Preschool Development
Checklist
(part 2)
Up until now and as discussed in my previous article on
preschool development the
preschooler's development
has been one of exploring, role playing, and
imitation.
Physical skills are those of the larger
muscle groups involved in exploring and playing.
As social development draws nearer for the preschool
aged child, they will begin to learn how to interact
with their peers. Early on though, the initial
exposure to social development for the preschool
child may be that of individualized group play. By
that I mean that the children will be together in a
group, but will be playing with their own toys and
not with each other.
At this point, there is no type
of group cooperation or interaction. As preschool
social development continues you will begin to see
the signs of cooperative behavior creeping in
(probably around the age of 5 on).
Signs of
cooperative behavior are easily identified by
children sharing objects, rolling balls back and
forth, anything that would illicit a receive and
response between to kids. Also at this age you'll
see your kids becoming ‘best friend' oriented. Also
from a physical development perspective you'll
notice more of the finer motor skills being
developed and used.
Keep in mind that preschoolers like attention and
they like to please mom and dad. They will come to
you with almost anything they feel they have
accomplished. They like to be sure you are watching
while they are playing. You will hear “watch me”
throughout your day.
Preschool children require
frequent approval and praise as they determine and
explore various new behaviors and tasks. Remember
they have no past experience on which to base
anything so it is important that you praise and
encourage proper behaviors so they begin to build a
strong foundation from which to call upon.
Language development for the preschool child is
closely tied to their cognitive development.
Developmentally speaking three year old children can
communicate in simple complete sentences such as
expressing their needs or basic emotions.
From this
age, children will progress to using more complex
and compound sentences. At around four years of age
kids will begin to sing, tell tales, and generally
be more creative with their speech.
Although children at this age (3 to 5) are
developing outward expression in the form of their
sentence complexity and the size of their vocabulary
they command, they probably will still only be able
to take in and process basic, precise commands from
you the parent.
Don't be frustrated if your child
doesn't completely grasp commands or instructions
that have multiple steps involved and are give at
the top level such at “pick up your toys” or “clean
your room”. Difficulty in processing may occur hear
because the child won't quite understand ‘and put
them where' or how to clean or how clean is clean
enough?
Again patience is the key. Understanding the level
of preschool child development your child is
will be of great help in keeping your patience and
your expectations at the correct level and will
increase your level of success.
|
