Speech and Language Development

4 – 5 years

Articulation/Speech:

• Consonants mastered: m, n, ing, w, h, p, b, t, d, k, g, y, f
• Is approximately 90% intelligible

Receptive Language:

• Understands approximately 2800 words
• Points to red, blue, yellow and green
• Identifies crosses, triangles, circles, and squares
• Stays with one activity for 11-12 minutes
• Can follow a two-part unrelated command
• Knows most body parts
• Understands concepts of numbers up to 3
• Answers questions about object’s functions

Expressive Language:

• Has a spoken vocabulary of approximately 900-2000 words
• Asks many questions although more interested in how answers fit his/her own thoughts rather than just the explanation
• Has a sentence length of 4-8 words
• Talks about experiences at school, at friends’ homes, etc
• Asks “who?” and why?”
• Begins to use complex sentences
• Uses contractions such as “it’s a” or “there’s a”
• Uses grammatically correct sentences
• Uses regular past tense correctly
• Uses plural forms correctly
• Can relate name and address along with age and gender

Basic Motor Milestones:

• Pushes, pulls and steers wheeled toys
• Uses toilet independently
• Skips to music
• Releases objects with precision
• Draws circles, diamonds and crosses
• Enjoys cutting and pasting