3-4 Years: Speech-Language Developmental Milestones and Fun Activities that Foster Speech-Language Growth

11/12/2014

We have another guest blog entry from Kara Broks, a Registered Speech Language Pathologist with Speech Language Network. This entry focuses on Speech-Language Developmental Milestones for children aged 3-4 years and different fun activities you can do with your child to foster speech-language growth.

3-4 Years

Speech-Language Developmental Milestones and Fun Activities that Foster Speech-Language Growth

 It is important to remember that each child is unique and as such, there will be variance in developmental sequences. If, however, your child hasn’t reached the majority of the milestones in their age group, you may wish to contact a Speech-Language Pathologist.

You may want to contact a Speech-Language Pathologist if your toddler: 

• Is not easily understood when they speak
• Does not combine words into longer sentences
• Has difficulty understanding questions or longer directions (“Please go to the closet and bring back your mitts and toque.”)  
• Does not ask questions
• Is not interested in books
• Misses parts of conversations, or does not respond to speech when visual cues are not present

 DAILY ACTIVITIES 3-4 years Things you can do with your three – four year old to encourage and foster speech-language development; 

• Be sure to encourage your child to repeat their utterance(s) if you don’t fully understand what was said.  This will demonstrate to your child that you value what they have to say!
• Whenever possible, use reading, singing, talking and rhyming to expand your child’s vocabulary and utterance lengths.  Use these many different methods to expand on what you are doing, what you have read, your plans for the day, etc.
• Have your child sort images and items into different categories.  For more of a challenge, encourage them to tell you what does and does not fit into a given category.   For example, an apple and a banana both belong in food category, but a boat does not.
• Foster comprehension skills through posing questions to your child.  Make a game of having your child try to fool you by asking you questions (e.g., “Daddy, do you know where I hid my toy truck?”).
• Encourage your child to answer in phrases or full sentences, rather than single word answers.  Model full phrases, ask for more information, or request that they repeat back the words that you have used.
• Have your child explain what is happening in the pictures of a family photo album or familiar storybook.
• Simple books are a great way to encourage discussion about the plot and to encourage your child to retell the story, or act it out.
• Expand on story telling skills by role-playing typical scenarios using dolls, Lego, props/toys, costumes (e.g., talking on a pretend phone, going grocery shopping, being a parent).

If you have any questions please feel free to email: info@speechlanguagenetwork.netand/or call 306 933-3222 to book a free consultation with a Registered Speech-Language Pathologist.      Enjoy and have fun! 

Anna Nissen B.A (Linguistics-U of S)           

Kara Broks Registered Speech-Language PathologistSpeech-Language Network   References:

• www.asha.org
• http://www.silverspeech.com/milestones.php
• http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/language_delay.html