Most children will:

• Understand "who", "what", "where" and "why" questions.
• Create long sentences, using 5 to 8 words.
• Talk about past events - trip to grandparents' house, day at childcare.
• Tell simple stories.
• Show affection for favourite playmates.
• Engage in multi-step pretend play - cooking a meal, repairing a car.
• Be understood by most people outside of the family, most of the time.
• Be aware of the function of print - in menus, lists, signs.
• Have a beginning interest in, and awareness of, rhyming.

Three-year-olds like it when you:

• Give them different materials to encourage drawing and scribbling, including chalk, pencils, crayons, markers, finger paints.
• Use descriptive words such as colours and opposites (hot/ cold, big/ little, fast/ slow) as well as action words (flying, splashing, running) when you are talking with them.
• Give them extra time to share their ideas.
• Give them choices - about what foods to eat, toys to play with, clothes to wear.
• Model correct sounds and grammar for them - child says "he wunned" and you say "yes, he ran".
• Read books that are predictable and repetitive - pause to give the child a chance to fill in the words and phrases.
• Play and pretend with them! They may like acting out scenes from their favourite videos, pretending to eat in a restaurant or to be a teacher or fire fighter.

Source: Your preschool child's speech and language development. Government of Ontario, 2007.