Child development at 4 years old

Four-year-olds seem to be adults, but still very small. At this age, the formation of the personality and character of the child continues, which should be softly adjusted by the forces of parents.

What skills has the child already mastered for his 4th birthday and what activities are suitable for the development of kids 4-5 years old?

Age features

• The baby is still agile and energetic, but has already become more assiduous and able to do one thing for about 20 minutes. Fine motor skills are constantly being improved. Most four-year-olds especially like drawing.
• After 4 and a half years, the child changes externally, since he begins the active development of muscle and bone tissue.
• For a child over 4 years old, the social component of development is very important. The kid makes friends among other children, trying to find a “common language” with them. The child well notices the feelings of other people, knows how to empathize. The kid learned to formulate his own thoughts in words. Many 4-year-olds have imaginary friends.
• A child of 4 years old continues to master native speech. For many children of this age, a slight lisp is characteristic. The vocabulary of the four-year-old grows very rapidly (up to 2500-3000 words by the age of 5). Speech is enriched with expression and intonation. The baby voices his own actions and everything that he sees, and also constantly asks a large number of questions. In about 5% of children, the development of speech in the initial stages is accompanied by stuttering.
• The intellectual abilities of a child 4-4.5 years old are significantly increased. The kid is ready to learn letters and numbers.

What should a child be able to do?

Most children in 4-4.5 years old are able to:

• Run while maintaining balance when changing direction or pace of movement.
• Stand on 1 leg for several seconds, and also quickly bounce several times from this position.
• Jump forward on both legs.
• Jump from a small height (up to 20 cm).
• Walk on the bench, keeping balance.
• Play with the ball – throw and catch, hit objects from a distance.
• To ride a bike.
• Talk clearly and clearly, making phrases of 6-8 words. Maintain a conversation.
• Play with other kids in a group or in a pair.
• It is correct to call the plural of nouns.
• It is true to use prepositions.
• Do not respond hysterically to disappointment or resentment.
• Take care of the animal.
• Follow your own hygiene (go to the toilet yourself, use toilet paper, turn on the tap).
• Gently eat using a spoon and fork.
• Helping parents clean up.
• Reserved behavior in public.
• Know some letters.
• Give your first name, middle name and last name, as well as address.
• Distinguish between living and nonliving.
• Understand the plot of a cartoon or a performance.
• Know the names of animals, plants, professions, household items.
• Orient in terms of right-left-bottom-top.
• Compare items by width, height, length, quantity.
• Coloring pictures without going abroad.
• Connect the dots with a line.
• String buttons and beads.
• Know the seasons, weather phenomena, as well as parts of the day.
• Identify a missing item.
• Retell a fairy tale.
• Find differences between two images.
• Put puzzles of 2-4 elements.
• Summarize items in groups.
• Find identical pairs of items.
• Identify excess items.
• Know geometric shapes, as well as numbers up to 10.
• Use scissors.

Height and weight

Compared with indicators at 3 years old, by the age of four, the baby’s weight increases by about 2000-2200 grams, and growth – by 7-8 centimeters. To find out at what pace the child’s physical development is going on, doctors and parents compare the baby’s indicators with the norms derived for children of this age category of a certain gender (girls tend to have lower indicators). The average values ​​and limits of the norm we presented in such a table:

Index	4 years average	Limits of norm for boys 4 years	The boundaries of the norm for girls 4 years old
Weight	16100-16300 g	12700-21200 g	12300-21500 g
Height	95.1-103.3 cm	94.9-111.7 cm	94.1-111.3 cm
Head circumference	49.3-50.2 cm	47.3-53.1 cm	46.5-52.2 cm
Chest circumference	53-54 cm	52-57 cm	49.6-56 cm

Types of child development

Physical

A child at the age of four should move enough, increase his agility, coordination and endurance. This is the goal of the physical development of the baby, including gymnastics, dancing, physical exercises with mom, swimming, cycling, outdoor games and many other options for activity.

Gymnastics, including dynamic exercises, it is important to carry out at least 2 times a week. It is performed during the day, long before bedtime, in a ventilated room and preferably in a group of children. The optimal duration of such gymnastics is 20-25 minutes.

Mental

The psyche of the four-year-old is developing very actively and the spectrum of emotions of the baby is expanding. In addition, children aged 4-5 are very susceptible to adult reactions. If parents or caregivers treat the baby with approval and respect, this helps in forming a positive picture of the child about themselves.

Classes for the mental development of children 4-4.5 years old include exercises that affect the attention of the baby, as well as memory and thinking. The child is offered:

• Summarize subjects on any basis.
• Collect a picture consisting of 3-4 parts.
• Identify the similarities and differences in drawings and toys.
• Choose the same from a group of objects.
• Repeat a certain sequence of movements shown by an adult.
• Collect from the constructor of the building, focusing on the sample.
• Determine the excess in the group of objects, and then explain your choice.
• Find antonyms for words.
• Remember the plot of the picture.
• Retell a fairy tale.
• Recite the nursery rhymes and rhymes by heart.
• Describe a vibrant event that happened recently.

Emotional

The development of emotions of a 4-year-old child is an important part of the full development of crumbs. A child of this age begins to understand the relationship between people, may notice that a person has a mood changed nearby, knows how to express their own emotions.

Four-year-old can sympathize and show attention. The child feels how they are treated.

Touch and music

The child’s sensory development affects the baby’s sensory organs, which are responsible for hearing, scent, and touch. The child is invited to determine the characteristics of objects by touch. So the baby learns that objects are hard or soft, rough or smooth, warm or cold. Also, activities for sensory development include games related to smells and tastes.

By the age of four, the child is already familiar with some musical instruments, small works, music with a different rhythm. The child already has favorite tunes, upon hearing which, the baby will sing along.

Speech

The development of speech is crucial for every child of 4 years of age. First of all, it affects the communication of the baby with adults, as well as with other children. This increases the vocabulary of the peanut, teaches him to build sentences and express his opinion in words. At the age of 4, many children still do not pronounce hissing and “p”, so with four-year-olds in the form of games, they often conduct classes to pronounce these sounds.

To stimulate the development of speech in children 4-4.5 years old, you can:

• Learn poems and songs with them.
• View pictures with a plot and discuss them.
• Consider a fairy tale in pictures and reproduce its plot.
• Together with mom read stories and discuss them.
• Listen to fairy tales in audio recordings.
• To solve riddles.
• Before bed, discuss how the day went.
• Engage in articulation gymnastics.
• Learn letters and sounds.
• Define the first letter in a word, divide the words into syllables.

Fine motor skills

The development of motor skills is considered a very important point in the development plan for young children. Classes for fine motor skills stimulate speech development by influencing the area of ​​the brain that is responsible for speech. Such activities include games with sand, cubes, designers, beads, cereals, beans. Perform finger exercises with your baby, tie knots on the cord, fasten and unzip zippers, buttons, buttons, hooks. At the age of 4, add sculpts to modeling and drawing for which you need to cut something with scissors and glue it.

Cognitive

A child of four years actively learns the world, and the development of its cognitive sphere should be aimed at improving memory, thinking, logic, attention.

Usually, the activities for the cognitive development of a 4-year-old child have a certain topic, for example, “pets”, “spring”, “water”, “ground transportation”, “professions”, “night” and others. On such a topic, games are organized with the child during which the baby will determine colors, shadows, shapes, differences and similar elements, parts of the whole, generalizing properties, superfluous, opposites, missing elements and much more.

To develop attention

It is important for a 4-5 year old child to learn how to focus on a specific task, as well as notice small details. He will need these skills in the future for successful learning at school.

To develop the attention of a 4-year-old baby, you can offer a child:

• Repeat actions for mom, for example, sit down – get up – close your eyes – touch your ear – open your eyes – take your hand to the side.
• Play with the ball in “edible-inedible”, “flying-not flying.”
• Cross out a specific letter in printed text. To complicate this task, one letter can be crossed out, and the second – underlined.
• Mom touches parts of the face and calls them, the child must repeat her actions. Then mom begins to “make mistakes.”

Mathematical

For a 4-year-old child, learning math should be a fun and fun game. It is convenient to teach the baby math during a walk, for example, to count the steps, passing cars, houses, birds. To explain simple examples, you can use fingers or special sticks for counting.

Creative

Classes aimed at the creative abilities of the child, like most children. These include drawing, creating various crafts and applications, modeling from salt dough or plasticine, as well as role-playing games.

Development diagnostics

Parents should be alert if the child is 4 years old:

• Cannot go down the stairs in alternating steps.
• Does not name first and last name, as well as his gender.
• Does not know how to generalize several objects in one word.
• Not able to learn a short verse.
• Does not remember the plot of the story.
• Cannot count to 5.
• Doesn’t know simple geometric shapes.
• Does not know the primary colors.
• Cannot build a bridge from the cubes on the model.
• Cannot assemble a pyramid of 5 parts.
• It is cruel to an animal, toy or other child.
• Sluggish and lethargic during the day, or, conversely, often excited.

Speech Development Games

1. The game “what happens”. Ask your child what items can be long, sharp, round, solid, fragrant, blue, liquid, and so on.
2. The game “what happens if”. We discuss certain situations with the child, for example, “what will happen if the ball falls into the water”, “what will happen if I fall in the snow”.
3. The game “what can be done.” We ask the baby what to do with an apple, a ball, water, cookies, sand and so on. Another option for such a game will be a discussion of “what to do with” – drink, eat, sew, pour, buy.
4. The game “what where.” We ask the little one that is in the hallway, in the nursery, in the kitchen. Then we ask you to say in which room a frying pan, wardrobe, TV and so on.
5. Guess who game. We describe the animal in a few words and offer the baby to guess. For example, “guess who is fluffy, red and cunning.”
6. We stimulate the sizzling pronunciation. We hiss like a snake, drive out the sparrow “kysh-kysh”, pronounce pure-spoken words with “w”, buzzing like a fly, repeat pure-spoken words with “w”, alternately buzzing and hissing. In order for the child to distinguish “c” from “w”, we pronounce them in turn. To distinguish “w” from “z”, we introduce ourselves as a fly, and then a mosquito. To pronounce the sound “h” we suggest that the child introduce himself as a train.
7. We perform gymnastics for the tongue and lips. We smile with the soundless pronunciation of “and” (like a frog), stretch our lips forward with a soundless “u” (like an elephant), open and close our mouth without sounds (like a fish), open our mouth, move our tongue up and down (like a swing) and side to each corner of the mouth (like a clock), hold a relaxed tongue on the lower lip (like a shovel), pull the tongue forward (like a needle).

Sample exercise program for the week

Classes for the development of a child of 4 years should be planned in advance, and best of all – for a week. So you do not miss the types of development important for your baby, do not overload the baby and can prepare all the materials in advance. In drawing up a weekly plan of developmental activities at the age of 4-4.5 years, they primarily take into account whether the baby is attending a kindergarten.

If the baby is all day in the garden, then you need to clarify the following points:

• A child in the garden already has daily developmental activities and regular physical activity.
• Engage with the baby at home will work out only in the evening and on weekends.
• In the evening, you should not plan vigorous activity.
• After returning from the garden, there is not much time left for classes, therefore, as a rule, only 1-2 classes are planned.
• It is worth knowing what program they are engaged with in the garden in order not to duplicate classes, but to supplement them.

For a child who is not yet attending an institution, the lesson plan will be more extensive. When compiling it, they take into account the interests of the crumbs, existing skills, attending a development school or sports section.

We offer such an approximate weekly program of developmental classes for a 4-year-old child:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Physical development	Charging to the music	Outdoor games	Ball game	Jumping	Bike	Game with fitball	Video lesson charging
Cognitive development	Puzzles	Learning colors	Lotto	Find an extra item	We study pets	Looking for differences	We study plants
Sensory and musical development	Dancing	We study the smells	Guess items by touch	Singing	Touch Bag Game	Exploring tastes	Learning musical instruments
Fine motor skills	Play with water	Finger gymnastics	Game with beads	Game with croup	Mosaic	Game with clothespins	Sand play
Speech Development	Learning a verse	Listening to an audio tale	Retelling a fairy tale	Articulation gymnastics	Learning letters	Read with mom	Guessing riddles
Creative development	Coloring	Applique	Puppet show	Painting	Modeling	Crafts from natural materials	Designer Games

Advice

• At the age of 4, the child can be enrolled in some sports sections. Attending sports classes will not only provide an opportunity to spend energy, but also help to learn new skills and understand what discipline is.
• Praise your child more often and give him enough attention. The kid has become more adult, but still needs parents.
• From the age of 4, the child can be taken to the cinema, circus and similar places. To get acquainted with this option of pastime was successful, do not immediately take tickets to the front row.
• Hearing hundreds of children’s questions every day, it is important to remain a patient and wise parent. Do not refuse to answer the crumbs, even if you do not know what to say. Look for an answer together and quench your childish curiosity.
• A child of 4-5 years old can begin to learn foreign languages. Classes, of course, should be in the form of a game.

Care and mode

For the normal development of a four-year-old child, it is important to maintain his health, so parents should pay attention to the regimen of the day of the baby and caring for the baby:

• The child should ensure a good rest. 4-year-old children sleep an average of 11-12 hours per day. Many four-year-olds protest against daytime sleep, but doctors focus on the fact that children of this age still need a rest during the day.
• Daily in the morning in the mode of a 4-year-old child there are already familiar hygiene procedures. The kid independently wash, brush his teeth, visit the toilet, comb his hair. Four-year-olds often have to remind to wash their hands after a walk and before eating.
• The child should have daily walks on which the four-year-old baby will be enough to move. In addition, you can walk with friends, inventing moving and exciting games.
• If parents are engaged in hardening a child from an early age, but such procedures are continued and carried out systematically.
• With 4-year-olds, they walk twice a day, picking up clothes according to the weather.
• The nutrition of children of this age includes four meals with pauses between them 3-4 hours. The nutritional value of the diet of a 4-year-old child per day is about 1700 kcal. Read more about this in the article about the menu of a child from 4 to 6 years.