3 - 4 Year Olds
*Enjoy listening to longer stories and can remember much of what happens.
*Pay attention to more than one thing at a time, which can be difficult.
*Use a wider range of vocabulary.
*Understand a question or instruction that has two parts, such as “Get your coat and wait at the door”.
*Understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?”
*Sing a large repertoire of songs.
*Know many rhymes, be able to talk about familiar books, and be able to tell a long story.
*Develop their communication, but may continue to have problems with irregular tenses and plurals, such as ‘runned’ for ‘ran’, ‘swimmed’ for ‘swam’.
*Develop their pronunciation but may have problems saying: - some sounds: r, j, th, ch, and sh - multisyllabic words such as ‘pterodactyl’, ‘planetarium’ or ‘hippopotamus’
*Use longer sentences of four to six words.
*Be able to express a point of view and to debate when they disagree with an adult or a friend, using words as well as actions.
*Start a conversation with an adult or a friend and continue it for many turns.
*Use talk to organise themselves and their play: “Let’s go on a bus... you sit there... I’ll be the driver.”