Preschool Language Activities - Language Development in Early Childhood

Preschool language activities play an important role in the development of your child's vocabulary, listening skills, and communication skills. From birth to the age of five, children develop language skills at a fast pace. Generally speaking, a girl's language development is faster than a boy's. Also, it may take children who live in a multi-lingual household longer before they begin to talk. After the age of five, it becomes more difficult to learn a new language.

Here is a guideline for language development between ages 3 to 5

The three year old child can:

The four year old child can:

The five year old child can:

Here are some Preschool Language Activities:

Family Talk

Open up a conversation with your child about the people in your family. I have a daddy and a mommy, their names are Noah and Jessica. My uncles are Zach and Daniel. I live in a house in the city of New York. My little brother's name is Evan....

How many grandparents do you have? What are their names? Where do they live?

Wishing List

This game helps children develop their imagination. Start a sentence with: I wish....

Encourage your child to create longer sentences and build up to a short story: "I wish I could fly all the way to the moon and sit on a star...."

Word-egories

Play this easy category game with your child. Choose a category: e.g. Clothes. Begin brainstorming names of items that fit that category such as: Shorts, pants, T-shirts, sweaters, hats. Build up to more complex categories such as: Clothing items we wear in the winter.

Telephone Time

From an early age children are fascinated with telephones. They see us talking on the phone and try to mimic our actions. Let your child talk on the phone with relatives and their peers. Help the flow of the conversation by staying near by and guiding them. You can also have a pretend telephone conversation when you play with your child.

More preschool language activities...

Puppet Picnic

his is actually an idea that I got from my son. He loves to put up a puppet show or have a puppet picnic. I use the puppets to encourage his conversation skills and increase his vocabulary.

Instruction Time

Being able to follow instructions is a must when entering kindergarten. Begin with giving your child one step instructions. In class I tell the kids: "Draw a picture." Then, I tell them the next step: "Cut your picture." Finally I say, "Glue your picture." As time progresses I combine the steps into one: "You need to draw, cut and glue your picture."

How Was Your Day?

This is our favorite supper time game. We go around the table and each person says their favorite and least favorite part of their day. We try to open up the conversation by asking open ended questions instead of questions that have a yes/no answers to them.