Keep in mind that during this time, they are developing the language skills that they will use throughout their lives.
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4 Years (48 Months)
Expressive Language / What the Child Says
Asks "WHEN?" (54 months)
Asks "HOW?"
Uses prepositions "on top, between"
MLU (Mean Length of Utterance/ Average Sentence Length)
4 years = 4.4 words 4.5 years = 5 words
Uses These Grammar Parts/ Brown's Morphemes:
"Regular Past Tense -ed" (26-48 months)
Examples:
"He pushed me."
"She walked fast."
"3rd Person Singular" (26-48 months)
Examples:
"Mommy jumps."
"He smiles a lot."
"Contractible copula" (29-49 months)
Examples:
"That's mine."
"He's big."
"Irregular 3rd person" (28-50 months)
Example:
does, has
"Contractible auxillary" (30-50 months)
Examples:
"Daddys drinking juice."
"Joey's my best friend."
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Complex Grammar Development
Uses modifier nouns (which, who, that, what)
Examples:
"The girl who is smiling is nice."
"The book that is red is mine."
Uses the words "if, so, because, when"
Uses words such as "let, make, watch, help"
Uses comparative clauses such as "is ___er than...", "as ____ as ____"
Examples:
"Your cookie is bigger than my cookie."
That hill is as tall as my house."
Receptive Language / What the Child Understands
Follows 3 step directions and multi-step unrelated commands
Answers more complex "who", "what", "where", "why" questions and simple "when" and "how" questions
Narrative Development
Stories are primitive narratives (4 to 4 ½ years)
Mainly action sequences with an initiating event, action, attempt, and maybe a consequence but no resolution
Contain at least 3 story grammar elements (example: setting, characters, plot)
Example:
There was a big stick in the road. It was blocking my way so I tried to turn. But then I crashed my bike into it.
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Phonological Awareness (4 years)
Breaking words into syllables begins (bu-tter-fly = 3 syllables, mo-mmy = 2 syllables)
Rhyming increases
Alliteration increases (aware of words beginning with the same letter)
Examples:
"Mommy made magic marshmallows"
"Daring daddy dove deep"
Segmentation, blending, and manipulating of words and syllables increases
Examples:
Put the words "butter" and "fly" together and you get..."butterfly"
Take "room" off of "bedroom" and you get... "bed"
Change "cat" to a new word by putting "p" in the front and it becomes... "pat"
Take the "t" off the end of "cat" and you have... "ca"
Put "s" on the end of "cat" and you have... "cats"
Letter sounds and symbol awareness increases (grapheme/phoneme awareness)
Example:
"S" is the name of the letter, it makes the "ssss" sound, and it looks like...S.
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Social/Play
Gives and takes turns and maintains a conversation
Reports on past events
Reasons out loud with words
Predicts or makes guesses
Expresses empathy
Creates imaginary roles or props
Seeks out a consistent friend and plays with them
Plays with 2 or 3 children at a time
Accepts reasonable compromise from adults
Participates during group activities with an adult leader
Gets another child's attention before commenting to them
Encourages, praises, and makes requests of peers
Responds to peers requests
Begins to hint requests that do not mention the intention in the request "those smell good!")
Begins to address specific requests for clarification (when others say they don't understand, the child changes his/her words and tries to explain better what he/she meant)
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Gives and takes turns and maintains a conversation
Reports on past events
Reasons out loud with words
Predicts or makes guesses
Expresses empathy
Creates imaginary roles or props
Seeks out a consistent friend and plays with them
Plays with 2 or 3 children at a time
Accepts reasonable compromise from adults
Participates during group activities with an adult leader
Gets another child's attention before commenting to them
Encourages, praises, and makes requests of peers
Responds to peers requests
Hints requests that do not mention the intention in the request ("those smell good!")
Ability to address specific requests for clarification increases (when others say they don't understand, the child is better at changing his/her words and explaining better what he/she meant)
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