It’s usual for kindergartners to have tantrums or get upset when things don’t go their way. But what is important is the language skills they must acquire by the end of kindergarten. Language allows them to relive their experiences and to think about them.

Here are 20 language skills that every parent could aim at instilling in their kindergarten child:

1. Completes simple rhyming pairs.

2. Hears and repeats sounds in a sequence.

3. Hears and repeats a simple eight to ten-word sentence.

4. Tells what happens first, middle, and last about an event or activity.

5. Dictates a story about an event or experience.

6. Answers questions and contributes to ideas that are relevant to the conversation or group discussion.

7. Speaks using complete sentences that include a subject, verb, simple phrases, and some adjectives.

8. Tells what is happening in a picture.

9. Identifies and reads the first and last name in print.

10. Reproduces a three-object pattern from memory – (Two squares and a circle).

11. Identifies and names eight basic colors (black, blue, red, yellow, orange, green, brown, purple).

12. Matches at least half of the upper-case letters with the lower-case letters.

13. Uses some initial and ending consonant sounds.

14. Names some letters of the alphabet.

15. Recognizes names and matches those words in context.

16. Reads his or her own writing to the group, teacher, and/or parent(s).

17. Demonstrates left-to-right and top-to-bottom eye movement when engaged in appropriate activities.

18. Shows basic parts of a book (front and back), hold a book correctly and indicates where to begin reading.

19. Prints first and last name on an unlined paper.

20. Traces, copies, and generates shapes, letters, and numerals.