Childhood Milestones Year Five
Your child is going to start kindergarten soon. Are they meeting their developmental milestones? Contact us today for a speech therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy appointment today if they are not meeting their milestones.
Pre-K
Gross Motor Skills
- Skips using opposing arms and legs for at least 10 feet while maintaining balance
- Bounces and catches small ball
- Kicks ball at least 2 feet
- Rides bike with training wheels
- Stands on either foot with eyes closed for at least 5 seconds, eyes open for at least 10 seconds
- Dribbles a ball walking forward
- Jumps forward 3 feet
Fine Motor Skills/Visual Motor Skills
- Colors in lines
- Cut basic and complex shapes on the line
- Completes simple dot-to-dot pictures
- Copies color and shape sequences
- Draws triangle and X
- Imitates writing first name
- Draw a human figure with at least 8 body parts
Self-Care
- Dresses self and ties shoes independently
- Completes snaps, buttons, zipper clasps on self
- Brushes teeth with follow up from parent for thoroughness
Oral Motor Skills & Feeding
- Eats a variety of food textures from all food groups
- Can eat a meal with the rest of the family, within 30-40 minutes
- Willing to try new foods
- Sufficient at using utensils at mealtime
- Takes appropriate bites of food, does not overstuff mouth
- Can drink from an open cup, straw, or water bottle without spilling
- Chews food sufficient enough that does not result in chocking, or gagging
- Does not pocket food in cheeks
Speech & Communication
- Uses a variety of sentences
- Has a vocabulary of 2000+ words (reading to your child can help them learn new words)
- Uses speech sounds correctly
- Asks questions to get more information
- Can follow multi-step directions without repetition
- Demonstrates good eye contact
Sensory & Sleeping
- Starts to feel sensitive about how others feel about them
- Plays with different textures like glue, finger paint, and sand
- Enjoys playing on park equipment such as swings, rock wall, trampoline, and slide
- Is aware of risk and unsafe behaviors
- Easily adapts to changes in routine
- Usually able to self-calm to fall asleep
- Has an established sleep schedule
- Tolerant of haircuts and nail trims
- Tolerant of new clothes and different clothing textures
Social/Play
- Interest in simple board games, competitive games, cooperative games
- Compromises during group play
- Plays with a single object for 15+ minutes
- Demonstrates understanding of others’ feelings
- Costumes and props are more important for pretend play
- Able to recite their full name, age, and address by the age of 7
Best Toys at This Age
- Twister game
- Board games that encourage turn taking, group play, and playing fair
- Child size corn hole or ring toss
- Hopscotch
- Bike
- Two wheeled scooters
- Dot-to-dot and word search books
- Simon Says
- Roller Skates
- Balls of all sizes
- Puzzles
- Crafts – color, cut, paste, paint
- Legos
- Action Figures
- Play Kitchen
- Dolls / Doll House
Red Flags
- Poor coordination of two sides of the body (jumping jacks)
- Avoids crossing the midline of their body
- Delayed hand dominance or mature grasping pattern for handwriting
- Difficulty identifying uppercase letters
- Left-Right confusion
- Difficulty manipulating small objects for example coins into a piggy bank
- Inability to assume and hold “dead bug” or “superman” position
- Difficulty answering questions with more detail
- Uninterested in playing with others
- Extreme fears that interfere with daily activities