Communication Development: Birth to Five

Communication development begins long before a child says their first word.

From early shared attention, gestures, sounds and back-and-forth interactions through to conversation, storytelling and increasingly complex language, children develop communication skills rapidly across the first five years of life.

Communication Development: Birth to Five provides a practical overview of this developmental journey and helps participants understand what communication can look like at different ages.

Participants are guided through communication development from infancy through to five years, with practical examples demonstrating how these different areas work together in everyday interactions.

Importantly, the course moves beyond simply asking whether a child has reached a particular milestone. Participants learn to consider the child's overall communication profile, including whether new skills are continuing to emerge, whether concerns are persistent, whether difficulties occur across multiple areas and whether communication is affecting play, learning, relationships or everyday participation.

The course also explores signs that may warrant further investigation, the importance of hearing when communication concerns arise, and practical ways to observe and document communication development.

Participants will learn how to describe concerns using clear, observable examples, communicate sensitively with families and consider appropriate next steps when further assessment or support may be helpful.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe key patterns of communication development from birth to five years.
• Recognise communication as more than spoken language and identify the different ways young children communicate.
• Consider development across understanding, expressing, speech and social communication.
• Identify early foundations of communication including shared attention, reciprocal interaction, gestures, imitation and vocal play.
• Recognise signs and patterns that may warrant closer observation or further investigation.
• Look beyond individual milestones to consider progress, profile, participation and persistence over time.
• Observe and document communication using clear, specific and meaningful examples.
• Discuss communication concerns with families in a supportive and non-diagnostic way.
• Identify when hearing assessment, speech pathology or broader developmental support may be appropriate.
• Use simple, responsive strategies to support a child's communication while concerns are being explored.