Hello all! I am going to tell you a little story about  an encounter I had. I have a four year old patient that used to use only 2 word phrases. She was in the shopping cart being pushed around by her mother. Well she saw a toy kitchen and very calmly said, “Mama, Kitchen.” Her mother was like, “No! We aren’t in the kitchen.” So the little one said it again with a bit more intensity. After several times of repeating her self she took a big deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs, “MOMMMMAAAA, KITCHENNNNN!!!!” So her mom began to shush her and was not happy to be shopping anymore. I could immediately tell. She shushed the little girl, she told her to pay attention to me and her tone of voice also change. OOOO I almost felt like I was there with them. I got embarrassed haha. Mind you by this time in development a 3 to 4 year old should have at least 3-4 words in their sentences. So…I modeled for the little girl how to tell her mother what she wanted. Say, “I want to see the kitchen.” So the little girl said it perfectly to her mother and Mom understood and was happy, and so was the little girl, because as a reward she got to go see the kitchen. This child has been diagnosed with receptive/expressive language delay.  This happened in her specific case because of lack of play and lack of giving the child an opportunity to speak. Unfortunately this is very common. Not only the child needs interventions but the parents receive education and ideas, ways and strategies on how to facilitate language from their little one.

Just a REMINDER Children develop at their own rate. Your child might not have all skills until the end of the age range.

However these are some of the things a 3-4 year old will or should be doing.

• They can respond when you call from another room.

• Understands words for colors, like red, blue, and green.

• Understands words for shapes, like circle and square.

• Understands words for family, like brother, grandpa, and grandma.

In speech for a 3-4 year old they should or will be able to answer simple

• who, what, and where questions.

• Says rhyming words, like rat–cat.

• Use pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they.

• Uses some plural words, like toys, dogs, and cars.

• Most people understand what your child says.

• Asks when and how questions.

• Puts 4 words together.

• They may make some mistakes, like “I goed to school.”

• Or like in the case that I told you about, make a request like, “I want to see.”

• Talks about what happened during the day.

• Uses about 4 sentences at a time.

TO ENCOURAGE ALL OF THESE TASKS YOU CAN:

• Make silly pictures by cutting up magazines or finding them in books. Like a Hippo driving a car or Cat wearing a hat wink wink. Then help your child explain what is silly about the picture.

• Sorting pictures and objects into categories, like food, animals, or shapes. Ask your child to find the picture or object that does not belong. For example, a baby does not belong with vegetables.

• AGAIN! Read, sing, and talk about what you do and where you go. Use rhyming words. This helps your little one learn new words and sentences.

• Read books with a simple story. Talk about the story with your child. Help them retell the story, or act it out with props and dress-up clothes. Tell them your favorite part of the story. Ask them questions and have them tell you their favorite parts.

• Look at family pictures. Have them tell a story about the picture. See if they remember anything about that time. Ask them who is in the picture and their relation to them.

• Play pretend dealing with daily actions and activities. Such as cooking, driving, going to bed, shopping at the store, going to the doctor etc.. You can use props and dress up. Use role playing, change your voice to make it different for the different people involved, this can help them understand how other people talk and act. This encourages social skills and how to interact with others as well as tell stories.

Ok, so I know it probably seems like I am beating a dead horse BUUUUUUTTTTT…. Speak to your child in the language you are most comfortable using, if you are comfortable with more than one, then do that also.

I can only imagine that after 3 or 4 years of not having appropriate communication things can get rough. A parent throws in the towel and since they already know what the child needs they give it to them with out asking anymore. But this does more harm than help. It is so vital to encourage age appropriate development for your little one. Even though it is not easy small steps to encouraging language will begin to modify behaviors. Remember you are not alone and there is a team for you.

Once again thank you for reading. I would love to know how these tips work out for you. Please reach out to us. We are on several media platforms. Our next video and blog in the speech corner will be about about milestones of a 4-5 year old and this will be the final one that we do in this developmental section.