Developmental Red Flags
For Child Speech Delays
- Unable to use past tense correctly
- Can't point to colors red, blue, yellow and green
- Can't identify triangles, circles and squares
Read our Articulation FAQ
article.
Therapy Options
Thankfully, there are many ways to deal with delays in child
development and behaviors.
These include in-home services, outpatient (you take your child
to a clinic), inpatient (following injury or surgery) and school
based services. Which type of therapy should you choose?
Visit our Therapy
Options area to learn more.
Ask a Therapist
We understand developmental milestones and the challenges of
Special Needs children. We spend a great deal of time with
families understanding the inner workings of childhood routines
and interactions. Ask us about your child today!
Ask a Therapist
Speech Development for Preschool Children 48-60 Months
In child speech development, most five year olds can:
- Have sentence length of 4-5 words
- Use past tense correctly
- Have a vocabulary of nearly 1,500 words
- Point to colors red, blue, yellow and green
- Identify triangles, circles and squares
- Understand "In the morning", "next", "noontime"
- Can speak of imaginary conditions such as "I hope"
- Ask many questions, such as "who?" and "why?"
Parenting Tips for Speech Skills
Suggested play to help a toddler between 4 and 5 years develop its speech
skills:
- Plan an excellent adventure. Decide with your child on a new place
you want to visit. Read about it if you can, and talk about what you
hope to see when you're there. It might be a park you've never been to,
or a museum. After you come home, ask questions about what you saw and
did.
- What does it feel like? Put a few objects in a bag. Without looking,
have your child pick an object and describe it to you. See if your child
can guess what it is. Try a screw, a big feather, measuring cup and a
cotton ball.
- Look for cloud pictures. Take a blanket outside, lie down and watch
the clouds go by. Talk about what you see. "Does that fluffy one look
like whip cream?" "Look over there. I see an elephant's head!"
- End the day on a happy note. Every night when your tuck your toddler
in bed, ask "What was the best part about today?" Ask questions to
encourage your child to tell you more. Then tell him/her the best moment
of your day.
- Give your child an office. Your child watches you do "important
tasks" like pay bills, balance the check book, and schedule
appointments. So, give your child a mini office where they can do the
same. All you need is a calculator, toy phone, note pad, pencils, paper,
and envelopes. A computer keyboard is a nice touch. Pretend with them,
asking what time he or she will be going to work and then call your
child on his or her toy phone.
- Guess the animal. This is fun for the whole family. Cut out some
photos of animals from magazines. Turn the pictures upside down and have
one person at a time choose a picture. Everyone asks yes or no questions
to guess the identity of the animal, like "Does it fly?" When a person
correctly guesses the animal, it's their turn to take a picture and
answer the questions.
Speech Skills by Age Group
Contact Information
Find Early Intervention
Support contacts in your State. If you have a question or comment for
us, please visit our Contact page.
Early Intervention Helps with Developmental Delay
For children with Special Needs, intervention in early childhood
development means finding specific ways to help a child become as functional
as possible.
Learn more on our Parenting
Tips
page.
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