Language development: 3-4 years

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Here are some of the things your preschooler might do as his language and communication skills develop between the ages of three and four years:

• learn thousands of new words. He learns words from listening to adults and guessing from context, from new experiences and from listening to stories read out loud. He will still understand many more words than he says
• learn and use a lot more connecting words (because, and, if). He will also learn more and more number words, words about emotions, names for groups of things (vegetables, animals) and family terms (aunty, brother). By age four, he may know one or more colours and some contrasting concepts, such as longer and bigger
• begin to use complex sentences that include words such as ‘because’ and ‘that’ – for example, ‘I don’t like that because it’s yucky’
• show that he understands the basic rules of grammar. He will often apply language rules strictly across all examples, not realising how often English breaks its own rules. For example, he might say, ‘He runned away’ or ‘There were lots of sheeps’
• usually order words correctly in questions and negatives: ‘Am I going?’ and ‘I don’t like it’
• tell stories that follow a theme and often have a beginning and an end. He will often need a lot of prompting and reminding from adults to keep the story moving. For example, ‘And what did the cat do then?’
• reason, predict things, and express empathy
• use more abstract and figurative language: ‘I think the table is angry at me because I pretended to kick it’
• use lots of ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions to find out more about his world – try to be patient!
• start conversations using questions such as ‘Guess what?’
• converse about a wider range of topics, as well as more abstract and complex topics: ‘If it keeps raining, will we have to build a boat to get to grandma’s?’
• have longer conversations, but he may leave out a lot of details that the listener needs, and will require plenty of prompting from adults
• be understood by most adults (by age four), although some of his words may not be pronounced correctly. He may still have difficulty pronouncing words that include the sounds ‘l’, ‘th’ or ‘r’
• begin recognising when he doesn’t understand what is said to him and ask for clarification. For example, he might ask what a word means
• understand directions with more than two steps, as long as they’re about familiar things – for example, ‘Turn off the TV, put on your pyjamas and hop in bed’ or ‘When I open the gate, take my hand, then we’ll walk down to the corner to cross the road’
• understand questions most of the time, especially if they are about something that is currently happening or is visible to him
• understand slightly complicated explanations, as long as he can see the results himself – for example, he will understand an explanation such as, ‘When the sun shines on things, it makes them hot. See how warm the water in the dog’s bowl is from being in the sun?’
• be able to do some simple negotiation with other children – for example, deciding who will play with something ‘first’
• by age four, begin to use language in role play – for example, pretending to be ‘daddy’ and imitating his tone and words. He may create imaginary characters and props.

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