intended meaning without a

grammatically correct sentence

(Groark, McCarthy, & Kirk, 2014).
Cognitive Milestones
Children at this stage should be able
to name four or more colors correctly,
count ten or more objects, and
understand the order of daily activities
(Siegler & Alibali, 2005).
Physical Milestones
By early childhood children will
begin gaining muscle and losing baby
fat. Their bodies take on a slimmer,
taller shape and facial features begin
to mature (Groark, McCarthy, & Kirk,
2014). Fine motor skills progress
through putting together simple
puzzles or holding writing
instruments, and gross motor skills
like running, jumping, and toilet
training begin to advance (Mossler,
2011).
Language Milestones
Continuing to build vocabulary, now
at approximately 2000 words,
children will be able to form all the
sounds of speech within the home
language. Additionally, they begin
using paralinguistic aspects such as
inflection, rhythm, and volume to
express emotion and urgency, and to
understand another speakers meaning
(Groark, McCarthy, & Kirk, 2014).
Around 24-30 months old, children
will begin using two to three-word
sequences such as Duck quack,
which provide the listener with
enough information to understand the

Social & Cultural Factors

Preschoolers are influenced by family,
peers and community contacts.
Church groups, play groups, and
family dinners strengthen
communication skills. Use sociodramatic play to help children label
and express emotions. Turn-taking
games help them develop selfregulation skills.
Signs of Atypical Development
Deficiencies in working-memory
capacity are cause for concern as
working memory should improve
steadily from approximately age 2.5 to
adolescence and will serve as a
predictor of academic achievement
(Berk, 2012). Working memory
allows for the retention and
manipulation of information for a
short duration of time, which plays a
key role in areas of cognitive
development such as attention,
reasoning, and organization
(Klingberg, Forssberg, & Westerberg,
2002). Memory span tasks are used to
measure working memory in children
as young as 22 months (Roman,
Pisoni, & Kronenberger, 2014).

Strategies for Families

Reduce chronic stress and
support working memory
development through
scaffolding of different
memory strategies. One
strategy is to influence a
childs autobiographical
memory by elaborating on
the idea or topic in which a
child is interested. By
asking probing questions,
and providing their own
opinion or memory to the
conversation, a parent or
caregiver will enrich the
childs memory and aid in
mental organization of
details for future recall
(Berk, 2012).