4-5 Years Old

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE

• Answers most questions about daily tasks

• Understand most 'wh-' questions, including those about a story they have recently heard

• Understand some numbers

• Show an awareness that some words start or finish with the same sounds.

• Follow three part instructions (e.g., put on your shoes, get your backpack and line up outside)

• Understand time related words (e.g., ‘before’, ‘after’, ‘now’ and ‘later’)

• Start thinking about the meaning of words when learning

• Understand instructions without stopping to listen

• Begin to recognise some letters, sounds and numbers.

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EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE

• Use words, such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’, to make longer sentences

• Describe recent events, such as morning routines

• Ask lots of questions

• Use personal pronouns (e.g., he/she, me/you) and negations (e.g., don’t/can’t)

• Count to five and name a few colours.

• Use well formed sentences to be understood by most people

• Take turns in increasingly longer conversations

• Tell simple, short stories with a beginning, middle and end

• Use past and future verbs correctly (e.g., ‘went’, ‘will go’)

• Use most speech sounds, but still may have difficulties with ‘s’, ‘r’, ‘l’ and ‘th’.