Free · 6–36 months · About 4 minutes

Communication Snapshot

A few careful questions about words, gestures, and understanding. You get a calm, research-grounded read on where your child's communication sits right now, and printable notes if a pediatrician conversation is worth having.

Start the snapshot How it works

This tool offers educational information, not medical advice, diagnosis, or screening. It cannot see your child; it can only organize what you report. Decisions about your child's health belong with you and your child's clinician.

How this works

Behind this tool sits a set of published red lines, things like no single words by 16 months (Filipek et al., 1999) and the fewer than 50 words or no combinations at 24 months late-talker marker (Rescorla, 1989). Each line is stored with its source, and an automated check runs on every update to this site: if a change would ever classify a red-line observation more softly than the research supports, the update fails and cannot ship. The tool can be more careful than the literature; it is never allowed to be less.

Two details we handle the way clinicians do: if your child was born more than 3 weeks early, we use corrected age (counted from the due date) under 24 months. And words count across every language your family speaks; being bilingual never delays any line here.

Sources

  • Zubler JM, et al. Evidence-informed milestones for developmental surveillance tools. Pediatrics. 2022;149(3).
  • CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early. Developmental milestones (2022 revision).
  • Filipek PA, et al. The screening and diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 1999;29(6).
  • Rescorla L. The Language Development Survey. J Speech Hear Disord. 1989;54(4).
  • Zwaigenbaum L, et al. Early identification of autism spectrum disorder. Pediatrics. 2015;136(Suppl 1).
  • Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, Year 2019 Position Statement.
  • Lipkin PH, Macias MM. Promoting optimal development. Pediatrics. 2020;145(1).