Good morning everyone and welcome to my midweek Wednesday blog. I hope your all having an amazing week.
Today I'm going to talk about how children develop at difference levels and how the "Appropriate Age Range Activities May Not Work"
Being a first time mum and a single mum things can always look a bit daunting when you see things "your child should be doing this and that"
Each child develops at a different rate and speed, they can also be more of a hands on child or a sit and read child.
My daughter for example won't sit and watch a whole film on the TV likewise it's very rare I can get her to watch Disney films as she prefers real people and not characters.
For example:
She will watch.... Matilda, BFG, Dennis the Menace, Harry Potter.
but she won't sit and watch..... :Lion King, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Sharks Tale or other films like this.
So she is different to a friend of hers who will sit and watch these films easily.
Another prime example if she's outside playing and exploring she can do this for hours on end, if however we have a wet day she isn't able to sit and focus on much else for that length of time. So if she's sat drawing she'll get bored and start doing one set of lines on a piece of paper, however a peer would be able to sit there longer messing around.
One thing I learnt quiet early on with my daughter is that she needs to be high stimulated at all times. Which when your a single mum and business owner is not an easy task to keep her occupied for long periods to enable me to concentrate and work.
So if i were to take you back to when she was 4 and you were to look at a chart of things she should be able to do at 4 years old there's things she can do but also things she cant do. but in the next bracket up she can do more again.
For Example:
3 to 4 Years old Should be able to...: (development milestone used from skoolzy.com)
Able to take turns in games and show affection to their friends.
They have a better understanding of what is “his” and “hers” and are exhibiting more self-control.
A major milestone at this age is the development of self-awareness – you’ll notice your child showing concern for others as well as emotions such as shame, anger, embarrassment, pride, and even jealousy. These are all essential to the development of a conscience.
Their motor skills will be more advanced, which will in turn allow them to be more coordinated. They should be able to balance or hop on one foot for short periods of time and catch and kick a ball with better accuracy.
At this age, their fine motor skills are advancing and they're able to hold a pencil, cut out simple shapes, and cut and mash their own food!
Their language skills are improving at a rapid rate and they now speak in longer sentences. Having mastered basic rules of grammar they can now correctly use pronouns such as “he” and “she”. Their speech is clear enough for strangers to understand.
Your child can now correctly identify some shapes and colours and may know a few numbers and understands the idea of counting.
They can sing songs from memory and can re-tell parts of their favourite story and talk about what they did earlier.
As their knowledge of the world around them increases, they’ll be able to engage in fantasy play and will enjoy inventing stories. That said, they may still not be able to distinguish between what’s real and what’s make-believe, so be careful when reading stories about scary monsters!
This is also the start of the questions – as your pre-schooler becomes more curious, they’ll start to ask why/what/who type questions! If you don't know why clouds look like cotton balls or why the sky is blue, look up the answer together in an age-appropriate book or online - make it fun!
They might be ready for potty-training - most kids are potty trained in the day by 5-6.
By 4, they’ll be able to follow three-part commands (if delivered in the right sequence) such as: “Pick up your books, put them on the shelf and then get in bed” (they won't however always carry out your instructions!)
With these ideas in mind above, my daughter can do about half of them but if you look at the next stage up she can do half of them too.
Then if you look at another peer in her class they would be able to do these and not ness anything from the next stage up.
My point in this is to take these markers as Guidelines not every child learns the same. So therefore they are not all gonna be at the same development level.
With this in mind if your a mum or dad sitting there thinking your child is behind don't worry about it as they probably are just learning at difference rates. Some children will learn through videos, talking, doing the task, or just reading it. Again each child is different and learn in different ways.
So mum's and dad's please don't beat yourself up if your child isn't meeting all the above development guidelines. They literally are just a guideline so use it as exactly that a Guideline.
Don't penalise your child or children just because they are not at the levels stated, everyone does learn differently so be patient and just teach your child the best way you can and they will eventually pick up all the different levels they need to.
I hope all this helps any parents out there who think there child isn't developing right or at the right age. I'll see you all next week with my next blog in my Midweek Wednesday Blog.
Always remember you're stronger than you believe
Maria