Communication Milestones for Toddlers & Preschoolers
There is SO much out on the internet about developmental milestones that I hesitated to even write a blog post on it! But then I sat down with a group of parents the other day and they had some wonderful questions about this so I’ll share with you some milestones AND some of the frequently asked questions about development from the parent group a few weeks ago!
Here are your big milestones in the toddler and preschool group!
You can also find more specific and detailed information about developmental milestones for communication via the American Speech Language Hearing Association. I’ll link to the specific age groups here:
Frequently Asked Questions about Milestones:
Now here are some of the frequently asked questions I get about communication in the toddler and preschool ages:
We’re a bilingual family! Will exposing my child to two languages at home cause a delay or disorder?
Nope. Nope. Nope.
And if someone tells you differently, have them contact me. The speech therapists over at Bilinguistics did an amazing blog post on there, you can read it here.
My first child was super chatty and now my 2nd child is way quieter! Is there a difference in development in second or third born children?
Research tells us that there’s no concrete evidence to support that younger children in families develop language any differently than older kids.
Anecdotally, I see a lot of variety in speech therapy sessions with this! I think it comes down largely to personality. For example, if you have a passive younger child with a really chatty older sibling, they’re not likely to compete for that attention. In some cases, too, older siblings may be helping meet the needs of the younger child. In those cases, the younger child may not have as many opportunities to request for their needs or wants because they’re already met.
Older siblings can definitely act as language models for younger siblings, meaning that younger siblings may learn some of their language from their older siblings.
TLDR: It varies.
I can’t understand anything my toddler says! At what age should I begin to understand what they say?
Around 2 years old, we expect to understand about 50% of what a child says!
At 3, this jumps to about 75% of what the child says.
At 4, we expect to understand nearly 100% of what the child says.
If your child is difficult to understand, starting to experience frustration with that, it’s a good opportunity to consider a speech evaluation.
If you’re noticing that they’re deleting a lot of sounds, so words sound completely different (ex: “stop” becomes “top”, “cat” becomes “ca”, “table” becomes “ta-uh”), those deletions can be really impactful! If your child is deleting sounds after 3 years old, highly recommend consulting with a speech therapist.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out! A phone call with our speech therapist doesn’t require you to get a speech evaluation or start therapy. Sometimes, as parents, you just need to talk it out for a minute and we’re happy to guide you and answer questions to get you on the right path.
