Developmental Milestones for a 4 years Old Child
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| Physical Development | |
A wide spectrum of changes can be observed in the development aspects of a 4 year old preschooler. As he begins to grow, he gains a better control over his motor skills. Being able to stand on one foot for a couple of seconds, turning somersaults to being able to catch that bounced ball most of the times, he manages it all. He now runs in a more controlled manner, understanding the dangers or obstacles in his way. Pauses or completely stops while turning to the corners of the room and then continues.
Your bonding session with your 4 year old awaits newer happenings. He manages to sit still for some time. Listens to your command and copies few capital letters, squares and triangles in his book. Teach him and show him once, on how to hold small blunt scissors and cut on the line in the paper. And you might observe? He is able to grasp and easily cuts around an object in the picture.
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Your bonding session with your 4 year old awaits newer happenings. He manages to sit still for some time. Listens to your command and copies few capital letters, squares and triangles in his book. Teach him and show him once, on how to hold small blunt scissors and cut on the line in the paper. And you might observe? He is able to grasp and easily cuts around an object in the picture.
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| Self Care and Hygiene | |
The ability to do things or an activity more confidently and by himself reflects even in his daily chores for self care. His clothes and the floor are less messy than it was before. He finishes his bowl of cereal porridge with minimal spilling. Brushing his teeth, dressing up, combing, washing hands and face requires only little assistance from your end or the part of a caregiver. Gets more inquisitive about the different utensils on the dining table. On carefully watching the others, he begins to imitate the ways of handling them. For e.g. he might arrange the small bowl used for dal on his plate on seeing his elder brother doing it.
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At around 4 years of age, a child does have better control on his Bladder and bowel movements. He gets toilet trained and does keeps the parent informed, when he desires to attend to his needs. Only if your child is ill or has been psychologically tensed over an issue, then it can affect his bowel and Bladder movements. It’s apt to discuss these issues with your child’s doctor. Also a child may feel shy or embarrassed, indicating a stranger or even a not so familiar relative about his urgent need to defecate or using the toilet. So even in these instances, he is likely to feel constipated or may not be able to control his Bladder movement thereby messing up his clothes.
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| Social, Emotional and Intellectual Development | |
A 4 year old’s activity or a play thrives solely on imagination, his thoughts, observations, experiences and ideas. For e.g. Trying to picture her mum, as she plays with her kiddo kitchen set. Even stepping in her shoes, carrying a small handbag and pretending to be going out. At times, you would even find him imagining an object to be something else and playing with it. For e.g. a small steel container can be a car zooming along the edges of the sofa.
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They like playing with an imaginary friend as well as real one of their same age group. Believe inanimate objects to be alive. While playing with other children, he may playfully make use of a teasing language and words heard from elsewhere. He may not understand its meaning but would experiment to see the gestures from his fellow mates. He would like to boast about the newly purchased doll and brag about his toys. On being taught by his parents, does understand that telling lies is not good. But he might still stick to saying one in the course of not being caught and punished.
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Many children when asked will also be able to tell where they live. Remembers and recalls some parts of stories which he had found interesting, when heard. A 4 year old child can express his needs and feelings in more complex sentences, builds a vocabulary of about 1,400 to 1,500 words. Speaks in a clear tone to be easily understood by others. His sentences are often linked with few past tense verbs, such as drank & went or a continuous tense ending with ‘ing’ for e.g. drawing. He can tell simple stories, count around eight to ten objects and be able to list names of four colours. A child may also be able to draw a simple picture representing a human being with two or four body parts.
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A child around 4 years of age also begins to develop understanding of the following concepts:-
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- Number and space concepts- more, less, smaller, bigger, under, behind.
- Similar and different things.
- Past, present and future but cannot understand the duration.
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His developing intellect also allows him to believe that pictures in books do represent real objects. He begins to differentiate the different textures of the objects. He begins to understand that his mum stores food in the refrigerator and keeps his clothes in the cupboard. Thus he becomes more familiar with common household items like furniture and fridge.
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Parents often tend to forewarn a particular behaviour of their children by threatening them through tales of monsters. So many a times it becomes quite apparent in their fears for darkness or a fictitious monster old man hidden in that closet. A child’s problem solving ability also begins to develop at around this age.
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Being slow does not mean your child is facing any major developmental concern. It might be so that he is scaling up in some other area of development and would steadily catch up to that of where earlier he was lagging behind. Discuss the alarming issues with your child’s doctor. As a parent, always focus on providing ample opportunities that fosters your child’s developmental skills.
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- Use new words and phrases in conversations.
- Let your child enjoy the mess with some colours. Draw a picture, let him hold the colour brush or crayon and paint the picture or the paper in his own way. He would thus be able to express his own ideas or thoughts freely.
- Make play time an opportunity to interact with fellow children of his age.
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It is quite obvious that in the process your child may or may not be able to accomplish a certain activity completely and successfully. But what really counts is giving him that conducive space for exploring his creative instincts and self expression.
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