Between 2-3 years your child’s language skills are developing quickly as they start to use longer sentences, ask questions and follow simple conversations. Encourage their efforts and keep conversations fun, every interaction helps them become a confident communicator.
- Use words with me that describe my feelings, like, “You look tired, are you sleepy?” and “I can see that you are excited”.
- Use puppets, toy people or animals when you are sharing books, stories and songs with me.
- Comment on what I’m doing. Instead of saying “What are you doing?” you could say, “You’re kicking the ball”’. This helps me to link the word label to what I am doing.
- Make everyday opportunities such as bath time and dinner time full of conversation.
Remember, we all learn at different speeds, but here are some things I might be doing:
- I like to join in with songs and rhymes.
- I like to help you with every day tasks, such as putting my toys away away making my sandwiches.
- I can understand doing words like jumping and sleeping and describing words such as big or small.
- I like it when I am talking with you I talk about lots of different things and can talk in sentences now.
- Give me time, as I am learning so many new words my speech may still be unclear at times.
Useful Links:
2-3 years – Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives
Chatting and building sentences: 2 to 3 years – NHS
Helping toddlers talk in full sentences – BBC Tiny Happy People
How children develop speech, language and communication skills
