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Talking about the past

Does your child love to tell you about what they've been up to?

When they reach around three years old, children start to remember events that happened in the past and might start to talk to you about them.

Encouraging them to talk about past events will stimulate their brain to think about things beyond just what's in front of them and ultimately help their speech and language development.

The video below shows how using the past tense with your child will encourage them to form more complex sentences in a new tense.

What are the language benefits of talking about the past with your child?

  • Talking about the past encourages children to use longer sentences.
  • This activity helps children develop their vocabulary and their understanding of sentence structure.
  • It encourages them to practise the grammar of the past tense, which is an important next step for language development.
  • It allows them to express their opinion about an event and explain their reasoning behind that.
Two women sit with a young child on the floor in their living room.
By talking about the past, you are encouraging your child to use sentence structures that they don't use in their daily life.

Top tips for talking about the past with a preschooler

Use open question words, such as what, where, when and why. This will encourage them to use words instead of just saying yes or no.

If they struggle to answer the questions initially give them a choice. You could say, "Did we go by car or bus?", "Did we buy apples or bananas?", "Did we see Nanny or grandpa?"

If they reply with an incomplete sentence, don't correct them, just expand the sentence and repeat back to them. This technique helps your child absorb new sentences in context.

If they are struggling to remember, you can use photos or objects to prompt them.

For example, if you go to the shops, lay out the money, receipt, some of the items you bought and a shopping bag. Help them think through how they got there, what they bought and how they paid.

You can also encourage them to practise recalling what they have done through the day when they chat to family members on the phone, video call, or face to face.

Remember to introduce new words every day and explain them to your child. The more they see, hear, and experience language, the more likely their sentences will develop.

Two women sit with a young child on the floor in their living room.
By talking about the past, you are encouraging your child to use sentence structures that they don't use in their daily life.

More information on talking about the past

Learning to talk about the past is a key part of language learning. We've got loads more information about this across our website.

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