Preschool Milestones

According to Speech, Language and Hearing Milestones: Prevent, Protect, Act, a brochure offered by Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC), if any of the following describes your child, he or she may be at risk of a communication disorder and you should consult a speech-language pathologist or audiologist right away:

• low birth weight
• prematurity (born at less than 37 weeks)
• anoxia at birth
• family history of speech, language and/or learning problems
• family history of congenital or progressive hearing loss
• maternal drug or alcohol use during pregnancy
• history of repeated and/or chronic ear infections
• speaks loudly or often asks people to repeat

If your child isn’t using all the skills listed below for his or her age or stutters persistently for more than six months, consult a speech-language pathologist.

By two years old

• uses at least ten words
• uses two-word phrases, e.g., “More water”
• asks simple questions, e.g., “What’s that?”
• responds to his or her name
• understands simple questions and instructions
• looks at your face when talking to you
• takes turns in a conversation
• uses sounds (m, p, n, h)

By three years old

• uses and understands simple three-word phrases, e.g., “Mommy throws ball”
• follows two-step directions, e.g., “Find the book and give it to Daddy”
• understands many concepts such as “in”, “on”, “up”, “down”
• uses pretend play, e.g., feeds a doll, drives
• participates in short conversations
• other people can understand 50% of what your child says
• knows that you hold a book right side up and turns the pages
• points to or names pictures in a book
• may pretend to read
• can hold a crayon and scribble

By 4 years old

• uses four-word phrases, e.g., “That train is loud”
• tells short stories and talks about daily activities
• understands “who, why, how” questions
• can clap out syllables in a word (like Ca-na-da)
• sorts and identifies basic shapes and colours
• recognizes environmental print (cereal box logo, McDonald’s sign)
• may start playing with rhymes or enjoy listening to books with rhymes
• other people can understand 75% of what your child says

By 5 years old

• uses complete grammatical sentences
• follows three-step directions, e.g., “Pick up your shoes, put them in your backpack and put the backpack on”
• understands concepts such as “yesterday” and “next”
• participates in and understands conversations
• pronounces most speech sounds correctly
• recognizes own name as well as the letters in name
• recognizes when a word has the same sound at the beginning, e.g., bat-ball-big
• can identify or recognize ten letters in the alphabet
• understands the difference between writing and drawing