Your Baby's Hearing Checklist...

• Quiets or diminishes activity when approached by sound (hears parent's voice)
• Is startled by loud sounds (startle - blink, body jerk, cessation of sucking, sudden cry, etc.)

 Three to Six Months:

• Looks to speaker's voice
• Turns head to search for source of a voice
• Enjoys rattles, noise- making toys
• Anticipates feeding by familiar sounds (bottle rattling, spoon in dish, etc.)

 Six to Ten Months:

• Reacts to music by cooing
• Responds to own name
• Looks to right person when "Mommy" and "Daddy" are said
• Show understanding of common words such as "no", "all-gone", "bye", "nighty-night"
• Babbles (sounds like: da, ba, ma)

 Ten to Fifteen Months:

• Knows names of favorite toys and can point to them when asked
• Likes rhymes and jingles
• Imitates simple words and sounds

 Fifteen to Twenty Months:

• Can follow simple directions ("Go get your shoes, jacket")
• Recognizes hair, nose, eyes and other parts of the body when named
• Asks for wants by naming "blanket", "cookie", or "teddy bear"
   

Twenty to Twenty-four Months:

• Begins combining words such as: "More juice", "Mommy home?" or "Go bye-bye car"
• Refers to self by name
• Enjoys being read to
• Speaks 10 to 20 words

 Twenty-four to Three Years of Age

• At 24 months: speaks about 270 words with a very fast rate of increase in vocabulary each day
• Wants to communicate to express needs and interests and tell experiences
• Is frustrated if adults do not understand
• By age three, vocabulary equals some 1000 words, about 80% of which should be intelligible even to strangers. It is not unusual for some sounds to be mispronounced (such as "th", "r", and "l")

Please be aware that if there is history of early hearing loss, you should have your infant tested again between three and six months of age.