Receptive vs. Expressive Language Skills: 2-3 Years Old
In a previous blog post, we shared the important receptive and expressive language skills that should be developing in your child’s first year of life. As your child continues to grow, their receptive and expressive language skills will expand and become more complex.
What should your child be understanding and expressing from two to three years of age?
According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, there are developmental milestones that your child should meet:
Understanding:
Understands opposites such as up/down, stop/go, and qualitative concepts such as big/little
Follows two step directions such as, “get your cup and bring it to me”
Understands new words at a rapid rate
Expressing:
Labels objects in their environment
Talks about things that are not sight
Produces sounds k, g, f, t, d, and n in words
Uses words such as in, on, and under to describe
Uses 2-3 word phrases consistently to comment / request
Familiar people can understand your child when they speak
Uses three word phrases to talk about things
Imitates sounds and words to grow vocabulary
What can you do to help them with their skills?
Narrate your activities of daily living. For example, when driving in the car, “oh look, the light is red. Red means stop. Now the light is green, time to go”!
Practice hand over hand assistance when following directions. Gently guide your little one to the object, then practice follow through of the direction.
Read daily. Practice identifying the objects you name. Assist your child in pointing to animals, colors, and actions.
Watch for mastery of age appropriate speech sounds.
Practice labeling spatial concepts. For example, “your ball is under the table”.
Practice expanding phrases. When your child labels an object or makes a request, try modeling a longer phrase. For example, “I heard you say juice. You could also say, more juice please”.
Incorporate songs and nursery rhymes in daily routines. Practice adding pause time to allow your child to vocalize when the music stops.
If your child is 2-3 years old and appears to be behind on these milestones, it is recommended that you speak to your child’s pediatrician. A referral to a speech-language pathologist may be warranted at this time.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our speech-language pathologist on our Panel, free of charge.
For more information, please visit
Alyssa Bloxam, M.A., CCC-SLP
Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist
alyssa@collaborativecorner.org