2 -2 ½ Years

Gross Motor:  Your child is becoming more independent with navigating the stairs during this time and progresses to walking up the stairs using reciprocal movements independently.  Walking down the stairs may continue to be more difficult with your child placing 2 feet per step when walking alone.  Balancing and core control continue to advance with ability to walk backwards and to stand on toes and on one foot for a few seconds.

Fine Motor:  Your little one is becoming more independent and can wash his hands independently.  He is also demonstrating a good grasp and wrist control with using a spoon.  With dressing, he is able to unbutton large buttons on his clothing.  He is also becoming more independent with play and is able to turn the pages of his books by himself and begins to create things with clay and playdoh.        

Visual Perception:  Visual discrimination, visual scanning, and visual attention skills that your child will need for writing and reading continue to emerge with ability to locate details and images in picture books, point to various objects and people in their environment, match circle, triangles, and squares, sort by size and color, and match simple pictures.  He can also identify up to 4 basic body parts on himself.  You may also notice your little on demonstrating improved sequencing and perceptual skills to nest blocks and stack rings in correct order.

Visual Motor:  Your little artist has gotten quite good at using a paintbrush, can imitate drawing a horizontal line, is able to paste pieces of paper, and is even able to fold a piece of paper to make a card.  He has also developed his skills for ball play and can throw and catch a large ball.  Self-help skills continue to improve with ability to assist with teethbrushing and dress and undress with help for fasteners and pullover shirts.

Cognitive:  Your child is now able to attend to more than one thing at a time.  He has memorized many of his favorite rhymes, songs, and stories.  He has become very interested in how things work and will often explore things by breaking or taking them apart.  He will also begin to incorporate others into his pretend play.  Favorite activities include block play, pouring and dumping, pretend play, and play with dolls or action figures.

Sensory:  You have utilized linear and up and down movement for your little one since birth.  At 2 years of age, your child’s vestibular system has developed enough to also tolerate rotational input.

2 ½ to 3 Years

Gross Motor:  Improved balance and coordination allows your child to walk on a line with one foot in front of the other, walk on tiptoes, hold on one foot for 2-3 hops, and pedal a tricycle.

Fine Motor:  Tactile discrimination skills are developing allowing your child to identify simple objects by touch alone.  She can also manipulate small beads and pegs and can squeeze an eye dropper, which can be incorporated into fun craft activities.  Her bilateral coordination is also improving with ability to hold an object with one hand while using the other hand to perform an action, such as holding the paper while snipping, holding lace while stringing, and holding a lacing board while lacing.

Visual Perception:  Sorting and matching skills are developing with your child able to match primary colors, such as blue, red, and yellow, match similar pictures of objects, and sort simple shapes.  She is beginning to understand the concept of larger or smaller and is beginning to show color recognition skills, with ability to point to primary colors.  In addition, she can complete simple 3 piece interlocking puzzles of familiar objects, such as animals and can point to at least 6 body parts in a picture.

Visual Motor:  Pre-writing and cutting skills are emerging allowing your child to begin snipping with scissors and progressing to making continuous snips, to imitate circular strokes, and to copy vertical and horizontal lines and circles without an adult model.  Manipulation and bilateral skills have progressed allowing your child to successfully string half inch beads and pour from one container to another.  She can also stack up to 8-9 blocks and is beginning to demonstrate ability to copy simple block designs.  She has begun to explore and master using a fork.  With ball play, she can now throw overhanded and kick a ball forward up to 7 feet.

Cognition:  Your child can now remember events that occurred up to 18 months earlier.  She may also know where you are going in the car based on landmarks.  Her favorite things to say may be “why?” and “how?” as your child tries to better understand the world around her.  She begins to understand directional words, such as in, on, and under.  She uses self-talk to help her work through tasks and problems and will try alternative solutions when unsuccessful.  Peer play is developing, as she can now understand that other’s needs may be different than her own and can recognize that she has caused distress in another child, possibly experiencing guilt.  Happy emotions continue to be easier to understand than negative emotions.  Pretend play begins to involve longer sequences, such as feeding, bathing, and then putting a doll to sleep, as well as incorporate scenes from movies or books.  She enjoys dressing up and is able to play more than one role, such as pretending to be a teacher and a student.  Symbolic play is also emerging, with your child able to use unrealistic objects as props.

Sensory:  Awareness continues to develop with ability to identify several body parts.  Gross motor play, such as pushing, pulling, lifting, and carrying, provide input to the various muscles and joints of the body, improving your child’s perception of his body.  Obstacle course activities in which the child maneuvers her body around, over, and through objects will also improve her spatial awareness.  Tactile processing skills continue to improve, allowing your child to identify objects by touch alone.

3 – 3 ½ Years

Gross Motor:  Your child’s balance skills now allow him to stand on one foot for up to 5 seconds and balance on a balance beam.  He is walking up and down the steps while alternating his feet and is able to march to music demonstrating improved lower extremity coordination.

Fine Motor:  Finger dexterity and isolation has improved with your child able to hold up his fingers to tell his age.  His upper extremities are becoming stronger with your little one able to use enough force to roll his playdoh into worms or snakes.  Coloring and drawing skills are also improving related to improved grasping skills, with your child holding his crayon or marker with the thumb, index, and middle fingers.    

Visual Perception:  Your child is now able to differentiate between small and large or little and big objects.  He can also count 5 objects aloud.   

Visual Motor:  At the table, your child is beginning to demonstrate ability to use stencils and tracing tools, build a tower of more than 9 blocks, and create a simple pattern when stringing beads.   His prewriting skills are continuing to develop with your child being able to combine strokes to create a +.  While playing outside, you may notice your child showing increased strength to kick a ball more than 5 feet, improved coordination to catch a larger ball at a distance of 5 feet, and improved eye-hand coordination to throw a ball overhanded toward a person at least 6 feet.  Your child is also now able to dress and undress themselves independently.

Cognition:  Your child is beginning to develop ability to play games memory games.  He is developing the ability to organize his toys and identify what items do not belong with the others.  He can describe his feelings and has a better awareness of other’s feelings and needs.  Play now includes themes and play rituals.  Your child also prefers play with peers to play with adults.           

3 ½ to 4 Years

Gross Motor:  Jumping and hoping skills are improving with ability to hop forward 3 or more times and jump forward up to 24 inches.    

Fine Motor:  The small muscles in your child’s hands are becoming even stronger.  You may notice her successfully manipulating small buttons and demonstrating increased ability to press and manipulate playdoh.

Visual Perception:  Your child is able to match simple objects to their outlines, name 5 colors, complete 4-5 piece puzzles and 10 piece formboard puzzles, match simple patterns, match missing body parts to an outline, and put up to 3 things in order based on a quality, such as big to little and hard to soft.         

Visual Motor:  Your child can now cut a piece of paper in half, trace along a thick line, copy a few letters with horizontal and vertical lines, color (mostly) within the lines, and draw a person with 3 body parts.  She can kick a large ball when rolled to her, throw a small ball underhanded to a larger target, and bounce a large ball to the wall.

Cognition:  Dramatic play now includes past events and situations and is often coordinated among several children.  She can now play simple card games with assistance and does well playing in groups.  Reading comprehension skills are also improving with ability to recall 1-2 aspects of a story.  Your little one is able to categorize by size, color, shape, and type.  She understands “if, then” relationships and can differentiate between her and other’s feelings and points of view.        

Sensory: Sensory stimulation, including movement and input into the muscles and joints, is important for strengthening of the core and upper extremities as is needed for development of fine motor skills.  It is also important that your child continues to receive regular sensory stimulation for attention and self-regulation skills.

4 to 4 ½ Years

Gross Motor:  Your child is becoming more independent on the playground and is able to climb up the ladder to the slide and slide down.  He can stand on one foot for up to 10 seconds, hop on one foot 5 times, and gallop.    

Fine Motor:  Precision and fine tuning of your child’s coordination allows him to engage in even more advanced motor tasks, including manipulating nuts and bolts and touching each finger to the tip of the thumb.   

Visual Perception:  Challenge your child’s visual perceptual skills by starting a simple shape picture and having him finish it.  He is also now able to match identical pictures, follow moving objects with his eyes, and sort by color, shape, and size.

Visual Motor:  Your child can now brush his teeth independently.  He is able to copy a square, cut some foods with a knife, and engage in simple weaving activities.  While playing outside, you may notice your child demonstrating improved coordination to navigate his tricycle around obstacles, catch a big ball when bounced to him, and catch a smaller object, such as a beanbag, using his hands and chest.      

Cognition:  Attention skills are refined with ability to attend to more than one aspect of an object or picture at one time, such as shape and color.  Your child can recall 3-4 aspects of a story, sing songs with 30 or more words, describe details of past events, copy complex patterns with blocks, think of new ways to use familiar toys, create representations out of clay, playdoh, or sand, and discuss roles and actions in dramatic play.  He can also explain to others what will happen if a certain action is performed and can build upon other’s play ideas.

Sensory:  Foster your child’s imagination and construction skills through sensory play, such play with mud, clay, floam, fingerpaint, shaving cream, etc.

4 ½ to 5 Years

Gross Motor:  Your big kid is beginning to learn to pump the swing and jump rope.

Fine Motor:  Tactile processing skills have improved allowing your child to identify circle, squares, and triangles from touch alone.  He is able to manipulate squeeze bottles and is learning to tie his shoes.   

Visual Perception:  Your child can now arrange up to 3 pictures in sequential order.  Eye movements are becoming more smooth and fluid, which will be important for reading and writing skills.   

Visual Motor:  Your big kid can cut out circles and squares, trace his hand, draw simple objects that are recognizable, connect dots to make simple figures, draw a face with eyes, nose, and mouth in correct place, copy his first name with large letters that may be reversed, and draw within larger horizontal and vertical paths.  He learns to zip his jacket and tie his shoes.  He is also able to print a few uppercase letters from memory but with decreased legibility.

Cognition:  Your child is getting ready for Kindergarten.  She can attend for long period of time to difficult tasks and can attend to long stories when read to her.  She has more attention to detail and can attend to the orientation and direction of objects, pictures, and letters.  Memory skills allow her to recite verses, short stories, and songs and develop strategies to help her remember things, such as repeating things out loud.  She can also remember a sequence of up to 4 numbers or words and can use “rules” to help solve problems.  During play, she can create costumes, work with a peer to compare and compromise on ideas, and participate in board games but may try to change the rules.  She has also figured out how to “play tricks” on others and can plan how to influence other’s actions.

Sensory:  Tactile play and use of manipulatives, such as paint, shaving cream, playdoh, sand, and sticks, can help your child learn to form her letters.  Continue with regular gross motor play, including weightbearing into the hands and resistive pushing, pulling, lifting, and carrying, in order to create adequate core and upper body strength, as these will be needed for handwriting development.  Your child is now more independent with providing her body with needed sensory stimulation, as she is more independent ton the playground.         

5 to 6 Years

Gross Motor:  Around 6 years of age, your child learns to skip and can perform at least 8 pushups and 5 situps.

Fine Motor:  Your child has developed a true hand dominance and is able to use classroom tools well, including scissors.    

Visual Perception:  Your child is now a pro at identifying basic colors, can read and write numbers up to 5, recognize her name when printed with uppercase and lowercase letters, read simple words when paired with a picture, and complete 6-12 piece interlocking puzzles.  As your child approaches 6 years of age, he begins to play simple card games and can visually recognize sequence patterns and letters when traced on her back.  As you read your child a story, he can follow simple words with his finger.          

Visual Motor:  When your child first turns 5, he will continue to use his chest to help him catch a smaller ball.  As he approaches age 6, he will begin to develop the coordination needed to catch a ball with his hands only.  He can also copy more complex shapes including a triangle and copy his first name in clear print, as well as copy numbers 1-5.  He will show improved visual motor skills and creativity to build complex block designs and create geoboard constructions.  He can draw a person with 6 or more body parts.  His pencil control has improved so that he can draw a line within angled and curved paths.  He is also learning to ride his bike and is able to kick a ball on rebound.  Right after his 6^th birthday, you will notice your big kid learning to print simple words without a model and independently print numbers 0-9.

Sensory:  Remember to provide your child with breaks when needed during table-top activities.  Encouraging your child to engage in unstructured play is important for development of creativity and motor planning skills.  Also, remember to incorporate movement and touch in order to facilitate learning.