How old are toddlers?
Toddler is a pretty widely used term so it’s understandable to feel some confusion in knowing how old toddlers actually are!
When talking with your friends we all understand the ballpark ages for toddlers, newborns, babies, and kids. Using the terms interchangeably happens all the time!
But when it comes to speech therapy and toddler speech development it’s important to distinguish between the different age ranges for young children.
How old are Infants, Newborns, Babies, and Toddlers:
Babies are referred to as newborns during the first 1-2 months of life.
Babies are considered infants from birth to 1 year old.
Children between the ages of 1-3 years old may be referred to as toddlers.
Children from birth to 4 years old may be referred to as babies. This includes newborns, infants, and toddlers.
“Why does age range matter?” you might be wondering.
And there are a few really important reasons:
1. Infants and toddlers receive speech therapy under the umbrella of early intervention. Each state (in the US) has an early intervention programs that provides free speech therapy to families who qualify. Toddlers and their families may also take advantage of their private health insurance can access speech therapy (relatively) easily through speech therapy clinics.
Preschoolers and school age children receive speech therapy through the public school system (again this applies to children in the United States). Once children turn 3 years old they can receive a free speech and language evaluation through the public school upon request. Then children who qualify may receive speech therapy through their school district. If children 3+ don’t qualify for speech therapy through the school district they may still qualify for speech therapy through their insurance company, just the same as toddlers.
2. Children learn differently as their attention and cognition develop. Infants and toddlers learn primarily through play and daily activities.
Preschoolers and school age children also learn through everyday experiences, but they often also have the attention to learn through more structured activities, like what you would imagine in school.
3. Young children are always changing (as you know!). So it’s important to think about your child’s development in relation to what’s expected for their age. And when it comes to infants and toddlers we think about developmental milestones in terms of months (more on this in a bit).
As children approach preschool age we start thinking about their ability to use language to participate academically, so milestones are often broken down by year, just like certain skills are learned in different grades of school.
Now let’s talk a little bit more about speech therapy in each age range.
Newborns, Infants, and Speech Therapy (birth - 1 year old)
You might be thinking, what does a speech therapist do with a newborn or infant? They aren’t talking yet!
When infants are in speech therapy it’s often to treat a feeding difficulty. Speech therapists will work with families and other health care providers to ensure newborns learn to nurse safely and sufficiently to grow and develop. This happens in the NICU and in the outpatient setting most often.
One example of speech therapists supporting newborns with feeding happens when babies are born with cleft lip and palate. Speech therapists will help mothers learn to nurse their babies using safe and effective modifications.
Speech therapists will also work with infants who are deaf and hard of hearing, and will support families who choose a cochlear implant surgery.
And speech therapists support infants who are diagnosed with specific genetic conditions in supporting early language development. These early speech therapy sessions are usually centered around parent training and support.
Now let’s talk about toddlers
The toddler age range is from 1 to 3 years old.
As I mentioned already, you will probably see speech therapists talk about months more than they talk about years; so toddlers will be used to classify children between 12-36 months old. That’s because children who are 12 months old and children who are 23 months old are both technically 1 year olds; but we all know that these babies are going to be communicating very differently from one another.
This can make things confusing, especially as a first time parent.
The most common conversion parents ask about is:
18 months in years = 1.5 years
Here’s a super simple chart you can screenshot or save to easily convert several of the most common milestone benchmarks for speech therapy from months to years and years to months.
And now toddler speech therapy
Speech therapists support a wide range of skills in toddlers. Speech therapy may be designed to support feeding, talking, expression, understanding, pronunciation, and play skills. Speech therapy is almost always completed with parent interaction because research has shown that toddlers make the most progress when families consistently practice skills at home between speech therapy sessions.
Toddler speech therapy is centered around fun and engaging play based activities, because that’s how toddlers learn best.
To read more about what to expect in toddler speech therapy check out this helpful blog post!
Speech Therapy For Preschoolers
Children in the 3-5 year age range are considered “preschoolers.” Generally speaking they are children who are old enough to attend preschool. It’s the years just before kindergarten.
Many children in the United States will begin going to school a few days a week at this age and they are eligible to receive speech therapy through their local public school district.
Important Note: You don’t have to enroll your child in preschool for them to be able to receive speech therapy; they can go to school just for speech therapy much like you may drop them off for dance class or t-ball practice.
How speech therapy for preschoolers is different
If your toddler is transitioning to preschool speech therapy there are a few key differences to be aware of.
First, speech therapy at school often does not involve parents due to logistical challenges (even though I would argue that parent involvement is still very important). If you aren’t able to participate in sessions you can still ask for homework and activities you can use at home for practice!
Second, in order to receive speech therapy through the school district a child’s difficulties with communication must impact their academic performance. Even if your child doesn’t qualify for speech therapy through the school district, your insurance may cover speech therapy to address communication difficulties that impact a child’s social interactions but do not hinder them academically.
In preschool, speech therapy goals that address pronunciation of specific sounds and sound combinations become increasingly more common. That’s because a toddler's speech system is still in the earliest stages of development and by preschool it becomes evident when children need support to learn to pronounce specific sounds and words. You may notice that your child’s speech therapy sessions in preschool focus more on pronunciation than before.
Here’s a quick and easy cheatsheet to go from years to months and months to years.
6 months in years = ½ year
12 months in years = 1 year
18 months in years = 1.5 years
24 months in years = 2 years
30 months in years = 2.5 years
36 months in years = 3 years
42 months in years = 3.5 years
48 months to years = 4 years
54 months to years = 4.5 years
60 months in years = 5 years
66 months in years = 5.5 years
Parents are also often wondering:
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No, 4 year olds are not toddlers. They are considered to be preschool age. Toddlers are children 1-3 years old.
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A 5 year old is considered a school aged child.
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The most precise term used to describe a child who is older than 36 months (3 years old) is a preschool age child. Preschoolers are children between the ages of 3-5 years old.
You may also enjoy learning about specific speech and language milestones:
Written By:
Stephanie Keffer, MS, CCC-SLP
© 2020-2023. Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP. All Rights Reserved.
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