All children have their own timetable, but as a parent, you can watch for certain developments in your 4-year-old. Celebrate with your child as they reach or near these milestones.
Cognitive
- Count 10 objects or more
- Able to name basic shapes
- Pay attention to a short story and answer questions about it afterwards
- Have an evolving sense of time; understand different periods of the day and seasons. Know some days of the week and have a concept of hours and minutes
- Begin to have a concept of money and currency
- Understand how some household objects function (appliances, tools)
- Show interest in particular topics (art, animals)
- Begin to learn the alphabet; start recognizing some letters
- Repeat their name and address
- Understand the difference between fantasy and reality
- Follow unrelated commands (“Bring me the book and wash your hands”)
Motor
- Able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds or longer
- Hop; tumble; tries doing somersaults
- Swing
- Climb well
- Able to skip
- Copy triangles, squares, circles
- Draw people with bodies
- Print some letters (possibly their names)
- Dress and undress themselves
- Correctly use child-safe utensils if not able to cut food
- Manage toileting
Communication
- Remember large parts of stories
- Tell stories with details
- Speak in full sentences (preferably more than five words)
- Use future tense
- Use the same grammar as their families
- Recite their name and address
- Rhyme words
- Say most sounds clearly
Social
- Have favorite people; may have a “best friend”
- Want to please people
- Want to be like their friends
- Become more agreeable to rules
- Learn that different people have different rules
- Develop fears
- Aware of genitalia; learn about privacy
- Show curiosity about birth and death
- Show pride in accomplishments
- Become both demanding and cooperative
- Show increasing independence
