Development 4 - 7
Children are like sponges. Metaphorically, of course. While they aren’t full of holes and don’t come from the sea, children absorb learning like a good sponge sucks in dishwater. Their cognitive, physical and emotional development seems most amazing when they’re just beginning school. Here’s the Dads Space guide to 4-7 year olds!
One of the things to remember about development at this age is that skills (literacy and numeracy skills, gross and fine motor skills, and social skills) go from general to specific, and from simple to complex. While a four year old might know the alphabet and be able to count to twenty, a seven year old can usually read and write with some proficiency, and have a sure sense of quantity and basic arithmetic.
Here are some examples of what your child can do at 4, 5, 6, and 7, and some suggestions on how you can help them develop.
A four-year old can, for example:- count to 20
- mostly dress themselves, with the exception of tricky buttons and laces, and use a small fork and spoon
- often confuse fact with fiction.
You can help them by:- not rushing to help them in play—let them work it out for a while, if they succeed it’ll help them retain skills and give them confidence!
- giving them fun yet creative toys to play with, like play dough
- encouraging independent potty time.
A five-year old can, for example:- dress themselves, but they might have trouble with shoelaces
- tell you their whole name, address, and birthday
- have preferences for certain games and activities.
You can help them by:- starting to teach them how to ride a bike
- talking to them using different time tenses (as in, “I was, I am, I will be,”) so to improve their vocabulary and sense of time
- getting them to help you with safe household tasks, like doing the washing up.
A six-year old can, for example:- show basic literacy skills
- be developing a sense of quantity
- understand that cartoons and fairytales aren’t real.
You can help them by:- getting them to try new activities like ballet, or judo (in age-appropriate classes)talking to them each afternoon about what they did at school
- letting them share their feelings with you: at six they’re starting to have more empathy and emotional depth.
A seven-year old can, for example:- make many friends of their own age—but their friends are still mostly of their same gender
- be curious (too much so sometimes): they’re like little scientists, always keen to explore
- enjoy team games with more complicated rules.
You can help them by:- giving them creative or scientific tools to play with—not a dissection kit or a set of oil paints, but things like paper in different colours or a magnifying glass or butterfly net
- explaining things and answering questions as they arise—if you don’t know the answer, you can always look it up together
- giving them every opportunity to play outdoors and exercise - at this age they’re becoming less clumsy and far more coordinated, and they’ve got energy to burn.
Remember that every child is an individual, and that this is just very general advice, so there’s no need to worry if your child doesn’t fall neatly into these descriptions. That said if you are worried you can always check with your child’s teachers and GP to make sure that they’re not experiencing any difficulties at school or in any other contexts.