Preschoolers are a bundle of energy, wonder, and magic. Between 3 and 5, they change from toddlers to school-goers. Take a peek at some of the major achievements of this age, and then click on the associated hyperlinks to get a more in-depth view of the many things that children this age are learning!
By the end of this period your child:
- Should be able to:
- Use symbols for non-present objects (e.g., a drawing, a letter) (cognitive development)
- Sort by more than one attribute (e.g.,color and size) (academic skills)
- Have a vocabulary of at least 5,000-8,000 words (language & literacy)
- Display empathy for a peer (social development)
- Engage in symbolic play (e.g.,use a checker as a cookie) (creativity development)
Will probably be able to:
- Have a basic sense of time, although they may use words like yesterday to mean a week ago (cognitive development)
- Show basic understanding of cause and effect (e.g., when I run, my heart beats faster) (academic skills)
- Know most of their letters and sounds and be reading simple phonetic sentences (language & literacy)
- Identify stable characteristics of themselves, such as gender or race (social development)
- Preplan a story, role, or game and build off their imagination to carry it out (creativity development)
May possibly be able to:
- Understand that a single item can be part of more than one group (e.g., be both a girl and a child) (cognitive development)
- Independently do addition and subtraction in their head. (academic skills)
- Read simple books independently (language & literacy)
- Use words to describe emotions instead of acting on them (social development)
- Demonstrate divergent thinking (e.g., come up with multiple, unusual uses of a common item such as a toilet paper roll) (creativity development)