Speech Therapy Tips for 3 ½ year olds

We are going to explore speech therapy tips for 3 and a half year old, at three and a half years old, children are growing more confident in their communication skills. They can express themselves in sentences, and most people can understand what they say. Here are some tips to help develop your child’s communication skills:

At this age, children should be using simple sentences with four to six words, including grammar structures like “he,” “she,” “the,” “a,” “is,” and “-ing.” They may not always use correct grammar. They can also follow instructions with three key words and ask and answer various questions. Although they still make some sound errors, their speech is usually understandable.

By three and a half years old, children can:

• Understand and name common objects
• Use action words like “eat,” “sit,” and “run,” as well as descriptive words like “hot,” “big,” “red,” and “mine,” and position words like “in,” “on,” and “under”
• Follow instructions with three key words, such as “put your shoes and hat in your bag”
• Use sentences with four to six words
• Use grammar words like pronouns (“he,” “she,” “I,” “you”), articles (“a,” “the”), and verb tenses (“is eating,” “jumped”)
• Use language to greet people, ask for things, refuse things, make comments, and ask questions
• Understand and answer questions that start with “what,” “who,” and “where”
• Understand concepts like position words (in, on, under), size (big, little), and number (more, lots)
• Link sentences together with “and” and “then” to form simple sequences, like “I went to the zoo, and I saw a tiger.”

How can I help my three and half year old child with speech?

To support your child’s language development, As a parent, you play a crucial role in your child’s language development. Here are some tips to help you support your child’s language skills

1. Use modeling to correct mistakes: Children at this age are still learning to refine their speech sounds and combine words into sentences. You can help fine-tune these skills by repeating what they say and fixing their mistakes. Use a positive tone and emphasize the changes slightly to draw your child’s attention to the correct form.
2. Expand what your child says by adding another word: You can help your child learn to use longer and more complex sentences by adding a word to what they say. Your child doesn’t need to copy you, just hearing what you say will help, and they will use that new word when they are ready.
3. Introduce simple craft activities: Three-year-olds are beginning to enjoy drawing, painting, gluing, and play dough, and you can use these activities to teach your child new language skills. For example, you can teach your child concepts by making shapes with play dough, learn colors and shapes by pasting shapes cut from colored paper or while painting, and sort and group items by categories such as food, clothes, and toys by cutting and pasting pictures from catalogs.
4. Develop more complex pretending: Pretending allows children to use language in different ways and to learn new words and concepts. Try expanding their pretend play skills by acting out themes such as shopping, going to the doctor, dentist, hairdresser, or cafe, a trip to the zoo or the beach.
5. Provide opportunities to talk about experiences with others: Learning to talk about things that happened in the past and in other settings is an important pre-literacy skill. You can help your child learn to do this by taking photos of their experiences and helping them to show and talk about these with friends or relatives.
6. Expand your child’s interest in books: Three-year-olds enjoy simple action stories and can begin to “tell” familiar stories back to you from the pictures. Don’t just read the story, talk about it and ask your child questions. Rhyme and repetition are still important at this age and help with learning to retell and to practice predicting what will happen next.
7. Help your child learn to link sentences together: Continue to talk to your child as you do daily activities but now tell your child a couple of things at a time. Introduce your child to simple, familiar sequences “Let’s put the bread in the toaster, then put on butter and jam, and then we can eat it”.

Important tips for helping your preschooler learn:

• Get down to your child’s level, play face to face with lots of eye contact and expression.
• Copy what your child does and add to it or expand it.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat: Repeat words, activities, stories, and songs.
• Start where your child is and gradually move them forward.
• Follow your child’s interests. Use these to help them learn.
• Care for your child’s hearing. Follow up on ear infections and ask to see a specialist if your child has more than three ear infections in a year.