Using language

By 2 years old, toddlers will usually:

• talk but their words may not be clear to everyone
• use 50 or more single words like ‘juice’, ‘car’, ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’
• start to put short sentences together with 2 or 3 words like ‘more juice’, ‘bye-bye daddy’ and ‘my car’
• start to ask simple questions like ‘What that?’ and ‘Who that?’

You can help your toddler by:

• talking with them and commenting on what is happening, this teaches them new words
• playing with sounds and words like rhyming words or making animal noises
• repeating back what they say and adding 1 word to what they say like ‘dog’ becomes ‘big dog’

Activities you can do with your toddler to improve use of language:

Spend time exploring outside. Listen to the sounds you hear and talk with your toddler about what you see and hear.

Singing nursery rhymes and songs together.

Reading books together and talking about the pictures.

By 3 years old, toddlers will usually:

• have conversations
• talk with short sentences of 4 or so words
• use different types of words like describing words ‘big’ ’soft’ and where things are ‘on table’ or ‘under table’

You can help your toddler by:

• talking with them and commenting on what is happening as this teaches them new words
• playing with sounds and words like rhyming words or making animal noises
• repeating back what they say and adding 1 word to what they say like ‘dog’ becomes ‘big dog’

Activities you can do with your toddler to improve their use of language:

Reading books together and talking about the pictures.

Singing nursery rhymes and songs together.

By 4 years old, children will usually:

• ask lots of questions
• use longer sentences of 5 or more words
• describe events and things that have happened
• use colour, number and time words like ‘blue car’

You can help your child by:

• talking about what you are going to do today as it helps your child to learn to sequence and use words like ‘first’, ‘last’, ‘now’ and ‘next’
• listening to your child carefully and give them time to talk
• talking with them and commenting on what is happening as this teaches them new words
• playing with sounds and words like rhyming words or making animal noises
• repeating back what they say and adding 1 word to what they say like ‘big dog’ becomes ‘big dog running’

Activities you can do with your child to improve their use of language:

Setting up some ‘Special Time’. This is where you spend 10 minutes to do an activity with your child. There should be no distractions during this time, so ensure the TV or radio is turned off. You can play a game together or talk about their day.

Playing with words and sounds. Play a word game where you think of word that rhyme or that start with the same sound.

Playing Tap Box. Tap Box is where you put objects in a box and your child pulls the objects out 1 at a time. Your child will tap the box for it to open. They should take 1 object out and talk about it with you. Once you’ve finished talking about the object they will tap the box again for a new object.

Playing with a Touchy-Feely Bag. This is a bag of objects with interesting textures. You child should put their hand inside and describe what they feel. Is it soft, spikey, or squashy? Can they guess what the object is? You can reverse roles, so you are describing the object and your child has to guess what it is.

Playing an action game. Can you make different actions together? Who can jump the highest or turn around the fastest? Encourage your child to have a turn and choose the action.

By 5 years old, children will usually:

• explain the meanings of simple words
• describe similarities and differences
• talk more about their experiences with more accuracy
• have some age-appropriate grammatical errors like using ‘sheeps’ instead of sheep or ‘goed’ instead of ‘went’

You can help your child by:

• repeating back what your child has said using correct grammar or expanding on the information given
• giving your child time to respond, don’t be afraid of silences as these can encourage your child to ‘fill the gaps’
• commenting on what your child is doing so they can hear the correct language used
• using open questions (questions that require more than a one word answer) when asking questions
• teaching them new words that have similar meanings for example if they know what a coat is teach them body warmer, fleece, rain mac etc

Activities you can do with your child to improve their use of language:

Getting your child to tell you or a favourite toy a story. They can use a familiar book or a children’s TV show they enjoy. Ask them questions about any information they have missed out.

Playing I spy with your child. Pick an object and describe it without saying the name of the object. What does it look like? What would it feel like? What does it do? Where would you find it? Take turns as the describer and the guesser.

Sharing a story together. Talk about the story with your child. Who is in the story? Where are they? What happens in the story? This can help you find new words that your child doesn’t know yet. Talk about the words with your child.

Finding objects that go together (also known as categorising). You can make a game out of finding objects that go together. Whoever finds the most objects wins. The objects could be the same colour, move in the same way, or are used in the same way.

By 7 years old, children will usually:

• retell a story or share news in a logical order which includes past, present and future tenses.
• use sentences with at least 5 to 7 words
• ask a range of questions
• use language for a range of situations and purposes like asking and responding to questions, sharing their thoughts and ideas
• may make grammatical errors like “I wented to the park”

You can help your child by:

• repeating back what your child has said using correct grammar or expanding on the information given
• giving your child time to respond, don’t be afraid of silences as these can encourage your child to ‘fill the gaps’
• commenting on what your child is doing so they can hear the correct language used
• using open questions (questions that require more than a one word answer) when asking questions
• teaching them new words that have similar meanings for example if they know what a coat is teach them body warmer, fleece, rain mac etc

Activities you can do with your child to improve their use of language:

Using a story planner. You can use a story planner with your child to help them retell a story or an experience. We have a story planner in the resource section as an example.

Between 7 to 11 years old, children will usually:

• fully express themselves
• ask a range of questions
• use sentences of increasing length and complexity, using a range of words like ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘so’ to link sentences together
• retell a story in a logical order using descriptive language that contains a plot, character development and sequence of events
• make grammatical errors

Activities you can do with your child to improve their use of language:

Using a story planner. You can use a story planner with your child to help them retell a story or an experience. We have a story planner in the resource section as an example.

How to help your child:

If you have concerns about your child use of language, get in touch with their school or education setting. They will be able to help with your child and, if necessary, refer your child onto the Bedfordshire and Luton Children's Speech and Language team. 

Between 11 to 19 years old, young people and teenagers will usually:

• fully express themselves
• ask a range of questions
• use sentences of increasing length and complexity, using a range of words like ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘so’ to link sentences together
• retell a story in a logical order using descriptive language that contains a plot, character development and sequence of events
• make grammatical errors

Activities you can do with your young person or teenager to improve their use of language:

Using a story planner. You can use a story planner with your child to help them retell a story or an experience. We have a story planner in the resource section as an example.

How to help your young person or teenager

If you have concerns about your young person or teenager's use of language, get in touch with their school or education setting. They will be able to help with your young person or teenager and, if necessary, refer your young person or teenager onto the Bedfordshire and Luton Children's Speech and Language team.