's attempts at words by commenting on them, for example, when a child says "dogon", you say "Yes, the dog's gone home. He might come back later".
Find out from parents the words that children use for things which are important to them, such as "dodie" for dummy, remembering to extend this question to home languages. Explain that strong foundations in a home language support the development of English.
16-26 Months
Listen to and enjoy rhythmic patterns in rhymes and stories.
Enjoys nursery rhymes and demonstrates listening by trying to join in with actions or vocalisations.
Later, sings along with favourite action rhymes (although words may not be clear).
Imitates intonation of what they hear.
Uses approximate forms of words to communicate, for example, "mu" for more and later "goggy" for dog.
Imitates mouth movements to produce a variety of consonant and vowel combinations, for example, "Mama", "Boo-boo", "Bow-wow". Child may move mouth but not use voice.
Uses a wide range of ups and downs (intonation) and rhythms to reflect mood, such as excitement, level of interest and involvement.
Imitates words by copying some speech sounds and the correct number of syllables.
Uses a wider range of vowel sounds in words such as 'ea' as in beat, 'ai' as in bait, 'oo' as in boot.
Uses a range of consonant sounds in 'words' including 'p', 'd', 'b', 't', 'g', 'n', 'm', 'w', 'h'.
Young children's responses to music, rhymes and stories.
How children listen and participate in nursery rhymes by trying to join in with actions and words.
Early attempts at words by children compared with how an older child or adult would say that word.
The range of vowel and consonant sounds used by children as they produce their first words.
Encourage young children to explore and imitate sound. Talk about the different sounds they hear, such as a tractor's "chug chug" while sharing a book.
Draw attention to the noises that toys and animals make. Add sounds when playing, sharing a book or to everyday routines. Make animal sounds and other sounds for cars, aeroplanes and trains, and say "Splash!" when you fill a sink.
Draw the children's attention to what is making a particular noise.
Put on tapes of singing, rhymes and favourite stories. Sing along with them. Show children how much you love to hear music and sounds and how much they interest you.
Toddler with doll - In a nursery, a practitioner respects a toddler's interest in a doll as they begin to share a story. [transcript]
You can watch the video via modem or slow / fast / superfast broadband connections. If you are behind a network firewall, why not click here to view a flash file of the video. You do need to have the flash plugin.
Collect resources that children can listen to and learn to distinguish between. These may include noises in the street, and games that involve guessing which object makes a particular sound.
22-36 Months
Distinguish one sound from another.
Show interest in play with sounds, songs and rhymes.
Repeat words or phrases from familiar stories.
Picks out a familiar sound even when there is background noise, for example, "Dinner time", "No!" or "Stop now".
Listens to and carries out simple directions.
Recognises and joins in with songs and actions, such as 'The Wheels on the Bus'.
Frequently repeats words or signs that they hear or see with one or more key words repeated.
Listens with interest to the noises adults make when they read stories.
Recognises and responds to many familiar sounds, for example, responding to a knock on the door by turning, looking at or going to the door.
Listens to music and responds when it is turned off, for example, stops singing or dancing or turns to look at the stereo.
Fills in the missing word or phrase in a known rhyme, story or game, for example, 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a... '.
Notices a deliberate mistake in story telling or a rhyme.
Builds vocabulary rapidly, understands more words than are in active vocabulary.
Shows sustained interest in picture books.
Recognises own name when written.
Majority of words are intelligible to people the child does not know well.
Produces six to eight consonant sounds in words, for example, 'p', 'b', 't', 'd', 'k', 'g', 'm', 'n', 'w'.
Produces a wide range of vowels more accurately in words, for example, 'ou' as in bout, 'ea' as in bear, 'ou' as in bought, 'oa' as in boat.
Tries to repeat many things adults say either saying the actual word or making a close match, such as "Um-beya" for umbrella.
Adults who know the child understand what they are saying when words are joined into sentences.
The words, phrases and sounds children like to say or sing.
The languages they understand and use.
How the words and phrases used by a child become easier to understand as time goes by.
Efforts by children to imitate words, even though they may only be able to manage an approximation of how adults and older children would say them, at first.
Children's responses to music and how they signal they know that music has stopped.
How children react when you make a deliberate mistake or miss out words or phrases in a familiar rhyme or storyline. Can they fill in the missing words?
Ways in which children respond to familiar sounds, for example, by looking at the door when the doorbell rings or looking towards the food preparation area when the microwave pings.
How the range of recognisable vowel and consonant sounds used by a child increases with time.
Encourage repetition, rhythm and rhyme by using tone and intonation as you tell, recite or sing stories, poems and rhymes from books.
Use rhymes from a variety of cultures and ask parents to share their favourites from their home languages.
Be aware of the needs of children learning English as an additional language.
Keep background noise to a minimum.
Share favourite books over and over again, particularly ones with repeated, rhythmical words that children can join in with.
Repeat familiar tunes and words relating to people, objects and actions with which the children are familiar. Make these more interesting to listen to by using a strong beat, rhythm and lots of repetition.
Use puppets and other props to encourage listening and responding when singing a familiar song or reading from a story book.
30-50 Months
Enjoy rhyming and rhythmic activities.
Show awareness of rhyme and alliteration.
Recognise rhythm in spoken words.
Is able to follow directions (if not intently focused on own choice of activity).
Listens eagerly to stories and requests favourites over and over again.
Notices if adult uses wrong language in familiar story.
Concentrates and listens for more than ten minutes in adult-led activities that they enjoy.
Looks at books independently.
Takes part in 'reading' by filling in words and phrases.
Can remember three or four items shown on a list, for example, a picture shopping list of apples, oranges and bananas.
Can remember a spoken list of three objects or names (with no visual clues).
Speaks in longer sentences.
Shows interest in letter forms.
Can copy letter forms.
The rhymes and rhythms that children enjoy, recite and create in words and music, for example, tapping out the rhythms of their names.
How long children are able to listen to a story being read to them one-to-one or in a group of children.
Occasions when children express their enjoyment of stories and rhymes and how they participate as part of a group.
How many items children can remember when talking with an adult or looking at a picture book and talking about the things they see.
Ways in which children begin to combine more than one consonant sound together into consonant blends as their use of spoken language develops.
When singing or saying rhymes, talk about the similarities in the rhyming words. Make up alternative endings and encourage children to supply the last word of the second line, for example, 'Hickory Dickory boot, The mouse ran down the...'.
When making up alliterative jingles, draw attention to the similarities in sounds at the beginning of words and emphasise the initial sound, for example, "mmmmummy", "shshshshadow", "K-K-K-K-Katy".
40-60+ Months
Continue a rhyming string.
Hear and say the initial sound in words and know which letters represent some of the sounds.
Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they occur.
Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words.
Can write a few letters when named and make a good attempt at writing own name.
Can recognise several letters.
Makes attempts at reading familiar words in picture books.
Produces more than half of the consonant sounds accurately.
Produces some consonant blends (for example, 'tr' in tree, 'bl' in blue).
Produces almost all vowel sounds accurately.
Starting to mark two and three syllables in words.
Children's alternative versions of favourite rhymes that draw upon their phonic knowledge.
Children's knowledge of initial sounds at the beginning of words, short vowel sounds within words and endings of words. For example, Ranjit notices the letters in his name whenever he sees them, such as 'j' at the beginning of jam.
How children link sounds to letters and begin to use this knowledge to write words, for example, "Pz cn I hv a d" (Please can I have a drink).
Children's confidence in blending and segmenting and in using grapheme-phoneme knowledge to read and spell regular consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, including consonant digraphs and long vowels.
The ways in which children use their phonic knowledge and the number of grapheme-phoneme correspondences used for reading and writing in a variety of contexts.
How children read simple words by sounding out and blending the phonemes all through the word from left to right.
Talk to children about the letters that represent the sounds they hear at the beginning of their own names and other familiar words. Incorporate these in games.
Demonstrate writing so that children can see spelling in action. Encourage them to apply their own grapheme-phoneme knowledge to what they read and write.
When children are ready (usually by the age of five), provide systematic regular phonics sessions. These should be multi-sensory in order to capture their interests, sustain motivation and reinforce learning.
Ensure that role-play areas encourage writing of signs with a real purpose, for example, a pet shop.
Plan fun activities and games that help children create rhyming strings of real and imaginary words, for example, Maddie, daddy, baddie, laddie.
When practitioners judge that children are ready to begin a programme of systematic phonic work they should refer to the guidance on the EYFS CD-ROM, which can be found in areas of Learning and Development: Communication, Language and Literacy: Early Reading.
This will support practitioners working in the EYFS and beyond to start teaching the phonic knowledge and skills children need to be able to recognise words and read them with fluency by the end of KS1. Practitioners need to make principled professional judgements as to when individual children are ready to start such work. For most children this will be by the age of five.
