Preschool Speech and Language

Speech vs. Language: What’s the Difference?

“Speech” refers to the ability to produce sounds clearly, while “language” involves using words and gestures to express thoughts and understanding spoken or written communication. A speech or language delay occurs when a child does not reach expected developmental milestones for their age.

The causes of speech and language delays are often unknown. While certain factors—such as family history, premature birth, low birth weight, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and hearing loss—can contribute to early language difficulties, many cases have no clear underlying cause.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are trained to thoroughly assess and support your child’s communication skills, including verbal expression (such as vocabulary and early grammar development), language comprehension, and speech sound production (identifying which sounds your child is or isn’t using).

Preschool Speech Milestones

By 6 months
  • Coos, laughs, babbles, has different cries for different needs
  • Looks at people who are talking, smiles; reacts to noises and music
By 12 months
  • Babbles vowels and simple consonants
  • Requests objects, refuses and comments with gestures and vocalizations
  • Imitates sounds
  • Understands up to 50 words, points to pictures in books and body parts on self; follows simple ‘in’ and ‘on’ directions
By 18 Months
  • Uses 50-100 words
  • Understands more words than he/she can say
  • Enjoys listening to simple stories, songs and rhymes
By Age 2
  • Uses 200-300 words
  • Starting to use 2-word sentences (i.e., More juice), ask simple questions (i.e., What’s that?) and use rising intonation to mark questions
  • Uses social words “hi”, “bye”, “please” and protests by vocalizing “no”
  • Understands simple stories and songs; answers simple questions (i.e., Who? What? Where?)
  • Speech is 50% intelligible; uses many consonant sounds at the beginning of words ‘p, b, h, n, m, d, w’
By Age 3
  • Uses 3-word sentences; participates in short conversations; vocabulary consists of 1,000 words; uses pronouns my, mine, you, she, he, we
  • Follows two step directions; points to objects that are described (i.e., what do you wear on your feet?); understands simple concepts (i.e., big/little, up/down)
  • Speech is 75% intelligible; emerging or acquired sounds include ‘k, g, t, ng, f, y’; clearly marks sounds at the ends of words (i.e., “hat” vs. “ha”)
  • Listens to story books for longer periods of time
By Age 4
  • Average sentence length is 4 words; vocabulary consists of 1600 words
  • Uses/understands “when” and “how” questions
  • Uses/understands vocabulary for size (i.e., big), shape (i.e., circle) and location (i.e., over, under, behind)
  • Uses “and”, “because” and wh-words to make longer sentences
  • Recognizes and produces rhymes; starts to pay attention to letters in print
  • Generally speaks clearly so people understand; says most sounds correctly except ‘r, l, th, s, ch, sh’; starting to produce consonant clusters (i.e., stop, clown)
By Age 5
  • Vocabulary consists of 2200-2500 words
  • Begins to know letter names and sounds as well as numbers and counting
  • Uses “when”, “so”, “if” to make sentences longer and more complex; adds descriptive details to sentences
  • Basic sentence forms acquired; uses regular past tense (i.e., he walked) and third person (i.e., he walks); uses pronouns herself, himself, yourselves
  • Recognizes and writes own name as well as some letters
  • Speech is 100% intelligible; although errors on ‘s, r, l, th’ may persist

Self-Directed Techniques

Here are some strategies you can try at home to stimulate speech and language development in preschoolers through play:

✅ Modeling: Expand on your child’s words by repeating them with a few additional words to make the sentence more complete. For example, if your child says, “bue ba,” you can model by saying, “I want the blue ball.”

✅ Expansion: Build on what your child says by adding more details or advanced vocabulary. For instance, if they point to the cupboard and say, “wan acku!” you can respond with, “I want an animal cracker!”

✅ Self-Talk & Parallel Talk: Narrate what you or your child are doing in real-time. While dressing your child, you might say, “Let’s get your socks from the drawer. Here they are—now they go on your feet. Pull them up! There, your socks are on!” Similarly, when your child plays with trucks, you can comment, “You picked the red truck! You’re driving it carefully down the ramp. Oh no, it crashed!”

By incorporating these techniques into everyday play and routines, you can help support your child’s language growth in a fun and natural way.

For personalized guidance tailored to your specific needs, consult a speech-language pathologist.

We’re here to help! Contact us for more information or to schedule an assessment and treatment.