Developmental Milestones: 3 to 5 -Year-Olds
Since birth, you’ve watched your child grow and develop. You’ve noted their height and weight when they first crawled, stood, and walked or even when they said their first words and you may have compared all of these developmental milestones of his infant and toddler years to societal norms.
The preschool and early school years are also chock-full of changes. From three to five your child’s motor skills, language, thinking, and social development evolve drastically. Knowing what is likely to come as your little one grows can give you the reassurance that your child is going to be on course with their peers or alert you to potential concerns they might have.
With this in mind, below are some milestones to watch for during the preschool years.
Where does it all begin?
Well done! You have managed to make it past the terrible twos. But now what? Hopefully, you have the energy left to enjoy what is to come for you and your preschooler. So refer to the next few years the ‘magic years’ partly due to the fact they seem like magic that your child is actually listening to you and partly because for your child, it is a time for their imagination and playful nature to run free!
Your 3- to 5-year-old child will go on to grow and develop in lots of ways in the coming year. With children reaching developmental milestones at different points, your child will likely achieve the following developmental milestones before they turn 5.
3-year-old milestones
As your 3-year-old's gets older, you will notice their attention span will grow as well as their verbal skills developing, they will be capable of following instructions and expressing their own needs and thoughts thoroughly. The journey from toddler to preschooler, though, can often be a bit rocky. It’s natural to experience a fair few meltdowns or tantrums, but be sure this comes in tandem with silliness and a fun spirit that will bring plenty of joy to you too!
Physical Development
It’s not just the case that 3-year-olds are increasing in height and weight, but they are also fine-tuning their gross and fine motor skills. Much like everything else, mastering of these skills will be different for each child and by their ability and size. As your 3-year-old grows, they are learning more about their own body and how to control it. Their balance will get increase and, with practice, your child will be capable of doing things they hadn't been able to before.
Emotional Development
The classic tantrums often peak around this age as your child establishes how to deal with new and possibly stress-inducing situations. So despite your 3-year-old perhaps insisting on independence, they’ll struggle to deal with frustration when given the opportunity to try something themselves.
Some 3-year-olds may find it challenging being separated from their caregivers. With this in mind, your child may cry when you drop them off at preschool or may express sadness about going to daycare, even if they enjoy it there.
Key Milestones
● Gross motor skills: Most 3-year-olds can walk in a line, balance on a low balance beam, skip or gallop, and can attempt to walk backwards. They can often pedal a tricycle, catch and throw a large ball, and jump on two feet.
● Fine motor skills: By age 3, kids can often are able to wash and dry their hands, dress themselves with some assistance, and turn pages in a book. Often preschoolers can hold a writing instrument with their fingers, not their fist.
● Some 3-year-olds are also ready to be potty-trained.
4-year-old milestones
If you think your 4-year-old is difficult to keep up with, it’s likely because little ones develop lots of new skills very quickly during this pivotal year. You may not be totally sure what to expect at this age, particularly if this is new to you. But know that all kids develop at their own rate. If your child isn’t doing countless exciting things - there is no need to worry.
Physical development
If you’re forking out a bit more cash for groceries and clothing lately, it’s likely because your 4-year-old is growing at a quick rate. Kids can put on close to 5 pounds and grow up to 4 inches during this age. Their eyesight continues to get better which in turns their coordination improves.
By the end of this year, most kids can do these things:
● Gross motor skills
● Alternate feet on the stairs
● Jump with two feet
● Use door handles
● Control big muscle movements more easily - they may be able to start, stop, turn, and go around obstacles while running
● Log roll, do somersaults, skip, and trot
● Throw and bounce a ball
● Jump over objects and climb playground ladders
● Pedal and steer a tricycle or bike
Cognitive development
This year, a child’s ability to understand and learn surpasses the basics of the world they know around them. They might start thinking about and understanding things they can’t see or physically touch. You might notice that your child starts to “have an idea” more often than you’d seen before. Most 4-year-olds are developing skills to:
● Start sorting things by attributes like size, shape, and colour
● Compare and contrast by things like height, size, or gender
● Begin to understand the difference between real and make-believe, but may still confuse them
● Understand that pictures and symbols stand for real things
● Recognize shapes in the real world
Social and Emotional development
Your child could be starting to establish a unique and recognizable personality. Kids at this age are likely to get along with peers and work out things that bother them through play. Most children will also be able to:
● show and express a healthy and wider range of emotions
● Sharing, cooperation, being helpful and taking turns
● Start tattling and acting a little bossier
● Enjoy telling silly jokes and often find things funny
● Begin telling white lies to get out of mischief, even though they know it’s wrong
5-year-old milestones
The development of a 5-year-old is frequently fraught with emotional extremes and even contradiction. At the age of 5, lots of children are often straddling the not-too-distant past of the toddlerhood and preschool years and the upcoming big kid phase of development on the horizon.
A 5-year-old will often be able to exhibit a lot more self-control in comparison to a toddler, and most kids this age can sit for periods of time in a classroom and listen to a teacher's direction. As well as this, a child of 5 is still learning to regulate emotion, and will still be prone to meltdowns over something as trivial as a spilt drink.
Physical Development
Your 5-year-old has likely left their toddler years long behind them and are on their way to becoming more coordinated and accurate in their movements as they enter their school years.
At age 5, lots of children will begin to look less like a chubby-cheeked and toddler-like and a little lankier! This is when kids begin to lose puppy fat and gain muscle weight. Some of the typical growing milestones include gaining four to five pounds, growing two or three inches, and getting 20/20 vision.
Emotional Development
At age 5, children are entering the big kid world of stronger emotions and regulation. Lots of 5-year-olds are people pleasers who actively want to make friends and receive positive feedback from adults. All things considered, 5-year-old children are still very much in the world of younger children and will display the emotional highs and lows that come with this age bracket such as extreme, tantrums and contradictions.
This is the age when many children begin articulating their feelings in a significant way. For example, a 5-year-old child might express a sentiment such as ‘I don't want to go to bed early.’ Children are also developing empathy, and a 5-year-old who sees a friend in distress might say, ‘I'm sorry you are upset.’ If a child this age is sad about an issue, they might declare what they're thinking, and say something like, ‘I'm mad at you.’
A final point
Remember that these are all milestones that represent overall averages, not strict developmental deadlines which have to be urgently met at these points. Children manoeuvre through these changes at varying rates, some quicker, others slower.
You’re the best judge of your little one’s development and what is considered normal for them, but if you have any issues, discuss them with your child’s GP. When you think you’ve figured out your child, something is always changing. Today they demand constant attention; six months from now he may be desperate for independence You might find strategies that once worked no longer do the trick Don’t worry, this is okay!
As a parent, you are constantly preparing your child for life in all kinds of ways and the preschool years are pivotal time. Through learning to interact with their peers, through being physical, through learning self-care to recognising their own feelings and how to manage them, attending nursery school is a crucial part of this development.
As experienced and compassionate childcare providers in Nottingham, here at Sandfield Day Nursery, we appreciate that selecting the best day nursery for your little one’s childcare can be difficult. That is why, at Sandfield Day Nursery, we go above and beyond to create a comforting and educational nursery environment for the little ones of Nottingham. To find out more, please get in touch.
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