This is how your child develops at the age of 4 to 5 years
At the age of 4 to 5, your child will gradually become more independent and will want to do more and more things on their own and without your help because their motor skills are becoming more and more secure. Read this article to see what major developmental strides it takes at this age.
Running and motor skills: Body control is getting better and better
At the age of four to five you will probably be able to observe that your child is making great motor progress. Its movements become more secure, it runs more fluently and smoothly and it can also learn more demanding movement tasks, such as balancing or standing on one leg. That’s why you have to help your child less and less.
Most children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Learn to eat with a knife and fork
- Do simple household chores
- Run more coordinated
- Stand on one leg for a few moments
Half of children by age 4 to 5 can:
- catch a ball
- Balance
Few children aged 4 to 5 can:
- Learn how to button and zip up
- learn to ride a bike
speaking and understanding
The vocabulary of children between the ages of four and five seems to be exploding. At this age, children learn an average of about six new words a day. You can form longer and more complex sentences and make fewer and fewer grammatical errors. Pronunciation will also improve and your child should be able to pronounce at least most sounds correctly by the time they are four to five years old. Problems with difficult sound combinations such as ‘dr’ or ‘kr’ and hissing sounds such as ‘s’ or ‘sch’ are sometimes still possible at this age.
Children at the age of four develop a keen interest in the context and background of certain things. You begin to understand that everything has a reason. As a result, at this age they often ask a lot of questions as they try to understand the world around them. The W-questions “Why?”, “Who?”, “When?” or “Where?” are very popular with children aged four to five.
Most children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Ask lots of questions
- Learn six new words every day
- Use subordinate clauses and adjectives such as “beautiful”, “colorful”, “cold”.
- Make a phone call
- Name the primary colors
- Make sentences of six to eight words
Half of children by age 4 to 5 can:
- learn to count
- Read and write your own name
- Speak longer, more complicated sentences (more than eight words)
- enjoy word games
- Pronounce almost all sounds correctly
Few children aged 4 to 5 can:
- Recognize individual letters
- Listen for a longer period of time
- Start understanding the concept of time
mental skills and games
Children between the ages of four and five develop a great deal of creativity while playing. They create their own fantasy world for their game, which can also be continued over several days. Your child is becoming better and better at being able to occupy himself or herself for a while. Role-playing games are very popular with four-year-olds, as are board games. The only thing your child probably still has to learn is how to lose. Your child’s ability to concentrate is still relatively low and amounts to a maximum of ten minutes for self-selected tasks.
Most children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Create a fantasy world while playing
- Solve jigsaw puzzles with 10 pieces
- Like to play board games
- Concentrate on self-chosen tasks for about 10 minutes
- Sing and do handicrafts
Half of children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Continue role-playing over several days
- Design your own rules of the game
Few children aged 4 to 5 can:
- Handle scissors
- Learning to deal with losing in games
Social contacts and personality
At the age of four to five, your child also likes to play with other children and first friendships are made. By the age of four, your child can better understand the feelings of others and behave in an empathetic and compassionate manner towards those around them. Nevertheless, many children still find it difficult to put aside their own interests from time to time, to do without or to wait until it is their turn.
Children at the age of four are slowly becoming independent and would prefer to do everything on their own without asking for help. Although you as a parent still have the greatest role model function, other people in your child’s life, such as educators or friends, are slowly becoming more important.
Most children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Be empathetic and comfort others
- understand feelings better
- Play with other children
Half of children by age 4 to 5 can:
- Do a lot on your own without help
Few children aged 4 to 5 can:
- Share voluntarily with other children
- Get in line at the back of a line
If you would like to support your child in getting to know numbers in these early years, we have beautiful learning books for you and for arithmetic here, which are also tailored to our little ones.