Receptive Language
- Identifies colors by name
- Understands categories of objects (i.e. food, clothing)
- Has fun with language; enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities, such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?"
- Understands concepts of next to/beside/between/in front/behind
- Understands questions about their own actions
Expressive Language
- Expresses 500 intelligible words
- Able to describe use of objects (i.e. fork, cup)
- Answers simple questions, such as "What do you do when you are hungry?"
- Repeats sentences
- Expresses likes and dislikes
Articulation/Verbal Output
- Uses most speech sounds, but may distort some of the more difficult sounds, such as l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th. These sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8
- Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them
- Strangers are able to understand much of what is said
Pragmatic/Social Language
- Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her
- Hears you and responds when you call their name from another room
- Talks about activities at daycare, preschool, or friends’ homes
- Seeks new experiences
- Enjoys doing new things
- Negotiates solutions to conflicts
Play Skills
- Dramatization and imagination begin to enter play
- Imitates drawing a circle/straight line
- Interest in combining play things
- Plays with others in small groups
- Names own drawing
- Watches cartoons on TV
- Builds tower of about 9-10 blocks blocks
- Plays cooperatively with other children
- Prefers playing with other children than playing alone
- Becomes more creative in make-believe play
- Confuses what’s real and what’s make-believe
Grammar
- Uses verbs that end in "ing," such as "walking" or "talking"
Literacy
- Correctly holds books
- Recognizes that the words tell a story
- Understands words are read left to right top to bottom
- Start hearing rhyming words
- Retells stories
- Recognize half the letters of the alphabet
- Recognize and read familiar logos
- Starts to match letter sounds to letters
- May recognize own name are frequently seen words