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Explain The Four Developmental Milestones Within The Early Childhood Years

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Developmental Milestones within the Early Childhood Years

The early childhood years from 2 to 6 years old are a time of continued growth and development. Individual differences in growth are becoming more obvious as children are starting to discover who they are. There are many developmental milestones that children will reach within these four years, all at their own pace, ability and time. We will take a closer look into some of the milestones that preschool age children reach within the four developmental domains: physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional.

Physical Development: As preschool children start to grow and get bigger their weight increases, they become taller and they develop stronger muscles. During these years their large motor skills show great improvement. With their advanced motor skills, older preschoolers delight in unstructured play. (Kail, 2015) They enjoy activities such as swinging, climbing and balancing. Learning to ride a tricycle is a milestone that most children reach by age three. Learning to ride a tricycle teaches children the steps required to later ride a bicycle. It also teaches balance and coordination. Children have to …show more content…

In order for children to expand their vocabulary they need to hear others speak and be spoken to. By reading and asking questions about what you read you are increasing a child’s word learning. By four years old a child should know about 900 words and be able to speak in 5-6 word sentences. Language becomes the principle tool for establishing and maintaining relationships with adults and other children. (Dodge, 2002) The richer a child’s vocabulary the better that they will become at speaking, reading and writing. A critical period for learning language does exist which is between the ages of 8-12 years old. If a child does not learn language within this period, they probably will never fully learn and have the language

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