Speech and Language Traits of the
Four-Year-Old

At age four, your child will…

• Point to colors red, blue, yellow and green
• Identify crosses, triangles, circles and squares
• Follow commands even though objects are not present
• Speak of imaginary conditions such as “suppose that” or “I hope”
• Ask many questions, although he is more interested in how the answers fit into his own thoughts rather than simply an explanation
• Have an average sentence length of four to five words
• Ask “who?” and “why?”
• Begin to use complex sentences
• Use contractions such as “it’s a”
• Use past tenses correctly
• Have a vocabulary of nearly 1,500 words
• Uses most speech sounds correctly

You can stimulate the four-year-old’s speech and language by…

• Helping the child classify or group objects, explaining how things are alike or different
• Teaching the child to correctly use the telephone
• Letting the child help you plan activities such as what you will prepare for dinner
• Giving the child more responsibility
• Talking with the child as you would any other person
• Reading longer stories to him or her
• Letting him tell and make up stories for you
• Continuing to show your pleasure and approval at his or her development in speech, language, and thought
• Not expecting absolute perfection in the child’s pronunciation of words

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