Speech & Language Development

SOCIALIZING/PLAYING

• Increase in dramatic play
• Suggests taking turns, but is often bossy
• Stays with different activities for 11-15 minutes if its interesting
• Can correctly answer the question ‘are you a boy or a girl’
• Dresses up and pretends to be someone or something else in play
• Separates from primary caregiver easily
• Begins to pay attention to specific print (e.g., the first letter of name)
• Recognizes logos and other environmental print and understands that print carries a message
• Identifies some letters and makes letter sound matches
• Participates in rhyming games
• Talks about characters in a book
• Likes to ‘read’ stories to herself and others
• Protests if adult changes the story
• Produces some letter-like forms in scribbles that resemble letters
• Knows first and last name

UNDERSTANDING

• Follows two-step related directions without cues
• Takes turns and plays cooperatively
• Begins dramatic play, acting out whole scenes
• Points to colours red, blue, yellow, green
• Identifies shapes cross, triangle, circle, square
• Points to object that is different from others
• Follows requests even though objects may not be present (e.g., ‘bring me the cup’)
• Follows two related directions (e.g., ‘close the book and give it to me’)
• Begins to follow three unrelated directions (e.g., ‘give me the pen, open the book and stand up’)
• Understands comparisons (e.g., ‘which circle is the smallest’)
• Has a 2000 word or more receptive vocabulary

TALKING

• Uses consistently:
  •      pronouns I, he, she, you, me, and mine
  •      verb tense ‘is + ing’ (e.g., is walking)
  •      regular past (e.g., walked)
  •      semi-auxiliaries gonna, gotta, wanna
  •      ‘can, will, be, do’
  •      irregular verbs ‘went’
  •      possessives ‘noun + ‘s’ (e.g., girl’s hat)
  •      third person (e.g., it runs)
  •      contractions (e.g., it’s or there’s)
• Pronouns they, their, and myself are emerging
• Relates personal experiences through verbalization
• Frequently practices conversation skills by talking to herself
• Shows frustration if not understood
• Expresses ideas and feelings
• Uses position concepts ‘behind’, ‘in front’, and ‘around’
• Begins to use complex sentences
• Speaks of imaginary conditions (e.g., ‘suppose that’ or ‘I hope’)
• Asks ‘who, why, where how’ questions
• Asks many questions although more interested in how the answers fit her own thoughts rather than just the explanation
• Answers more complex ‘who, why, where, how’ questions logically
• Answers questions about functions of objects (e.g., ‘what are spoons for’ and ‘why do we have shoes’)
• Answers ‘if…what’ questions (e.g., ‘if it starts raining, what would you do?’)
• Describes what is happening in a picture
• Expressive vocabulary grows to 1500 words
• Uses 4 to 7 words in a sentence

SPEECH AND FLUENCY

• Consistently produces: p, b, m, n, h, w, y, t, d, ng, k, g, f, l, s, sh, z, v, ch, and j sounds
• You can understand about 75 – 100% of what child says, although errors may still be present
• May have difficulty with multi-syllabic words (e.g., says ‘ambeence’ for ambulance’)
• Still has some cluster reduction (e.g., ‘no’ for snow, ‘bu’ for blue, ‘tee’ for tree)
• Replaces harder sounds with easier ones:
  • w for r (e.g., ‘wabbit’ for rabbit)
  • f for th (e.g., ‘fum’ for thumb)
  • d for zh (e.g. ‘meduh’ for measure)
  • d for th (e.g., ‘dis’ for this)

CONTACT YOUR SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST IF YOU SEE

• Your child has difficulty playing imaginary games with others
• Your child has difficulty following directions
• Your child cannot answer who or what questions
• Your child’s speech is difficult for strangers to understand