There are many interesting stages that children will experience early in their lives. While some of these might represent personal triumphs, others can help parents and teachers track the overall developmental process of the child in question. There are actually numerous milestones that will occur at a very young age. Let us examine some of the most notable.
Performance Milestones
Children will begin to develop a host of new abilities that were previously unknown to them. Some of these are purely physical in nature. Examples include skipping rope, hopping on one foot, walking down a flight of stairs without adult assistance, and being able to dress themselves.
Others involve spatial and observational tasks. For example, most four-year-old children should be able to stack ten building blocks to form a tower, to draw basic shapes and to illustrate the representation of a person (even if only a stick figure).
These milestones are often used in conjunction with modern assessment and observational approaches such as those provided by Educater.co.uk. Thus, it is much easier to appreciate if a child might require a bit of assistance with a specific task.
Speech and Language Development
Children who are four years old will also begin to develop a more in-depth and expressive vocabulary. Here are some of the breakthroughs that tend to be exhibited at this age:
- Using four or more words to make a sentence.
- Recognising one or more colours by name.
- Becoming extremely inquisitive.
- Knowing at least one day of the week or being able to name at least one month.
- He or she will develop a desire to tell stories.
Of course, note that some children will naturally progress faster than others.
Comprehension Milestones
Mental development is just as crucial at an early age. This is why parents and teachers will keep a close eye on specific behaviours. For example, children who are four years old will begin to posses a basic working knowledge of time. This understanding will often translate into environmental observations, as the child may appreciate that his or her actions will have an impact upon the outside world. Here are some other examples of what most children will begin to achieve by this age:
- Recognising others are completely separate entities from themselves.
- Appreciating the impact of his or her own thoughts.
- Being able to follow rules (although not necessarily understanding the notion of right from wrong).
Once again, it is just as important to mention that some children may lag slightly behind while others could very well begin to perform actions associated with five-year-olds. All children are different and hit 'milestones' at different ages and times when they are ready to.
