At What Age Should a Child Walk, Talk and Count? The CDC Milestones by Age
Most children walk alone by 18 months, put two words together by 2 and count to 10 by 5. The CDC milestones by age, and what changed in 2022.
By the CDC's milestones, most children take a few steps on their own by 15 months and walk without holding on by 18 months. They try to say one or two words besides "mama" or "dada" by 15 months, put two words together by 2, say about 50 words by 30 months, and count to 10 by 5. Since 2022 each milestone is set at an age at least 75% of children have reached, so a child who has not reached one is worth discussing with a doctor.
"At what age should a child start walking?" and "at what age should a child start talking?" are among the most searched parenting questions there are. The answers most parents find online come from older charts, and those charts changed in 2022.
This page gives the current milestones from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for walking, talking and early counting, and explains what changed.
What changed in 2022
The CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." programme asked the American Academy of Pediatrics to revise its milestone checklists. The expert group published its method in Pediatrics in 2022.
The key change is how a milestone's age is chosen. Each milestone now sits at the age by which most children, at least 75%, can do it. The point was to discourage a "wait and see" approach. If three in four children can already do something, a child who cannot is worth a conversation.
The revision was substantial. About a quarter of the previous milestones were removed, and four in ten were replaced. A third of the ones kept moved to a different age, and two-thirds of those moved later. That is why a child can look "behind" on an old chart and be on track on the new one.
Walking and moving
| By age | What most children can do |
|---|---|
| 6 months | Rolls from tummy to back |
| 9 months | Sits without support |
| 12 months | Pulls up to stand; walks holding on to furniture |
| 15 months | Takes a few steps on their own |
| 18 months | Walks without holding on to anyone or anything |
| 2 years | Kicks a ball; runs; walks up a few stairs, with or without help |
| 30 months | Jumps off the ground with both feet |
| 5 years | Hops on one foot |
The short answer: most children take their first steps alone by 15 months and are walking independently by 18 months. Many walk earlier. The milestone is the age by which most have, not the age at which they should start.
Talking
| By age | What most children can do |
|---|---|
| 2 months | Makes sounds other than crying |
| 6 months | Takes turns making sounds with you |
| 9 months | Makes sounds like "mamamama" and "bababababa" |
| 12 months | Waves "bye-bye"; calls a parent "mama", "dada" or another special name |
| 15 months | Tries to say one or two words besides "mama" or "dada", like "ba" for ball |
| 18 months | Tries to say three or more words besides "mama" or "dada" |
| 2 years | Says at least two words together, like "More milk" |
| 30 months | Says about 50 words; uses words like "I", "me" or "we" |
| 3 years | Talks well enough for others to understand, most of the time |
| 4 years | Says sentences with four or more words |
| 5 years | Tells a story with at least two events |
Understanding runs ahead of speaking. By 18 months most children follow a one-step instruction without a gesture, such as "give it to me", well before they can say much themselves.
Counting, letters and colours
| By age | What most children can do |
|---|---|
| 30 months | Shows they know at least one colour, like pointing to the red crayon |
| 4 years | Names a few colours of items |
| 5 years | Counts to 10; names some numbers between 1 and 5 when you point to them |
| 5 years | Names some letters when you point to them; writes some letters in their name |
Counting to 10 at 5 is a milestone most children reach, and many go further. Reading is a separate track that develops over several years. Our literacy milestone reference covers ages 3 to 11, and twenty minutes of reading aloud a night shows what regular reading adds up to.
If your child has not reached a milestone
The CDC's advice is direct: act early. If a child is not meeting the milestones for their age, or loses skills they once had, talk to their doctor and ask about developmental screening. Do not wait.
That is not a diagnosis. A missed milestone can mean nothing at all, and children develop at different speeds. But since the 2022 revision sets milestones at ages most children have already reached, the checklist is built to make it easy to ask early, which is the whole idea behind the programme's name.
What milestones are not
- They are not targets. They are the ages by which most children have reached something, not the ages at which children should be pushed to reach it.
- They are not a race. The checklist asks whether a child has got there by that age, not how early.
- They are not a full assessment. A checklist helps decide when to ask a professional. It does not replace one.
The honest summary
Under the CDC's milestones, most children take a few steps alone by 15 months, walk independently by 18 months, put two words together by 2, say about 50 words by 30 months and count to 10 by 5. Since 2022 each milestone marks an age at least three in four children have reached. That is why many milestones moved later than on older charts, and why a missed one is a reason to talk to a doctor, not to wait.
Sources
- Zubler, J. M., Wiggins, L. D., Macias, M. M., et al. (2022). Evidence-informed milestones for developmental surveillance tools. Pediatrics, 149(3), e2021052138. doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-052138
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Learn the Signs. Act Early. Milestones by 2 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 2 years, 30 months, 3 years, 4 years and 5 years.