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Preschool Readiness
Listed below are some basic developmental milestones for children ages 3-5 years old.
3 years old
Gross Motor Skills:
- Jumps in place
- Walks up and down stairs independently using alternating feet
- Can balance momentarily on one foot
- Throws a ball overhand
- Can kick a large ball
- Catches a bounced ball with both arms extended
Fine Motor Skills:
- Shows control of crayons or markers when drawing
- Begins to hold crayon or marker between first 2 fingers and thumb. (Tripod Grasp)
- Turn pages of a book one at a time
- Builds a tower of 8 or more blocks
- May begin to show preference for use of right or left hand
Speech and Language Development:
- Talks about known objects, events and people not present
- Talks about the actions of others
- Answers simple questions appropriately
- Asks increasing number of questions
- Recites nursery rhymes and sings songs
- Produces expanded noun phrases: ex. “big brown dog”
- Produces verbs with ing endings, uses “s” to indicate more than one
- Uses the preposition “in”
Self Help Skills:
- Dresses self with help on pullover shirts and all fasteners
- Manipulates large buttons and zippers on clothing
- Washes and dries hands; demonstrates good hygiene
- Insists on doing things without assistance
- Feeds self-entire meal
- Wipes nose when reminded
Social and Emotional Development:
- Seems to understand taking turns, but not always willing to do so
- Friendly, laughs frequently, is eager to please
- Joins in simple games and group activities
- Often talks to self
- Defends toys and other possessions
- Engages in make-believe play alone and with other children
- Sits and listens to stories up to 10 minutes
- Begins to express feelings/emotions in an appropriate manner
- Begins to understand some limits and rules
- Makes simple choices (between two objects)
Cognitive Development:
- Can stay with the same activity for five to ten minutes (increasing concentration)
- Names big and little objects
- Uses toys to symbolize real objects
- Puts interlocking puzzles together
- Begins to notice patterns
- Can sort or describe objects by one or more attributes
- Shows an interest in numbers and names of numbers
- Uses words for time such as yesterday and today
- Uses colors appropriately
- Recognizes name in print
- Identifies and names body parts
4 years old
Gross Motor Skills:
- Walks on a straight line
- Hops on one foot
- Pedals and steers a bicycle with confidence and skill
- Climbs easily
- Jumps and lands on both feet
Fine Motor Skills:
- Builds a tower with 10 or more blocks
- Reproduces some shapes and numbers
- Holds crayon or marker using the tripod grasp
- Paints and draws with deliberateness
- Threads small wooden beads on a string
- Writes own name
Speech and Language Development:
- Uses the prepositions “on”, “in”, and “under”
- Uses prepositions consistently “hers” and “theirs”
- Uses can’t and don’t to mark negatives
- Produces elaborate sentence structure
- Begins to correctly use the past tense of verbs
- States first and last name, gender and sibling names
- Refers to activities, events, objects and people that are not currently present
- Spells name
Self Help Skills:
- Dresses self with help
- Can lace shoes, button buttons and buckle belts
- Appropriately and comfortably asks for help
- Puts on mittens and boots
- Puts zipper foot in catch
Social and Emotional Development:
- Moods change rapidly and sometimes unpredictably
- Cooperates with others, participates in group activities
- Demands doing things independently
- Shows pride in accomplishments
- Takes turns and shares
- Understands and accepts limits
- Has an increasing attention span
- Is developing patience
Cognitive Development:
- Begins to reason
- Engages in more developed play themes
- Understands simple concepts
- Begins to sort or categorize
- Put things in order or sequence
- Notices patterns
- Counts objects out loud
- Is interested in the alphabet
- Is developing early literacy
- Identifies colors
5 years old
Gross Motor Skills:
- Walks backward heel to toe
- Bends to touch toes without flexing knees
- Walks a balance beam
- Learns to skip using alternating feet
- Jumps or hops forward on both feet 10 times in a row without falling
- Balances on either foot with good control for 10 seconds
Fine Motor Skills:
- Begins to show dominate hand preference
- Reproduces many shapes and letters
- Demonstrates good control of crayon or marker, may begin to color within the lines
- Cuts on the line with scissors
Speech and Language Development:
- Tells a familiar story while looking at pictures in a book
- Defines simple words by function: ex. a ball is to bounce, and a bed is to sleep in
- Uses “would” and “could” appropriately
- Uses past tense irregular verbs consistently: ex. “went”, “caught”, “swam”
- Uses past tense inflection (ed) appropriately to mark regular verbs: ex. “jumped”, “rained” and “washed”
Self Help Skills:
- Dresses self completely
- Learning to tie shoes
Social and Emotional Development:
- Enjoys friendships; often has one or two special friends
- Is often generous; shares toys and takes turns
- Is affectionate and caring towards younger or injured children
- Has better self-control, has fewer dramatic swings of emotions
Cognitive Development:
- Counts twenty or more objects with accuracy
- Uses measurement terms
- Understands whole and half and uses them in a sentence
- Matches objects with ease
- Knows some names of coins and bills (money)
- Estimates numbers in a group
- Draws basic shapes and more
- Sorts and organizes
- Expresses interest in creative movement