A two- and a half-year-old child

• Relies increasingly on words to express self, but still uses gesture and other nonverbal behaviours
• Takes two or three turns in conversations with listener
• Enacts familiar activities in play e.g. with dolls
• Verbal commentary accompanies play
• Watches peers at play and occasionally joins in
• Focus of attention often rigid on absorbing activity; gradually increasing flexibility in attention control
• Uses strategy of doing what is usually done when responding to instructions e.g. ‘put the knife on the plate’
• Recognises names and pictures of most common objects
• Identifies objects by function e.g. ‘Which one is for eating?’
• Understands ‘What?’ and ‘Where?’
• Understands sentences with three key words e.g. ‘Get a biscuit and your big beaker ‘
• Average size of expressive vocabulary 500 words
• Starting to use three word phrases e.g. ‘Eat mummy cake’
• Asks lots of questions with ‘What?’ and ‘Where?’
• Starts talking about events in the past and, occasionally, future
• Single words and short phrases should be clear, though immature
• Starts to use grammatical structures:
  • plural -s ‘doggies’ ‘toys’
  • pronouns ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘it’
  • negative ‘I not happy’; ‘no juice’