Understand what your baby is already communicating, support first words in everyday moments, and know when it's worth asking for help.
Written by a speech-language pathologist and mother of three.
Get the Kindle guide — $4.99About 40 minutes to read · For roughly 6 to 24 months · Milestones through 30 months
No Kindle device needed. Read it on your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle.
Your baby is learning language right now, in moments you are already having. The diaper change. The stroller ride. Two minutes at the high chair.
This guide walks you through how language actually grows, from the first babble to the first real words and the sentences after them, and shows you where your ordinary days already fit in.
Some chapters will matter this week. Others will matter in a few months, when your child reaches the stage they describe. The guide is built to be picked up again, a chapter at a time, as they grow.
Every chapter ends with one small task, something to try inside a routine you already have.
Use the guide alongside six free printable companion pages: the words your baby already understands, a place to record first words, the milestone list, the reasons to talk with a professional, a week's words to spotlight, and five things for the fridge.
Take the printable pages whether or not you have the guide.
No. Most readers are parents of children developing exactly as expected who want to understand what is happening and make the most of it. The guide does include a clear list of the reasons clinicians say it is worth asking for help, kept deliberately separate from the milestones, so you can tell the difference between the two.
No. The free Kindle app reads it on a phone, tablet or computer, and it can be read in a browser. A Kindle device is one option among several.
Yes, and there is a chapter on it. It covers counting vocabulary across all of a child's languages rather than one at a time, which is the measure that matters, and what the research does and does not support about growing up with more than one language.
No, and it says so plainly. It is educational. It cannot assess your child, and it is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. What it can do is help you notice what is happening and recognise when a professional who has actually met your child would be useful.
They are on this site, free to download in US Letter and A4, at michalreshef.com/en/printables. The guide links to them too. You do not need to buy anything to get them.
Michal Reshef is a speech-language pathologist licensed in Israel, working in the field since 2010. She has clinical experience across early childhood settings, including a center for children who are deaf and hard of hearing, and is a certified Baby Signs instructor. She is a mother of three and the author of the children's picture book Moving Soon.
Children build language through repeated, responsive interactions in everyday life. This guide helps parents recognise and use those moments, and understand when professional guidance may be useful.
The guide's milestone information follows the CDC's developmental milestone checklists, and its screen guidance follows the American Academy of Pediatrics. Every claim in the book is sourced in a chapter of its own.
This guide is educational. It offers general information about early language development and does not replace a personal evaluation by a professional who has met your child. If you have a concern about your child's development or hearing, speak to your pediatrician or request an evaluation.
Written and clinically reviewed by Michal Reshef, SLP. Last updated 25 August 2026.