Learning milestones: Language skills (ages 3 and 4)
by Dana Sullivan
Learning to communicate verbally and listen carefully are the cornerstones of a preschool education. Here are some specific language milestones you can expect your 3- to 4-year-old to reach. Keep in mind that children develop at different rates and that every teacher follows a different curriculum, so your child may not do everything on this list.
In preschool, your child will learn to
- Participate in conversations in which eight out of every ten words are understandable.
- Speak and understand 1,500 words or more (by age 4), though the vocabulary of preschoolers can vary dramatically.
- Form sentences of six or more words.
By age 4, your preschooler may also be able to:
- Ask "who," "what," "where," and "why" questions.
- Understand and follow spoken instructions, such as "It's time to put away the puzzles and go to the reading corner".
- Link two ideas in a sentence to organize a thought — for example, "I want to go outside because I can ride my bike there".
- Tell a simple story. For example, she might tell a friend, "I went to my grandma's house last night. She has toys at her house. I like the toys at my grandma's house."
- Sing songs, play rhyming games, and perform "finger plays" such as the hand motions that accompany "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" or "The Wheels on the Bus.
- Understand the concept of writing: the idea that letters carry messages. For example, she may ask what a sign says, or copy words from a book and tell you she's writing a story.
- Show some understanding of the alphabet by calling out letters she sees on signs or in books.
- Write some letters and words.
- Use simpler vocabulary and sentences to suit a younger sibling or friend.
- Repeat her name, address, and phone number.
- Explain a four- or five-step sequence — for example, "After I take a bath, I brush my teeth and put on my pajamas and get in bed".
How the teacher will promote these skills
Children learn to communicate by listening, hearing others speak to them, and speaking on their own. To promote language skills, your child's teacher will set up the classroom so the children spend lots of time at activity tables where they have to interact with one another. She will also read to the children daily and ask them questions about the story afterward. She may also ask each child to talk about something he's interested in, either during a formal show-and-tell time or informally when discussing a topic or book. Most preschool teachers also begin alphabet work. They may choose a letter of the day, for example, and encourage the students to write it and come up with words that begin with that letter.
More great resources