Speech / Language

Children 48-60 months generally are able to do the following:

Receptive Language:

• Follows 3+ step directions of increasing complexity   
• Identifies and label familiar nouns and verbs

Expressive Language:

• Speaks in phrases and sentences between 4 and 5 words in length
• Speaks in complete sentences
• Adds negative interrogatives (e.g., “don’t you want another cookies?”)
• Responds to “why” questions by giving a reason
• Learns to use words to express their emotions and physical state (e.g. hungry, tired, happy sad)
• Learns how to have back and forth conversations with others

Speech Intelligibility:

• Speaks so about 85% of communication is understood by unfamiliar listeners with a range of 73-100% 
• Develops the following consonant sounds: /v/, /s/, /l/, /z/, “dg” as in “fudge,” /ch/, /sh/