A preschool teacher who works with four-year-old children should be most concerned about the oral language development of a child who has difficulty:

• A. Describing recent events in which the child has participated
• B. Reciting the alphabet perfectly
• C. Singing songs with support
• D. Naming colors accurately

Answer: (A)

Describing recent events taps a child’s ability to use language to organize thoughts and convey experiences, which is a central part of oral language development for preschoolers. A four-year-old should be able to tell what happened in a recent activity, who was involved, and describe the sequence of events with some detail. When a child struggles with this, it points to broader expressive-language challenges—vocabulary, grammar, and the ability to order ideas into a coherent narrative. Those skills are foundational for later literacy and classroom communication.

Tasks like reciting the alphabet mainly assess memory for letter names, not how well a child can express ideas in connected speech. Singing songs with support relies on memory and cueing, not independent narrative ability. Naming colors measures vocabulary for basic labels, but not the ability to narrate events. Therefore, difficulty describing events is the strongest indicator of a need to support oral language development.