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Month 1: Build Question-Answer Skills
Daily (10–15 min): Picture Book Session
Ask simple questions about pictures.
Examples:
● "Who is this?"
● "What is he doing?"
● "Where is the dog?"
If she doesn't answer:
Model:
"The dog is sleeping."
Then ask again later.
Do not turn it into a test.
Daily (5–10 min): Choice Questions
Start with questions that have visible answers.
Instead of:
"What do you want?"
Use:
"Do you want apples or crackers?"
Then:
"Tell me: apples or crackers?"
This teaches response patterns.
Daily (5 min): "What Did We Do?"
Use photos if possible.
Show a picture from earlier.
Ask:
"What did we do?"
If she can't answer:
Model:
"We went outside."
Then have her repeat.
Target by End of Month 1
Reliable responses to:
● Who? What? Where?
in familiar contexts.
You respond:
"Yes, the dog is sleeping on the couch."
You are constantly modeling slightly more advanced language.
Target by End of Month 2
Ability to answer:
● What happened? ● What did you do? ● What are you doing?
with simple relevant responses.
Month 3: Narrative Foundations
Daily (10–15 min): Three-Part Stories
Use real life.
Ask:
- Where did we go?
- What did we do?
- Then what happened?
Keep it simple.
Example:
"We went to the park."
"We played."
"Then we went home."
Even three connected ideas is progress.
Daily (10 min): Conversation Practice
Focus on 3-turn exchanges.
Example:
Adult:
"What are you building?"
Child:
"A tower."
Adult:
"What color is it?"
Child:
"Blue."
Adult:
"Is it tall or short?"
Child:
with something relevant?
Even:
"Park."
is progress.
One thing I'd change immediately
Avoid asking lots of abstract questions like:
"How are you?"
Many typically developing 3-year-olds answer that by routine rather than genuine understanding.
Instead ask questions tied to concrete experiences:
● What are you eating? ● Where is Daddy? ● What happened? ● What are you building? ● What did we do outside?
These are often much more revealing and productive.
Most important caveat
If there truly is a language disorder, the biggest gains usually come from targeted therapy plus daily practice , not from home practice alone. So I'd view a 3-month home regimen as something to do while pursuing an evaluation , not instead of one.
Based on the examples you've provided, I'd be especially interested in improving:
- WH-question answering.
- Talking about past events.
- Back-and-forth conversation.
- Generating original responses rather than repeating or using familiar scripts.
Those are the areas that seem most connected to the gap you noticed when comparing her with other 3-year-olds.
