How does a two to three-year-old child hear, talk, and play? Language and play skills go hand in hand. Children develop language, speech, and play and social skills at their own rates. Your child may or may not acquire all of these skills until his or her third birthday.
Receptive language skills
Your child will:
- Point to four action words in pictures
- Recognize family members’ names
- Understand the concept “one”
- Understand size concepts
- Identify four objects by function
- Sequence actions during play
- Understand five common action words
- Understand the quantity concepts (one, all)
- Identify parts of an object (wheel, tail)
- Follow 3-step directions
- Follow directions with two familiar descriptions, e.g., “big red ball”
- Understand opposites, e.g., “go-stop”
Expressive language skills
Your child will:
- Repeat two numbers/words
- Uses two to three-word phrases frequently
- Use action words
- Answer simple wh- questions (what, where)
- Name one color
- Use early pronouns consistently (me, mine, my, I, you)
- Use negation in phrases
- Use plural -s
- Use early preposition (in, out, off, on, up, down, here, there)
- Answer yes and no questions
- State first and last name
- State gender (boy, girl)
- Talk about a personal experience
- Use verb form -ing
- Express physical state (tired, hungry)
- Count to three
- Speaks in three to five-word sentences
- Uses /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/ and /n/ in words
Play/social skills
Your child will:
- Demonstrate parallel play (play beside other children)
- Treat dolls as if they are alive
- Demonstrate symbolic play (pretends a stick is a sword)
What are different things you can do to help at home?
- Read to your child every day.
- Use simple short words and sentences.
- Do not use baby language.
- Repeat what your child says and elaborate it.
- Teach them new words.
- Talk about, colors, shapes, body parts.
- Count numbers.
- Name a variety of objects and talk about it.
- Work on sorting and categorizing objects while naming them (fruits vs vegetables).
- Look at family photos and name the people.
- Look at pics and book and talk about what they are doing.
- Give them a choice - yes or no questions.
- Sing songs, nursery rhymes, and play finger games, which helps the child learn about the rhythm and sounds of language.
- Keep in mind that repetition is key.
