Your Preschooler’s Development – 3 to 4 years

Your little one has graduated from the toddler phase and is now well on the way to using adult-like speech and language. Their understanding of the world has blossomed and their imagination will be running wild. This will make for some very entertaining conversations – remember to write them down!

Find out a little more about how your preschooler’s communication skills are developing by exploring the information below.

Listening & Understanding

Your child will understand many more concepts.

  • Quantity – one, many, empty
  • Describing words – same, different
  • More complex location words – next to, between, behind

Their understanding of colour and number concepts is developing and they may be able to recognise basic colours and simple numbers.

They will begin to understand category names and how to group similar objects such as ‘animals’, ‘fruit’ and ‘people’.

They will be able to follow instructions with multiple steps (if they are paying attention). For example, 'Put your hat on, find your drink bottle and put it in the pram'.

Your child will begin to understand more complex relationships through exploring the world. For example ‘the leaf floats when you put it in the stream’.

As your child’s understanding and language develop, so do their social skills.They will use their words to begin to negotiate and share with others. For example ‘Can I have the shovel now? I need to dig a hole. You can can have the bucket’.

Your child’s play continues to develop and they may enjoy dress-ups and role playing.

Your child is starting to develop a sense of humour and may even start to tell you jokes and funny stories. Usually the same ones over and over again 'The monkey slipped on the banana and landed on the elephant'.

Communicating

Your child will learn new words everyday and will express complex ideas and thoughts such as ‘Last night I heard the big bad wolf in the thunder’, ‘Does the moon sleep in it’s own bed?’.

They will use their full name when asked ‘what’s your name?’.

They will start to retell stories but may need prompting to remember all of the events.

Your child will start to use simple connecting words such as ‘and’ and ‘because’.

They will enjoy having conversations with adults, other children, pets and even their toys.

They will be able to label simple emotions and physical states such as ‘happy’, ‘excited’, ‘angry’, ‘tired’, ‘thirsty’.

Your child is entering the phase where they will ask you endless questions. This helps them learn new concepts, vocabulary and all about their world.

Your child is learning the complex rules of English and may still make mistakes. For example saying “I runned over there”, or “I not want an apple”.

Your child will be easy to understand however will still have difficulty with the sounds “l”, “r”, “th”.

Early Reading and Literacy

Your child will be interested in letters, particularly the first letter in their own name. They may also recognise some other letters and make letter sound matches. For example know which is the letter ‘M’ but also which letter makes the sound ‘mmmmmmm’.

They will begin to recognise that logos carry meaning. For example the badge on the car, fast food outlet signs, road signs.

They love sharing stories and will often read books to themselves. They will also talk about favourite characters and story lines.

Your child will start to use some letter-like images in their drawing.

2 to 3 years
4 to 5 years