Do you think about or even worry about your child’s speech and development? Do you know what sounds they should be making at 3 years of age or how they should be interacting with others? Should he or she be speaking full sentences by now? Or asking questions? How many words should be part of their vocabulary? A Speech and Language Therapist can answer these questions for you.
Don’t worry yourself sick before you know the facts, contact a professional who can officially assess your child’s speech and language development to check that they are hitting the correct development milestones and language milestones expected at 3 years of age.
Child Development Milestones – What most toddlers do at: 3 years
Below is a rough guide for you to consult ensure that your child’s development is on track.
Looking and Listening/Attention
- Child can concentrate by looking or listening
- Can attend to adults choice of activity for a short time (with less prompts)
- Likes listening to stories for longer
Understanding
- Understands instructions with 3 key words e.g. give the apple and teddy to mummy
- Understands key describing words e.g. big, cold, small, hot, under, in
- Understands time concepts e.g. tomorrow, this morning
- Starting to understand negatives and plurals e.g. don’t and dogs
Talking/communication
- Can say name age and gender
- Names most familiar objects
- Fully understood by familiar listeners
- Can talk to strangers and will be mostly understood
- Differentiates between ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘me’ etc.
Speech sounds your child should have by 3 years
- P,m,h,n,w,b
- May begin to produce k,g,d,t,ng
- May produce f,y
- Size of Vocab: 500 – 1000
Social/Emotional/Play
- Copies adults and other children
- Will take turns in a game
- Less dependent on parents
- Affectionate to friends and upset by friends crying
If you are concerned about your child’s development take action now and book them in for an assessment with one of our multidisciplinary team.
