Developing linguistic concepts: checklist

Early concepts

Concept	Understands	Uses	Concept	Understands	Uses
Quality: Dirty			Size: Big
Texture: Wet			Space: On
Hot			In
Quantity: Gone			Down Up
More			Movement: Stop
No			Go

Level 1 Concepts

Concept	Understands	Uses	Concept	Understands	Uses
Quality: Like			Movement: Fast
Colour: Blue			Slowly
Green			Space: By
Red			Inside Off
Texture: Hard			Out
Soft			Over
Sound: Noisy			To
Quiet/ly			Through
Shape:			Under
Dot/spot			Time: Again
Line			Now
Round			Number: One
Size: Heavy			Two
Little			Personal Qualities: Good
Quantity: A bit			Happy
All			Naughty
A lot			Sad
Some

Level 2 Concepts

Concept	Understands	Uses	Concept	Understands	Uses
Quality: Same as			Space: Round
Too			Away
Texture: Cold			Behind
Dry			Bottom
Sound: Loudly			Forward
Softly			In front of
Shape: Circle			Near
Square			Next to
Flat			Outside
Time: After			Straight
Soon			Number: Three Four
Today			Five
Size: Empty			Personal Qualities: Bad
Fat			Hungry
Full			Nice
Long			Pretty
Small			Silly
Biggest			Movement: Moving
Quantity: Another Many			Quickly
No more			Still
As much as			Colour: Black
			White
			Yellow

Level 3 Concepts

Concept	Understands	Uses	Concept	Understands	Uses
Size: Large			Quantity: About
Light			Both
Short			Every
Tall			Few
Thin			half
Bigger			Most
Fattest			Nearly
Heaviest			Only
Longest smallest			Other
Shape: Cross			Space: Back/forwards
Triangle			Beside
Texture: Furry			Between
Rough			Far
Smooth			Front
Warm			High
Time: Always			Low
Before			Middle
later			Side
Yesterday			Together
Quality: Different			Towards
New			Number: Second
Very			Third
Colour: Colour			Last
Pink			Personal Qualities: Frightened
Orange			Cross
Purple			Kind
			Thirsty

Level 4 Concepts

Concept	Understands	Uses	Concept	Understands	Uses
Size: Deep			Shape: Corner
Narrow			Curved
Shallow			Diamond
Thick			Oval
Wide			Rectangle
Fatter			Slant/slope
Heavier			Sound: High
Straight			Low
Longer			Time: Early
Smaller			Late
Largest			Never
Lightest			once
Shortest			Sometimes
Tallest			Tomorrow
Thinnest			Twice
Quantity: Each			Colour: Dark/er
Enough			Light/er
Equal			Movement: Jerky
Fewest			Smooth
Less			Personal Qualities: Clever
None			Excited
Part			Pleased
Plenty			Unkind
Several			Quality: Almost
Unequal			Old
Whole
Space: Above
Across
Against
Apart Below
Facing
Row

AGE	Milestones
1-2 years	Follows simple special directions, such as in and on Understands another uses simple directional terms such as up and down Uses two or three prepositions such as on, in or under
2-3 years	Distinguishes between in and under, one and many Understands number concepts of one and two Understands size differences such as big/little Understands in, off, on, under, out of, together, away from Begins to understand time concepts of soon, later, wait Selects three that are the same from a set of four objects Selects the object that is not the same from four objects with three of them identical Begins to use adjectives for colour and size
3-4 years	Follows quantity directions empty, a lot Follows equality directions same, both Understands next to, beside, between Identifies colours Matches one-to-one Points to object that is different from others uses position concepts behind, in front, around
4-5 years	Understands comparative and superlative adjectives such as big, bigger, biggest Understands time concepts yesterday, today, tomorrow, first, then, next days of the week, last week, next week Understands different, nearest, through, thin , whole Identifies positional concepts first, middle, last
5-6 years	Understands opposite concepts, such as big/little, over/under Understands left/right Understands number concepts up to 20 Answers ” how are things the same/different?” Uses adjectives for describing Uses comparative adjectives, such as loud, louder Uses yesterday and tomorrow Uses adverb concepts backwards and forwards Uses prepositions through, nearest, corner, middle Names ordinal numbers, such as first, second, third