Developmental Milestones and Activities for Children Ages 3-‐5 W

Ages and Stages: Developmental Milestones and Activities for Children ages 3-5 Written by Katie Larson, MA

1. Title Slide: Welcome to our course, Ages and Stages. Developmental Milestones and Activities to Foster Growth in Children ages 3-5. 2. Objectives: After this training you will be able to: a. Explain the definition of developmental milestones b. List 4 ways to help children grow developmentally c. Describe 3 warning signs that may indicate developmental delay d. Select classroom activities that support learning and growth for 3-5 year olds 3. Introduction: Children develop and grow at different rates, but there are some widely accepted benchmarks that most children achieve at certain ages. We call these benchmarks, “developmental milestones.1” During our time together, we will look closely at the developmental milestones for preschool children. We will also discover ways you can promote children’s development to ensure that each child reaches his full potential. 4. Nature and Nurture: All human beings are a product of both our genetic make-up, the traits we’ve inherited from our parents, and from our experiences in our environment. A child with an incredible genetic make-up, may not reach his full potential if he is in a restricted or unloving environment. Likewise, a child who has inherited a mediocre genetic potential, may soar if her environment is a loving one that provides her with varied experiences. As childcare workers, you have the power to provide children with a nurturing environment and a wide range of experiences: You have the power to help a child SOAR developmentally! 5. Act Early: But it’s not just normally developing children that you can help soar. It is important to pay close attention to developmental milestones for every child because in the U.S. nearly 17% of children experience some sort of developmental or behavioral disability. Early Intervention is key in helping these children unlock their full potential and soar developmentally. As a childcare provider, the earlier you recognize the signs of a developmental delay in a child, the earlier the children in your care can get the proper intervention they need! 6. But HOW do we help these children soar? We must first carefully study age appropriate developmental milestones, make sure activities and interactions with children help them reach their milestones, and finally be properly informed about when to be concerned if a child doesn’t meet a milestone. So let’s get started! 7. Domains of Development: There are four main areas in which children grow and develop. We call these areas the “domains” of child development. The four domains of development are: physical development, cognitive development, social and emotional development, and language and communication development. We’ll start with physical development first. 8. Physical Development: Do you know when an average developing child should be able to walk down stairs, alternating feet, or when a child should be able to cut with safety scissors? The

Ages and Stages: Developmental Milestones and Activities for Children ages 3-5™ www.texaschildcaretraining.com Please do not copy or distribute. For info regarding this course, contact: [email protected]

answers may surprise you. Walking down stairs and cutting with scissors are both part of a child’s physical development. Physical development encompasses a child’s gross motor skills, like her ability to jump or throw a ball, fine motor skills, which involve a child’s small muscles and tasks like picking up objects or writing with a pencil, and a child’s self-care, like a child’s ability to dress himself. We’ll take a quick look at each of these parts of physical development separately. 9. Question: What three areas does “physical development” encompass? A) Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, and Language Skills B) Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, and Self-Care C)Fine motor skills, Fine Arts Skills, and Self-Care D) Gross Motor Skills, Mathematical Ability, and Self-Care 10. Answer explanation 11. Gross Motor Skills: Gross motor skills involve the large muscles in the body. By the age of three, children should be able to: walk easily, run, climb on chairs and playground equipment, jump with two feet, climb stairs one step at a time, and kick or throw a large ball. 12. By the age of four, a child should: be more confident in running, ride a pedal toy like a tricycle, hop on one foot, climb stairs with alternating feet, and be able to kick, throw, AND catch a large ball. 13. By the age of five, a child should also: be able to stand on one foot for 10 seconds, do a simple somersault, and become even more confident in her running, jumping, and climbing. 14. Activity Examples: Practical Time-Out: Let’s a take a little time to get practical now. Where and when can we develop gross motor skills in the children we care for? The playground is a great place for gross motor skill development. Encourage the children to run, climb and jump. Make balls available for play. Inside, your circle time is a great place for developing gross motor skills. Sing songs together with movements and roll balls back and forth while you practice learning skills like the alphabet. 15. Here’s a simple gross motor skill activity that your children will love, and it only needs ONE supply: painter’s or masking tape! Tape off six lines in your classroom, each about a foot apart. Make sure the lines are long enough so that your students can stand side by side on them and participate together in this activity. Have the children practice jumping from one line to the next, hopping on one foot from one line to the next, seeing how far they can jump on two feet (can you make it from the first line to the third?), jumping backwards from line to line, and seeing how far their legs and bodies can stretch when they lay down on the lines. To mix it up even more, tape out a zig-zag line and have the kids follow the line with their feet heel to toe or place small objects like bean bags or Easter eggs at various points on the line and have the children run to get them and run back and place them in a basket or bucket. 16. Fine Motor Skills: As mentioned before, fine motor skills involve a child’s small muscles like the ones in his hands. By the age of three, a child on target in the area of fine motor development should be able to: fit objects together (like a peg in a hole), build a tower of at least 6 blocks, complete simple puzzles, turn the pages of a book one at a time, and turn door knobs or handles.

17. By the age of four, a child should: hold tiny objects between her thumb and forefinger, be able to use safety scissors, build more complex structures with blocks, and copy simple shapes, as well as write some letters and numbers. 18. By the age of five, a child should be able to: print more letters and numbers, copy some geometric shapes, like a triangle, and should be able to correctly grasp a pencil with his pincer fingers. 19. Activity Examples: Let’s take another practical time-out. How can we increase kids’ fine motor skills in our classrooms? Your center time is a great place to add in fine motor activities. Have kids use stickers to cover a larger outline of their name in your ABC center. Introduce smaller blocks or nuts and bolts that the children can manipulate into your construction center. Have kids string a certain number of pony beads onto a pipe cleaner at your math center. Always provide a variety of coloring and writing implements at your writing center. At your art center provide many opportunities for children to cut with scissors and to glue small objects to paper or crafts. 20. Here’s a science center activity that promotes fine motor skills and is easy to set up! Fill three tubs half way with water and use food coloring to dye the water in the tubs, red, blue, and yellow. Place empty cups or ice trays around the three tubs of colored water. Placing these items on baking trays or another tray with a lip around the edge will minimize spills during this activity. Give each child an eye dropper and briefly show him or her how to fill the dropper with colored water and how to release it into an empty cup or ice cube tray. Have the child experiment with mixing different colors into the cups or ice cube trays. Provide a large bowl where the children can “dump” out the colors they’ve made and start again with their newly empty cups. Watch your students’ eyes light up as they figure out how to make different colors, and watch their fine motor skills grow as their little fingers squeeze that eye dropper! 21. Self Care: Self-care is a child’s ability to take care of themselves, as well as a their health and personal safety. By the age of three, a child should be able to: respond appropriately to safety warnings, wash her hands, brush her teeth, and dress herself with some assistance, make her own food choices, and use eating utensils with assistance 22. By the age of four, children can: begin to be concerned in unsafe situations, brush teeth, wash hands and dress themselves WITHOUT assistance, begin to know some healthy food choices, and use eating utensils (like a fork and spoon) WITHOUT assistance. 23. By the age of five, most children will: follow classroom rules about safety, independently follow good hygiene practices (like washing hands and coughing into their elbow), they may be able to use a table knife, and can help prepare a simple snack 24. Activity Examples: Your pretend play or “home” center is the perfect place to help your kiddos practice self-care skills. Provide “dress up” clothes for the kids to try on so that they get more practice dressing themselves. Make sure that the kids have access to pretend food so that they can “cook” for their classmates. Once it’s time to share the pretend meal they’ve fixed, make sure the kids have kid-friendly plastic silverware so that they can pretend to eat the meal. 25. Here’s a bright idea that will decrease your workload, increase your instructional time AND teach your kiddos self-care! Give your children practice with some of these self-care skills by

establishing snack as its own center. Have simple picture instructions that your children must follow to prepare their snack, and let them do it all on their own! The children will wash their hands, take out a paper towel to set their snack on, get themselves the snack, and 4 and 5 year olds can even pour themselves cups of water! Make sure you add a clean-up step to the directions, too! After carefully modeling this center to the children a few times, they’ll be feeding themselves snack in no time! In addition to building the children’s self-care skills, you will save a ton of time in your classroom. Imagine how much learning you could do in the 20 minutes you usually set aside as your snack time?! 26. Video: Now that we’ve discussed age appropriate physical milestones, let’s take a look at a video that shows another activity that will help children reach these milestones and develop some of these physical skills. As you watch the video, pay close attention to the types of physical milestones this activity might help a child reach. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9T2M2IK1YI ) 27. Question: The activity featured in this video would help a child in which areas of physical development? A) Gross Motor Skills B) Fine Motor Skills C) Self-Care D) Both B and C 28. Answer explanation 29. Cognitive development: Our second domain of development is cognitive development. Cognitive development includes a child’s ability to reason, make decisions, and solve problems. We can classify a child’s cognitive development by looking at several subject areas like math, science, social studies, and fine arts. We’ll look at each of these areas briefly and provide activities to help children grow in each area of cognitive development. 30. Math Development: Let’s start with the area of math. By three years old, a child should be able to: sort or match objects or toys that are alike, turn puzzle pieces around to complete a puzzle, understand differences in size, understand the concept of “2,” and the child may even be able to count objects while pointing to them and saying the number. 31. By the age of four, mathematically, a child should be able to: copy simple patterns, name basic shapes, start to use position words, finish simple puzzles, use tools to measure things, and use numbers and counting concepts in his everyday life. 32. By the age of five, a child should: not only sort objects, but also be able to tell you why they are the same or different, both recognize and create patterns, name and create common shapes, show a deeper understanding of position words, complete slightly more complex puzzles, count orally 1-30, count as many as 10 objects, and use materials to add or subtract up to 5 objects. 33. Activity Examples: Your math center and construction center are great for helping your children hit these math milestones. In your math center, provide a variety of theme related counting activities. In the fall, have children count leaves and place them next to the corresponding printed number. In the spring, have them count different types of seeds and place them in a numbered seed envelope. In your construction center, place a measuring tape or yard stick against the wall and allow the kids to see how high they can build their towers, use black construction paper to make “roads” in various geometric shapes and allow the kids to drive cars around them.

34. Here’s a great math center idea that only uses colored craft sticks and card stock: Print out or make cards of various geometric shapes. You can find a printable of the geometric shapes in your handouts. The children can use craft sticks to make the shapes. If you’d like their shapes to “stick together” you can even place Velcro dots or pieces at the ends of each stick. 35. Question: Which activity below would help children “recognize and create patterns” in the construction center? A) counting blocks B) measuring the height of a block tower C) discussing the shapes of each block D) building a block tower with alternating colors of blocks 36. Answer explanation 37. Science: Next, let’s look at a child’s scientific development. A three year old should be able to: play with a push or pull toy, point to or talk about things in nature, identify common elements in nature (like water or the sky). 38. A four year old should: make predictions about how an object might behave while playing, talk and ask about objects in nature, and observe changes in weather. 39. By the age of 5, a child should: investigate and describe properties of objects, name and describe various organisms, and name and describe other elements of nature (like objects in the sky) 40. Activity Examples: It’s time to get practical again. How can you incorporate science into your classroom? You can start by including a science center in your room. As with any center, introduce one or two elements of the center at the beginning of the year and add and rotate center activities as the year progresses. You can jump start your science center with a growing plant that the kids can observe—a simple sprouting potato will do, and a class pet—try fish to begin with. They are low-maintenance and the children will love observing them. Provide the kids with observation journals to record what they notice about the plant and class pet. A printable observation journal is available in your handouts for this course. There are plenty of other items you can add to your science center as the year progresses—magnets and a variety of objects, some that are magnetic and some that are not, small items and magnifying glasses to view them with, toy animals—the kids can sort these into groups of animals that live on land and groups of animals that live in water, and a variety of small objects that the children can sort into groups of living and non-living things. 41. Here’s one science idea that you can add to your construction center: Tape a bar magnet on top of a toy car. Then, let the kids use magnets to push and pull the car around the center! They will discover the power of magnets while playing in one of their favorite centers! 42. Social Studies: Now let’s look at the cognitive developmental milestones kids reach in the area of social studies. By the time a child turns three, she should be able to: recognize her own characteristics, imitate adult actions (like talking on the phone), and go to the correct location for certain activities. 43. By the time she is four, that same child should: recognize characteristics about herself and others that are the same or different, understand the order of everyday events and time intervals (like yesterday and today), play pretend games, begin to understand where certain objects are located (like a teacher is at school).

44. When that child turns five, she should be able to: organize life around time, events, and routines, discuss the jobs of various community workers, identify some common features in her environment (like the name of her town), and know things that are used every day (like money and food). 45. Activity Examples: Children can practice many of these social studies skills in the pretend play center. Remember, your pretend play center doesn’t always have to be a “home” center. You can change it throughout the year to coordinate with your unit themes or the seasons. Why not create an “apple orchard” in the fall, making butcher paper apple trees and Velcro-ing small balls to the trees that the children can “pick,” move with wheel barrows and “sell” to each other? How about making your pretend play center into a restaurant or a grocery store? In the winter, create a holiday wrapping center or a hot cocoa stand. In the spring, make a pretend garden or a flower shop. When it’s getting close to summer, how about turning your pretend play center into a camp out, complete with a fake tissue paper fire and pretend s’mores?! Each time you change your pretend play area, be sure to model for the children how to play correctly in the area and how to correctly interact with the materials. A perfect time to introduce each center is about a week after you’ve begun studying the ideas that will be presented in each center. That way, the children already have the knowledge in place to work with the materials in the center correctly! Plan to spend most of your center time in the pretend play center with your children the first few days a new center theme opens. You can be there to help scaffold their learning and play. After a few days, the children will be able to play in the center on their own! 46. A post office is another fun idea for a pretend play center, and it will help children learn about one of our community helpers—the mail man. A post office will also help increase the kids’ literacy skills! Here’s how to set up your very own post office: Collect a few different size boxes for the children to “mail.” Have a variety of paper and envelopes available for children to write letters and cards to each other. Have stickers available to use as stamps. Include a pretend cash register and some fake money if you have those on hand, so that the post office employees can “charge” their customers. Have small “mail bags” available for the kids to place the mail in as they act like postal carriers. Finally, create a simple “mailbox” space where the kids can deliver mail to each other. This space could be filing trays or “cubbies” with each child’s name on them, or even library card holders affixed to a poster board, with each child’s name written on them. The kids can create “mail,” and deliver it to their friends’ mailboxes. Remember to introduce the concept of the mail man and post office about a week before you change the center. Once the center opens, make sure you model how to interact with the items in the center and stay in the center for a few days to help scaffold the children as they learn how to play there. The children will have a blast, and they’ll be learning about community helpers, too! 47. Fine Arts: As children develop, they reach certain fine arts milestones, too. Here are some fine arts milestones for a child just turning three. She should be able to: grip drawing tools, sing or make sounds of simple songs, move or dance to familiar songs, and pretend play. 48. By the age of four she can: create art using a variety of materials, sing songs, use instruments, and pretend play more complicated scenarios.

49. By her 5th birthday, she can: use art to express herself, participate in musical activities, and create or recreate stories through dramatic play. 50. Activity Examples: Your art center is the perfect place for developing the skills of your budding artists! Provide kids with the opportunity to use several different art mediums—let them color with crayons, cut with scissors, use glue or glue sticks, and paint with paintbrushes. Also, explore novel ways to paint with your students—use the end of celery dipped in paint to make U shaped patterns, roll the wheels of toy cars in paint and allow the kids to drive them across the paper, and use eye droppers to drop colored water onto paper towels or coffee filters. To develop kids’ musical skills, be sure to sing songs during your circle time. You can begin your circle time each day with a “hello song,” greeting your children. Check out your handouts for a printable copy of a few hello songs. Sing learning songs with them too, like the ABC song and counting songs and search the internet to find songs that complement each of your themes! You can also provide your children with simple instruments like egg shakers made from plastic Easter eggs filled with rice (be sure to glue and tape them shut!). Allow your children to use these instruments as you sing songs together during circle time. 51. Here’s a great fine arts lesson—why not teach your children about a few famous artists? Talk to them about how Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine chapel while lying on his back. Show the kids a picture of the Sistine Chapel, and then during art time, tape paper underneath the art center table. Allow the kids to lay on their backs and draw on the papers above them, just like Michelangelo did! 52. Video: We’ve gotten a lot of great ideas about how to help children reach their cognitive milestones. Let’s watch a short video about a gardening unit. Notice how the unit culminates with a garden center pretend play area that the children help to create themselves. Watch the video closely for different areas of cognitive development. (Video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuUjeNl9TNc ) 53. Question: This unit aided children in all of the areas of cognitive development, which of the following cognitive milestones did this unit NOT teach? A) The unit did NOT help children know about things that are used every day like money B) The unit did NOT teach children to name and describe elements in nature C) The unit did NOT help children to create art D) The unit did NOT teach children to name and create common geometric shapes (Answer D) 54. Answer explanation 55. Social and Emotional Development: “NO!” is a favorite phrase of young children. Did you know that a three-year-old who asserts herself with words like “NO” is right on track developmentally? Let’s explore the domain of social and emotional development next. Social and emotional development encompasses both the way a child feels about herself and the way she interacts with others. Preschoolers develop a growing awareness of themselves, as well as a growing ability to interact constructively with others. 56. Let’s first discuss the milestones involved with a child’s self-awareness and self-concept. By a child’s third birthday, he should be able to point to and name body parts and describe himself, name members of his family, assert himself with words (“NO!” is a favorite!), and express pride in accomplishments, but he may become upset with a change in his routine.

57. By the time the child turns four, he should be able to control his own body movements, talk about his family and activities they may have done together, notice things that are the same and different about himself and others, state his opinion and make choices, and have a desire to be a “helper” and please others. 58. By his fifth birthday he will be able to understand and respect personal space, describe himself as a member of a community, understand that people have different characteristics, and recognize activities he might be good at and ones he might not be good at. He will also sometimes be demanding and sometimes be cooperative. 59. Activity examples: We can help promote children’s self-awareness and self-concept by purposely engaging them in activities which help them learn to label their emotions and to better control them. During your circle time, discuss different emotions with your children. You can print out faces of each emotion on cardstock—see your handouts for some printable emotion faces. Hold up the emotion faces and discuss with the children when you experience a certain emotion. Then, allow the children to state when they experience that emotion, too. Leave the emotion cards in an accessible spot in the classroom and encourage the children to bring them to you when they are experiencing a certain emotion. As you read books to the children, discuss with them how the characters feel in the books. Relate those emotions back to the children’s lives. Being able to name certain emotions is a big step in a child’s self- awareness, but we’d also like the kids in our class to be able to control their emotions. 60. Here is a simple calming technique that you can use with even the youngest children to help them learn to calm themselves when their emotions get out of control. Remember to teach this technique during circle time when the children are in an emotionally happy place. It is virtually impossible to teach a calming technique to a child who is already angry or out of control. This technique can be found in Becky Bailey’s book Conscious Discipline. I highly recommend reading this book and implementing the social and emotional techniques found within its pages. Her techniques will transform the social climate in your classroom! This technique is called “STAR.” It is an acronym that children can easily remember. When a child (or YOU!) become stressed, all he needs to do is: Smile, then Take a deep breath And Relax. Practice becoming a “STAR” with your kids during circle time. Smile together. Then take a deep breath together. As you breathe in, lift your hands up. Finally, for the relax step, exhale slowly and twinkle your fingers as your hands come down, like stars falling from the sky. Now, let’s watch a video that demonstrates the STAR technique and shows us a few other calming techniques as well. 61. Video: In this video, Becky Bailey, the creator of Conscious Discipline, shows us some of her calming techniques. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMvrK_8alOE 62. In the video, Becky Bailey introduces children to several calming techniques. What do all of the calming techniques have in common? A) They all involve intentional breathing B) They all have an acronym to remember them by C) They all should be introduced for the first time to a child while he is upset D) They all will only work for children and not adults 63. Answer explanation 64. Now let’s move on to children’s social and emotional development in their interactions with others: By the time a child turns three she should anticipate simple routines, stop actions with

adult prompting, recover from an emotional outburst with the help of an adult, show affection to her friends without prompting, show concern for a crying friend, and separate easily from mom or dad. 65. By her fourth birthday she can follow routines with some assistance, adjust behavior depending on the situation with some adult assistance, stay focused on an activity for 10-15 minutes at a time, and cooperate with other children. A four-year-old will also most likely rather play with other children than by herself. 66. When she turns five, she will be able to follow classroom routines with very few reminders, regulate her own behavior (like waiting her turn in line), be able to become excited and calm down more consistently with some support from adults, stay focused on an activity for up to 20 minutes, and have a desire to please her friends and be like them. 67. Activity examples: The first way we help children develop positive interactions with others is to create a classroom that is a safe place for children to grow and learn with predictable routines embedded into our days. It is emotionally normal for young children to become upset by change a routine, so we want to make sure that our routine stays the same throughout the year. Keeping our routine the same doesn’t mean that we have to sing the same song or read the same book during circle time every day or keep the same items in our centers all year long. We should be learning new songs, reading new books, and changing the items in our centers as our children learn and grow. However, we should keep the order of our days somewhat similar— circle times should stay at about the same times each day, as should center times, meal times, and outdoor play times. We should constantly remind our students that we are there to keep them safe. If a child does something unsafe like jumping off a chair, we should remind that child that it is our job to keep them safe and their job to help keep the classroom safe, too. Once children know they are in a loving, safe, predictable environment, they will begin to have loving and safe interactions with others. 68. But children will still have conflicts with each other, no matter how safe and loving of an environment we create for them! When a conflict occurs, instead of treating it like an interruption in your learning time, remember that the children are in your class to LEARN social and emotional skills, too. Calmly talk to the children involved in the conflict and give them some skills to solve their own problems. Try this interaction, developed by the discipline experts at Love and Logic, another excellent source for social and emotional learning ideas for young children: First, notice that the children have a problem and express your empathy towards them by saying, “How sad. It looks like you have a problem here.” Next, listen to the children about the problem. Once you’ve heard about the problem, “Ask, how do you think you can solve your problem?” Let the children give you ideas on how to solve their problem. If you are met with blank stares or if the children’s ideas are not a good compromise or solution say, “Would you like some suggestions?” Then, give the kids a suggestion or two that might work to solve the problem. Say, “Some kids would choose to do this, or other kids might choose to do that. Which one of those will work for you?” Have the children choose a solution that both parties agree upon.

69. Video: Take a look at this video where teachers help young children solve two conflicts. While the teachers don’t use the exact phrasing that we just talked about, their steps are very similar. Watch how they encourage the children to use logic to deescalate the situations and eventually come up with solutions to their problems. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rna57FRVRM) 70. Question: During the video, the teachers took time to teach the children how to solve conflicts. Which of the following is a likely outcome of the teachers’ interactions with the students? A) There will be an increased number of conflicts in the classroom because the teacher spent time with the children who were causing problems B) There will be no more conflicts in the classroom because the children now know how to use their words and solve their problems on their own C) The number of conflicts in the room will likely decrease some as the children get more practice solving their own problems and the teacher continues to model conflict resolution with them D) The children will resort to hitting so that they do not have to go through a long conflict resolution process 71. Answer explanation 72. Language and Communication Development: Talking: teachers from elementary school through college discourage talking during class, but did you know that preschool teachers should ENCOURAGE talking in class?? Your students are still developing their skills in the fourth and final domain of development, language and communication development. Therefore, you should encourage your children to talk to you and each other. As children acquire language and learn to communicate with others, we also see emergent literacy skills developing. For that reason we will break this domain into two sections: language development and emergent literacy skills. Let’s take a closer look at these two sections. 73. By the time a child turns three, he should meet the following language milestones: use 1-3 words to express needs, say familiar words clearly, speak simple phrases, follow instructions with 2 or 3 steps, be able to say his own first name, age, and gender, be able to name a friend, and label familiar objects. A child who just turned three should be adding about 1-3 words to his vocabulary each day. 74. By the time he turns four, he should: use multiple words to make his needs known, speak clearly enough to be understood by familiar adults, use simple sentences, know opposites, know some basic grammar, and know his first and last name. 75. One he turns five, he will be able to: use language for many different purposes, speak clearly enough to be understood by even unfamiliar adults, combine sentences to provide detail, and usually use correct grammar 76. Activity examples: So what are some practical ideas to help the children under our care develop their language skills? The first idea is very simple: talk and listen! A preschool room should NEVER be a quiet room—well, maybe only at nap time! The children should be talking and interacting with you and each other all day. They need to spend this time talking to develop their language skills. So, do not insist on a quiet room while your children are working. Allow them to constantly chat with each other! Be intentional about talking to them. Try to engage them in conversations that have 3-5 turns talking, meaning you talk, then they talk, then you

talk again, and so on. Don’t let your interactions with the children be only short commands or questions—actually have conversations with them! Next, be intentional about introducing theme related vocabulary. Studies have shown that children from poorer backgrounds arrive at elementary school knowing far fewer words than their richer counterparts. As a teacher, you can help even the playing field by introducing 5-7 new words to your children each week! Remember to change your pretend play center to support your current theme to give your children more chances to use those new vocabulary words they’ve learned! 77. Here’s an easy way to introduce theme related vocabulary: Place a few theme related items in a bag. At circle time or during a small group time, have one child draw an item out of the bag. Next, label the item for the children by giving the children its name. For instance, you might have a garden trowel in your bag for a unit about plants and gardening. Tell the children the item is called a garden trowel. Next describe the item to them and explain how it is used. “This trowel is made of metal and has a smooth handle. I use it for digging in the garden.” After that, compare the item to something similar and link the item to a similar idea or object they might already know about. “This trowel is like a tiny shovel. I use a shovel when I want to dig large holes, but I use the trowel when I want to dig small holes in my garden. I stand up when I use my shovel, but when I use my trowel, I kneel down.” Continue this process with all the items in the bag. 78. Language development also leads to emergent literacy skills that are key to our children becoming good readers in the future. Here are some literacy milestones that each child should hit. By the age of three a child should ask to be read to and explore books on her own, sing and play with sounds and words, recognize some print symbols (like the first letter of her name), and remember characters and events in familiar books with some prompting. 79. By the time she turns four, she should: pretend to read familiar books, recognize some rhyming words, identify some letters and know some letter sounds, have favorite characters or events in stories, and be able make a prediction about what might happen next in a book. 80. When she turns five, she will: engage in many pre-reading activities, produce rhymes on her own, blend and separate compound words and syllables with some adult help, hear the initial sound in a word, name 20 or more letters and know 10 or more letter sounds, retell or and reenact a story after hearing it. 81. Question: Which of the following is NOT a typical literacy milestone for children by their 5th birthday? A) the ability to recognize most letters B) the ability to rhyme C) the ability to hear all the sounds in a simple word like “cat” D) the ability to retell a story 82. Answer explanation 83. Activity Examples: You can begin to practically introduce literacy skills to your children first and foremost by reading to them every day! Discuss the books you read together. Make predictions about what might happen next in the story. Help the children retell the story in their own words. Read big books to the children and point to the words as you read them. Let them see that we read print from top to bottom and left to right. Write with your kids, too. Write about your new theme or respond to a book together. As you write, model for the children how we write from left to right and put spaces between our words. Stretch words together and listen

for the sounds in them as you write. Talk about letter names and letter sounds as you write. Letter recognition is an important part of early literacy development. A child’s first connection with letters will likely be through her name. For that reason, it is important to have each child’s name labeled in several different places around the room—on her cubby, on a birthday chart, and on your letter wall are great places to have both a picture of each child and her name written next to the picture. Discuss the letters in their names with the children and compare different children’s names. Encourage the children to write their names. A daily sign in sheet for 4 year old classrooms is a great way for children to start the day by writing their names. Be sure that the child’s name is printed somewhere on the sheet so that he can use the printed name to “copy” his own name. Compare these sign in sheets in September and in May and be prepared to be amazed by how much your children’s hand writing and letter knowledge has grown! 84. Phonological awareness is a child’s ability to hear the spoken sounds in language. Rhyming is a key part of a child’s phonological awareness development. Watch this video for a fun rhyming song that you can sing using the names of the kids in your class! (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5MPTXPKNIw) 85. Video: Let’s watch another video to finish our time talking about language and literacy development. Watch as this teacher implements a comprehensive language and literacy program in her preschool classroom. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvogfR-ZCU) 86. Question: When the children in the video participate in the “Think, Pair, Share” activity, which of the following language and literacy milestones is NOT being emphasized? A) combining sentences to provide detail B) blending or separating compound words C) remembering characters and events from books D) using language for many different purposes 87. Answer explanation 88. Warning Signs of a Developmental Delay: Now that we’ve studied the normal developmental milestones in each domain of development, let’s turn our attention to those kiddos who may not be meeting those milestones. As educators, we know that each child is different and that some might meet milestones a little early, while others might meet them a little late. We also know that a slight variation in when a child meets a milestone is usually nothing to be concerned about. So, when SHOULD we be concerned? We will focus briefly now on the warning signs that a child may be experiencing a developmental delay that may need to be looked at by a pediatrician or other developmental specialist. If a child shows any of these warning signs, you should encourage his parents to see their pediatrician and to contact their local early childhood intervention (ECI) agency if the child is under three or the local school district if the child is three or older. 89. Here are some developmental warning signs for children who have just turned 3 from the CDC. You should inform parents to notify their doctor if a three-year-old: falls down a lot or has trouble with stairs, drools or has VERY unclear speech, Can’t work simple toys (like peg boards, handles, etc.), doesn’t speak in sentences, doesn’t understand simple instructions, doesn’t pretend play, is uninterested in playing with other children or toys, doesn’t make eye contact, or loses skills he once had.

90. You should have parents notify their doctor if a four-year-old: can’t jump in place, can’t “scribble,” is uninterested in interactive games or make believe, ignores other children or people who are not members of her family, resists dressing, sleeping, or using the toilet, cannot retell a favorite story, cannot follow three step commands, does not understand “same” and “different,” does not use the words “me” and “you” correctly, speaks unclearly, and loses skills she once had. 91. Likewise, you should ask parents to contact their doctor if a five year old: doesn’t show a wide range of emotions, shows extreme behavior (unusually fearful, aggressive, shy or sad), is unusually withdrawn and inactive, has trouble focusing on one activity for more than 5 minutes, doesn’t respond to people or responds only superficially, can’t tell what is real and what is make-believe, doesn’t play a variety of games and activities, can’t give you his first and last name, uses plurals and past tense incorrectly (please note that over generalizing “ed” as in “She cutted in line,” is perfectly normal), doesn’t talk about daily experiences or events, doesn’t draw pictures, can’t brush teeth, wash hands, or get dressed without help, or loses skills he once had. 92. Video: The earlier developmental delays are identified, the earlier they can be treated. Watch this short video closely and be prepared to answer a question about it in just a minute! (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvaPoGeh4eE) 93. Question Nine: In this video we learned: A) Most developmental delays cannot be treated B) The same treatment intervention is used no matter the developmental delay C) Early diagnosis of developmental delays is critical so that children get treatment as soon as possible D) We should always wait a few months or years before we point out a delay to a parent 94. Answer explanation 95. Conclusion: Through this course, you have learned the developmental milestones for children ages 3 through 5. You have also discovered a multitude of activities that you can use in your classrooms to help your children reach these milestones. Finally, you’ve heard about the warning signs of developmental delay and the importance of acting early to get children treatment as soon as possible. You have been fully equipped to help every child in your classroom SOAR to his full potential! 96. Resources: In your handouts you’ll find a list of all the resources that were used for this training. If you’re interested in learning more, check these out! 97. Quiz 98. Congratulations, you’re done!