2 to 3 Year Olds Speech Therapy

By 2 years of age, children are now actively exploring their environment and their understanding of the world is reflected in their emerging pretend play (e.g. cooking, farm animals, feeding animals and dolls).

During this time your child recognises the names of most common objects and begins to understand what objects are used for. At 2 years of age, they can follow 2-part directions and by 3 years of age can answer What?, Where? and Who? questions.

Your child is beginning to understand simple concept words such as ‘big/little’, ‘hot/cold’, and position words like ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘under’. Your child will talk whilst playing and will want to tell you about what she/he is doing or observing. By 3 years of age, children will also seek to learn more about their world by asking many questions (The Hanen Centre, 2011).

• Is your child not joining two words together at age 2 years?
• Is your child using less than 100 words at age 2 years?
• Is your child using less than 300 words at age 2 ½ years?
• Is your child using less than 3-4 word phrases at age 3 years?
• Are you having difficulty understanding your child’s speech?
• Is your child not interested in communicating?

• Does your child have difficulty understanding what you say to him/her?
• Is your child stuttering?
• Is your child frustrated when trying to communicate?
• Are you becoming concerned?