Developmental milestones record - 5 years
Definition
This article describes the skills and growth markers relevant to 5-year-old children.
Alternative Names
Normal childhood growth milestones - 5 years; Childhood growth milestones - 5 years; Growth milestones for children - 5 years
Information
Physical and motor skills milestones for a 5-year-old may include:
- Erupting the first permanent teeth (the majority of children do not get their first permanent teeth until age 6)
- Developing increased coordination
- Skipping, jumping, and skating with good balance
- Maintaining balance while standing on one foot with eyes closed
- Tying own shoelaces
- Showing increased skill with simple tools and writing utensils
Sensory and cognitive milestones include:
- Increasing vocabulary to over 2100 words
- Composing sentences of six to eight words, and with all parts of speech
- Identifying coins
- Properly naming the primary colors and possibly many more
- Questioning more deeply, addressing meaning and purpose
- Behaving more responsibly
- Decreasing aggressive behavior
- Outgrowing earlier childhood fears
- Accepting the validity of other points of view (while possibly not understanding them)
- Demonstrating increased mathematical skill
- Questioning others, including parents
- Strongly identifying with the parent of the same sex
Ways to encourage a 5-year-old's development may include:
- Reading together
- Providing the necessary space for physical activity
- Instructing the child to participate in -- and learn the rules of -- sporting activities
- Encouraging the child to play with other children, which helps develop social skills
- Playing creatively with the child
- Monitoring both the time and content of television viewing
- Visiting local areas of interest
- Encourage the child to take responsibility for small household chores such as helping set the table
- Have the child pick up his or her toys after playing
Review Date:
6/13/2006
Reviewed By:
Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.
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