5 to 6 Years Communication Milestones

By the age of 5-6, children should be able to do the following:

LISTENING:

• Follow 1-2, and 3 step simple directions in a sequence
• Listen to and understand age-appropriate stories read aloud
• Follow a simple conversation

SPEAKING:   

• Answer open-ended questions (e.g., "What did you have for lunch today?")
• Retell a story or talk about an event
• Show interest in and start conversations
• Be easily understood
• Answer more complex "yes/no" questions
• Tell and retell stories and events in a logical order
• Express ideas with a variety of complete sentences
• Use most parts of speech (grammar) correctly
• Ask and respond to "wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why)
• Stay on topic and take turns in conversation
•  Give directions
•  Start conversations 

READING: (by age 5)

• Know how a book works (e.g., read from left to right and top to bottom in English)
• Understand that spoken words are made up of sounds
• Identify words that rhyme (e.g., cat and hat)
• Compare and match words based on their sounds
• Understand that letters represent speech sounds and match sounds to letters
• Identify upper- and lowercase letters
• Recognize some words by sight
• "Read" a few picture books from memory
• Imitate reading by talking about pictures in a book


READING:  (by age 6)

• Create rhyming words

• Identify all sounds in short words
• Blend separate sounds to form words
• Match spoken words with print
• Identify letters, words, and sentences
• Sound out words when reading
•  Have a sight vocabulary of 100 common words
•  Read grade-level material fluently
•  Understand what is read

WRITING:  (by age 6)

• Express ideas through writing

• Print clearly
• Spell frequently used words correctly
• Begin each sentence with capital letters and use ending punctuation
• Write a variety of stories, journal entries, or letters/notes