Age of child: 4

My child of focus is currently 4 at the daycare I visited. She has displayed advanced milestones throughout the day. She was able to use utensils and serve her food without assistance during breakfast and lunch, she was able to take herself to the bathroom, she was able to climb well on the playground's climbing wall, and was able to describe the entire dream she had the night prior in detail and without difficulty. The skills she displayed were in line with the development of a 5-year-old, therefore I believe she is advancing properly!

She also was able to put on her jacket (with little assistance) when going outside, she participated in pretend play where she dressed up as a princess and dressed herself, she would share items with the other children, and express her feelings if something upset her. For example, one of the other children had taken away her toy and she expressed she was upset because they took it without asking her. She used complete sentences when I spoke to her, was understandable, and was able to go into detail about a "crazy" dream she had the night prior.

What are signs of meeting appropriate developmental fine motor, gross motor, language, and social developmental milestones in this age group?

(Make a list or table)

☼ Kicks ball forward

☼ Catches bounced ball

☼ Hops on one foot

☼ Stands on one foot for up to 5 seconds

☼ Alternates feet going up and down steps

☼ Moves backwards and forwards with agility

☼ Copies capital letters

☼ Draws circles and squares

☼ Traces a cross or diamond

☼ Draws a person with two to four body parts

☼ Laces shoes

☼ Vivid-imagination

☼ Fears are very real --> validate fears & emotions

☼ Able to name their feelings

☼ Feelings may be expressed through outlets like dramatic or sensory play

☼ Developing a sense of identity --> recognize their gender, who their family is, what community they may belong to

☼ Capable of helping others

☼ Thrive on one-to-one communication/Interactive communication

☼ Few simple rules

☼ Learning how to keep & make friends

☼ Temper tantrums start to ease off

☼ Tells a story that is easy to follow

☼ Others outside of the family understand 75% of speech

☼ Asks questions like: "Who" "How" "How many"

☼ Stays on topic during a conversation

☼ Understand the concepts of "same" and "different"

☼ Asks many questions

☼ Knows the names of familiar animals

☼ Names of common objects in books and magazines

☼ Knows at least ONE color

☼ Uses language to engage in make-believe

☼ Follows a three-part command

☼ Vocabulary of 1,500 words

☼ Cannot stack four blocks

☼ Cannot throw ball overhand

☼ Does not grasp crayon with thumbs and fingers

☼ Has difficulty with scribbling

☼ Cannot copy a circle

☼ Does not use sentences with three or more words

☼ Ignores other children or does not show interest in interactive games

☼ Will not respond to people outside of he family; still clings or cries if parents leave

☼ Resists using the toilet, dressing, sleeping

☼ Does not engage in fantasy play

Activities include:

• likes to please parents

• begins to plan activities

• make up their games

• initiating activities with others

• act out the roles with others whether they be real or imaginary

• developing sexual identity

• developing conscience

• may take of frustrations on siblings

• likes exploring new things

• enjoys sports, shopping, cooking, and working

• feels remorse when making the wrong choice or not behaving well

• cooperates with other children

• Negotiation solutions to conflicts

Incorporation:

• Children were provided with dramatic play items: a kitchen, cash register, dress-up costumes, fake money, puppets, mirrors, and so forth

• Made up games of being in a music video and planned the dances they were going to do with each other --> the children would dress up and play in front of the mirror

• Children were taken outside to play games in the park

• Children were reprimanded when they weren't behaving well --> led to them apologizing and recognizing what they did wrong

☼ Kolberg --> Punishment-obedience orientation (2-7 years old)

Activities include:

• Determines good v. bad dependent on associated punishment

• Children can learn inappropriate behavior if interventions do not take place

Incorporation:

• Daycare reprimanded children who were fighting or hitting each other

• Children would be placed in timeout if they began to not listen to the teacher

☼ Piaget - Preoperational

»» PRECONCEPTUAL PHASE (2-4 YEARS)

Activities include:

• Exhibits egocentric thinking

• Short attention span

• Learns through observing and imitating

• Displays animism

• Forms concepts that are not complete or as logical as adults

• Can make simple classifications

• understand the concept of opposites (hot/cold; soft/hard)

• The reasoning is that of specific to specific

• Has active imagination

»» INTUITIVE PHASE (4-7 YEARS)

• can classify and relate objects

• has an intuitive thought process; knowing what is right and wrong, but can't state why

• tolerates others' differences but doesn't understand them

• knows acceptable cultural rules

• uses words appropriately but often without a true understanding of their meaning

• has a more realistic sense of causality

• may begin to question parents' values

Initiates:

• The daycare ensured that every hour the kids were doing something different (free play, learning, stations, recess, etc.)

• Children were provided dolls, babies, puppets, and play horses- children believed them to be real and treated them as such.

• Every toy they would play with in the room would be creative and real to them --> they were selling groceries, and they used the fake money to pay for bills

• Teachers asked them what the date was, had them count, had them look at the weather and determine what it was like outside

• Teachers had them make daily commitments to helping someone else, using a big voice, treating others with kindness, and so forth.