Introduction
Social
Emotional
Cognitive
Language
Movement
Hand and Finger Skills
Developmental Health Watch
| Children develop at their own pace, so it's impossible to tell exactly when yours will learn a given skill. The developmental milestones below will give you a general idea of the changes you can expect as your child gets older, but don't be alarmed if your child takes a slightly different course. |
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Social
- Interested in new experiences
- Cooperates with other children
- Plays "Mom" or "Dad"
- Increasingly inventive in fantasy play
- Dresses and undresses
- Negotiates solutions to conflicts
- More independent
Emotional
- Imagines that many unfamiliar images may
be "monsters"
- Views self as a whole person involving
body, mind, and feelings
- Often cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality
Cognitive
- Correctly names some colors
- Understands the concept of counting and
may know a few numbers
- Tries to solve problems from a single
point of view
- Begins to have a clearer sense of time
- Follows three-part commands
- Recalls parts of a story
- Understands the concepts of "same" and
"different"
- Engages in fantasy play
Language
- Has mastered some basic rules of grammar
- Speaks in sentences of five to six words
- Speaks clearly enough for strangers to
understand
- Tells stories
Movement
- Hops and stands on one foot up to five
seconds
- Goes upstairs and downstairs without
support
- Kicks ball forward
- Throws ball overhand
- Catches bounced ball most of the time
- Moves forward and backward with agility
Hand and Finger Skills
- Copies square shapes
- Draws a person with two to four body
parts
- Uses scissors
- Draws circles and squares
- Begins to copy some capital letters
Developmental Health Watch
Alert your child's doctor or nurse if your child displays any of the following signs of possible developmental delay for this age range.
- Cannot throw a ball
overhand
- Cannot jump in place
- Cannot ride a
tricycle
- Cannot grasp a
crayon between thumb and fingers
- Has difficulty
scribbling
- Cannot stack four
blocks
- Still clings or
cries whenever parents leave
- Shows no interest in
interactive games
- Ignores other
children
- Doesn't respond to
people outside the family
- Doesn't engage in
fantasy play
- Resists dressing,
sleeping, using the toilet
- Lashes out without
any self-control when angry or upset
- Cannot copy a circle
- Doesn't use
sentences of more than three words
- Doesn't use "me" and
"you" correctly
- Experiences a dramatic loss of skills he or she once had
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From CARING FOR YOUR BABY AND YOUNG CHILD: BIRTH TO AGE 5 by Steven Shelov, Robert E. Hannermann, © 1991, 1993, 1998, 2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Used by permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
See PDF Version:
Important Milestones: By the End of 4 Years (48 Months) [PDF, 147KB]
