Language and Communication Development: Widely Held Expectations

For 3-year-olds

• Shows a steady increase in vocabulary, ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 words; tends to over-generalize meaning (that is, to say "dog" for any four-legged animal) and make up words to fit needs (call a motorcycle a "chainsaw bicycle.")
• Uses simple sentences of at least three or four words to express needs
• May have difficulty taking turns in conversation; changes topics quickly
• Pronounces words with difficulty; often mistakes one word for another
• Likes simple finger plays and rhymes and learns words to songs that have much repetition
• Adapts speech and style of non-verbal communication to listeners in culturally accepted ways but still needs to be reminded of context
• Asks who, what, where, and why questions but is confused by some questions (especially why, how, and when)
• Uses language to organize thought, linking two ideas by sentence combining, overuses such words as but, because, and when; rarely makes appropriate use of such temporal words as before, until, or after
• Can tell a simple story but must redo the sequence to put an idea into the order of events; often forgets the point of a story and is most likely to focus on favorite parts

For 4-year-olds

• Expands vocabulary to about 5,000 words; shows more attention to abstract uses
• Usually speaks in five-to-six-word sentences
• Likes to sing simple songs; knows many rhymes and finger plays
• Will talk in front of the group with some reticence; likes to tell others about family and experiences
• Uses verbal commands to claim many things; begins teasing others
• Expresses emotions through facial gestures and reads others for body cues; copies behaviors (such as hand gestures) of older children or adults
• Can control volume of voice for periods of time if reminded; begins to read context for social cues
• Uses more advanced sentence structures, such as relative clauses and tag questions ("She's nice isn't she?") and experiments with new constructions, creating some comprehension difficulties for the listener
• Tries to communicate more than his or her vocabulary allows; borrows words to create meaning
• Learns new vocabulary quickly if related to own experience ("We walk our dog on a belt. Oh,it's a leash. We walk our dog on a leash.")
• Can retell a four- or five-step directive or sequence in a story