Speech sounds
They can speak clearly and be easily understood most of the time.
They show a strong understanding of sounds and words, which helps them with their reading and spelling. For example, they can break short words into individual sounds: “fish” can be split into /f/ – /i/ – /sh/.
They can use the connection between sounds and letters to read and spell words they haven’t seen before.
They are able to notice more complex rhymes in words. For example, kitten/mitten and happy/snappy.
They can count the number of syllables in words. For example: “But-ter-fly” has 3 syllables.
Vocabulary
They can understand that the same word can mean two things, such as ‘orange’ the fruit and ‘orange’ the colour.
They understand feelings and descriptive words like ‘carefully’, ‘slowly’ or ‘surprised’.
Attention, listening and understanding
They can follow more complex instructions that have two or three steps. For example: “Put on your red coat, find your blue boots and sit on the chair next to the door.”
They can understand the important parts of a question or instruction and start to ignore less important information.
They know when they have not understood something and ask for help or an explanation.
Sentence building and grammar
They can use a wide range of imaginative and descriptive words in their sentences. For example: “Just then, a scary monster jumped out!”
They can use more complex grammar and join phrases in different ways to explain or justify events. For example: “It started raining, so we ran inside because we didn’t want to get wet.”
They can ask lots of questions to find out specific information, including how and why. For example: “Why do birds build nests in trees?”
Storytelling and narrative
They can follow and remember a story that is told over several days.
They can tell a story with the main parts in place, including setting the scene, having a basic plot, and putting events mostly in the correct order.
They can make accurate predictions about what might happen next in a story.
They can talk about their own experiences, for example a holiday or day out. They can add detail and tell the events in the correct order.
Conversations and social interaction
They can take turns speaking, listen carefully, and respond appropriately in conversations with one or more people.
They can use language they hear from others and start to notice how other children their age talk.
They are learning to use different ways of speaking with different people, such as talking more casually with friends and more politely with adults.
They can usually stay on topic in a conversation and can be gently guided to move on if they are talking too much or they aren’t giving others the chance to speak.