Important Milestones: By the End of Four Years (48 Months)
Social
• Interested in new experiences
• Cooperates with other children
• Assumes character roles in dramatic/ pretend play (i.e. Plays "Mom" or "Dad")
• Increasingly inventive in fantasy play
• Negotiates solutions and conflicts
•Would rather play with other children than by himsef
•Talks about what she likes and what she is interested in
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 knows 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
Speech Sounds (Articulation)
• Speaks clearly enough for strangers to understand
• Usually talks without repeating syllables or words
• approximatly 90% intelligible
Language
• Talks about activities at school or at friends' homes
• Talks about what happened during the day. Uses about 4 sentences at a time.
• People outside of the family usually understand child's speech
• Answers simple "who?", "what?", and "where?" questions
• Asks when and how questions
• Says rhyming words, like hat-cat
• Uses pronouns, like I, you, me, we, and they
• Uses some plural words, like toys, birds, and buses
• Uses many sentences that have 4 or more words
• Speaks in sentences of five to six words
• Tells stories
Gross Motor Skills (Movement)
• Hops and stands on one foot up to five seconds
• Dresses and undresses independently
• 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
Fine Motor (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
• 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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