YOUR CHILD’S SPEECH AND LANGUAGE AT 3

Although there’s a wide range of “average” at this age, here are some developmental markers to look for in a three year old child’s language development:

• Can match colors and can label at least one color if not two or three.

• Knows some temporal concepts such as: night, day, yesterday, lunchtime, tonight.

• Knows some quantitative concepts such as: one, some, rest, all. • Knows some spatial concepts such as: in, out, on, off.

• Knows some descriptive words such as: big, little, soft and primary colors.

• Follows simple one step directions.

• Has a sentence length of 3-4 words.

• Has a vocabulary of nearly 1000 words.

• Can produce consistently the following sounds: m, n, ng, p,b, h,w.

• Can talk about activities at school, can relate an idea or observation to someone.

• Often repeats words or phrases he or she has heard.

• Can recite or sing one to two lines form a nursery rhyme or song.

• Can stay with one activity for eight to ten minutes.

• Asks “what” questions frequently.

• Has a beginning understanding of “who”, “what” and “where” questions.

You can stimulate your child’s speech and language by:

• Extending his/her conversation.

• Encouraging your child to tell stories using books and pictures.

• Paying attention to your child when he’s talking.