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Developmental Milestones: What to Expect in the Preschool Years

Your 3-year-old is no longer a baby and can do more things by themselves than you might expect. Also, they’re getting along better with other kids. Now is a great time to start them in a Brookeville child care center or a structured play group. They can improve their skills and make new friends at the same time.

What Are Developmental Milestones?

Developmental milestones are things like naming colors, showing love, and hopping on one foot. During a child’s development, there are things that most kids can do by a certain age. As kids grow, they hit important stages in learning, talking, acting, and playing.

The world will start to open up for kids as they get older. They will be able to do things independently and start caring more about kids at child care in Brookeville, MD, and others outside of their small circle. Their desire to discover and question what’s around them will grow even stronger. Their relationships with family and other people in their lives will shape who they are and how they think and act.

What to Expect at this Age

These are the beginning stages of childhood when kids start to become more independent. Their world starts to get bigger, and they become interested in kids and people besides their families. They are excited to learn more about the world around them and ask lots of questions. By age five, 90% of your child’s brain has grown. During these years, the way they connect with family and other people around them shapes who they are and how they think and move.

preschool boy playing with colorful toys

Speech Development

Parents love seeing their kids learn to talk because it means they are becoming more social and able to interact with others. In this age range, most kids can understand that letters and numbers stand for real things and ideas and can be used to tell stories and give information. Most of them will know other personal information about their family members, like their names and gender. They play with words and makeup stories and words all the time.

Kids ages 4 and 5 know between 1,000 and 2,000 words. People this age should be able to understand everything they say, but boys may make some developing sound mistakes and stutter. Four year olds can typically put together five word sentences, while five year olds can put up to eight words together in a sentence. Four year olds might only know one or two colors, while five year olds know four or more.

Understand the World Around Them

When a kid learns new words, they understand and become more aware of the world around them. This is the age when kids start to understand ideas and compare them to other ideas that aren’t concrete. Kids may hit these milestones at different rates at this age, but they happen to most of them around this time. At four years old, kids begin to understand how time works, and it just continues to improve as they get older.

Fitness and Wellness Milestones

Kids have a lot of basic skills by the time they are 3 to 5 years old. They can run, jump, kick, and throw. They will now keep working on these skills and use what they’ve learned to move on to more difficult ones. Use the fact that your child naturally wants to be busy to your advantage. Regular exercise helps kids grow and develop in a healthy way, and picking up new skills makes them feel more confident.

Kids learn how to skip, hop, and jump ahead at this age. They can only stand on one foot, catch a ball, or do a spin and can’t wait to show it off. Kids in preschool and kindergarten might also like swimming, playing on a field, dancing, and riding a tricycle or bike with training wheels.

Kids ages 4 to 5 should sleep between 10 and 12 hours each night. Those kids who do get enough rest might not need a nap during the day, but they can use some alone time in the afternoon, which is often offered at an after-school program in Brookeville, MD. They might go to bed earlier at night than they did when they were babies since they don’t take naps anymore.

Girl having fun by climbing up ladders at the playground

Communication Milestones

Talking to our kids is one of the best and most enjoyable parts of being a parent. In addition to this, children learn from interacting and having experiences with other people, family members, other children, and the world every day. In the years between 4 and 5, a lot of kids start preschool or kindergarten. Language skills are an important part of learning in these schools.

The skill to get along with other people is a very important part of growing up. A child goes through different stages, some of which are hard to handle, which can make this change hard for the parent. All children are different and will grow up with different personalities. However, here are some common behavior traits that your child may have: mood swings for both four and five year olds, fighting with siblings, playing in groups with other kids their age, being selfish and having a hard time sharing with others, using good manners, and more.

Kids learn more when they talk to each other and play. Reading books, singing, playing word games, and just talking to you will help kids learn new words and improve their hearing skills. As kids learn a language, they also get better at talking to others. Between the ages of 4 and 5, kids can follow more complicated directions and talk very excitedly about what they do. They can make up stories, listen to stories carefully, and tell stories again.

Final Thoughts

A lot of kids learn how to do things and hit certain goals by a certain age, but not all of them do. Kids grow and change at different rates. But if they’re not meeting developmental goals or are having trouble learning, they might need extra help getting ready for kindergarten.

Teacher is playing with cheerful children at preschool in maryland

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