Ways to Promote Speech & Language Skills – 3 – 4 years old
At around 3 to 4 years old, your child will really be blossoming in terms of language. Receptively, children now understand a vocabulary of 1200-2000+ words, follow 2-3 step commands, and are conscious of past and future events. Expressively, they are even beginning to create simple narratives called “additive chains” such as “We went to park. I went on swing.” At this point, they are definitely more curious and are even asking questions to obtain more information. Overall, children are now producing 4-6 word sentences and use 800-1500+ words. And in terms of pragmatics, your child is beginning to have lengthy conversations and is starting to engage in socio-dramatic (or pretend) play. This is when they select a theme, assign roles, and use appropriate language to engage in their roles. Articulation wise, their speech should be 80% intelligible. Your child may still not be correctly producing more complex sounds such as /r/, /s/, and “th”. Issues such as a lisp should be addressed before kindergarten and articulation issues in general can later affect reading and writing. And as always, to be on the safe side you can go to a speech-language pathologist to get an evaluation if you suspect there are issues in any category of speech or language.
LIST OF SPEECH & LANGUAGE TIPS – 3 to 4 years old
- Feel free to rephrase and expand on what your children say. For instance, if your child says “more bubbles”… say “I have more bubbles. Do you want big or small bubbles?” During this stage, your child is starting to produce 4-6 word sentences as mentioned above.
- If you find that your child is not producing correct grammar (e.g. – “I drived the bus”), simply model the appropriate word (e.g. – Oh! You drove the bus!”)
- Articulation issues may arise or still persist into this age period. Always make sure to model appropriate articulation. If your child says “thun” instead of “sun”, emphasize the /s/ sound in the beginning of “sun” by having your child look at your face and put your teeth together to produce a long /s/ sound. Mirrors are often helpful for articulation practice as well!
- Encourage your child to repair communication breakdowns if you do not understand what he or she said. For example, if his description of his field trip was difficult to understand, say, “So you went to the library. Can you tell me again about what you did there?” or give your child options if he or she is getting frustrated… “So did you listen to a story? Or take out a book?”
- Practice repeating syllables. During this period, your child can repeat 6-13 syllables accurately. Engage in nursery rhymes such as “This Old Man”, “Humpty Dumpty”, “Jack and Jill”, etc. to encourage them to learn new words and begin the skill of rhyming.
- Create opportunities for your children to communicate and ask for help. Close a container very tightly or do not open the bag of fruit snacks, so that it gives your child the chance to say, “Help me open!”
- Talk about the function of items (e.g. – while you are cleaning, tell your child a vacuum is used for cleaning; while you are eating, tell your child a cup is used for drinking, etc.). You can make a game of it by putting items in a container and have your child take out items. As they take out items, they can label the function.
- Use photos to talk about what you did during the day, the weekend, etc. since at this point our child will start retelling 2 events in chronological order. If your child is at daycare, have the teacher write about what they did that day in their communication book or in an email.
- Talk about what you WILL BE doing and what your plans are for the day in order for your child to develop a mental image of what to expect and there are no surprises. This, in turn, greatly decreases tantrums!
- Work on forming categories by sorting items into groups such as transportation, colors, etc. You can use magazines and do cut and paste activities to target categories – paste all of the toys together, all of the animals together, etc.
- Strengthen your child’s receptive language skills by asking comprehension skills during story time (e.g. – “Uh oh what happened?”) or yes/no questions throughout the day (e.g. – “Is this an apple?”)
- Encourage your child to ask questions such as “What is that?”, “Why…?”, “Who is this?”, etc. by providing them with novel experiences (e.g. – books, play spaces, parks, museums, aquariums, etc.)
- Use language to express emotion. At first, you might have to comment on your child’s feelings yourself – “I see that makes you feel upset when Tommy took the toy away from you”. This will allow them to independently start labeling their own emotions and will, in turn, decrease tantrums because they can voice how they are feeling and why.
- Feel free to engage in conversation with your child to practice taking turns, maintaining the topic, initiating new topics, etc. Play dates are a great way to encourage conversations with other children!
- Begin to work on basic opposites such as stop vs. go, hot vs. cold, etc. for them to understand the meanings. Feel free to use actual objects around the house or in the community! Have them use their five senses – take out an ice cube and have them feel how cold it is, make soup and have them feel how hot it is, etc.
- Give your child multiple step commands throughout the day. You can do this while cleaning, cooking, playing, etc. (e.g. – “Go get the yellow ball and put it in the bucket”).
- Promote pretend play with items such as a kitchen, dollhouse, farm, toolbox, etc. Model appropriate commenting yourself – be creative! For example, pretend it is daddy’s birthday and say, “Let’s make a cake! I need a spoon and bowl (pretend to mix ingredients). Can you turn the oven on? Uh oh we forgot to buy sprinkles and icing! Let’s go to the store after the cake is done”. Many children love to dress up while they engage in pretend play (e.g. – as a firefighter, policeman, princess, etc.)
- Begin playing even more structured games such as Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, and Zingo, to improve their focus and teach them how to play games in a group setting. It is a great skill to have when they are in school!