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Developmental milestones for 5 6 year olds


Child development from 5-6 years

Child development at 5-6 years: what’s happening

Playing and learning
Even as children get older and start school, play is important. It’s still how children learn and build social, emotional and thinking skills.

Your child’s pretend play is more complex now, filled with fantasy and drama. You might also notice that your child can play with others to achieve a common goal – for example, working together to build one big sandcastle. And your child might understand if another child doesn’t want to play a particular game and agree to play something else.

Your child is becoming more social and prefers to play with friends rather than on their own. Your child can share, although they might find it hard to share favourite toys and other things.

Games with rules sometimes challenge your 6-year-old, and your child might even accuse others of cheating sometimes.

Feelings
At this age, children can express feelings, although they might need help and time to identify and talk about tricky emotions like frustration or jealousy. They often have much better control over feelings too and might have fewer unexpected outbursts of anger and sadness.

You might see more patience, and your child might even be open to reasoning with you. This means there could be fewer disagreements in the future.

Although your 6-year-old loves to be independent, they still need your love and attention. Connecting with you and family is the most important thing in your child’s life. Your child is proud of their own achievements, wants your approval – and probably doesn’t take well to criticism.

Your child’s growing understanding of the world around them might lead to some fears. For example, children might be afraid of criticism, tests, failure, physical harm or threat, or supernatural things like ghosts.

Thinking
School-age children can pay attention for longer now.

Your child understands simple concepts like time (today, tomorrow, yesterday), knows the seasons, recognises some words by sight and tries to sound out words. Your child might even read on their own.

Your child is better at seeing other people’s points of view, which helps your child to make friends and meet new people.

Talking and communicating
At this age children talk a lot, sometimes even when nobody is in the room.

You’ll hear your child using full and complex sentences and having adult-like conversations, although they might still find it hard to describe complex ideas or events. Your child understands and usually enjoys jokes and riddles – jokes about poos and wees are particularly funny. Your child also enjoys the opportunity to do ‘show and tell’ at school.

Your child understands more words than they can say, and they’re learning as many as 5-10 new words each day. Vocabulary growth is so rapid at this age that your child’s brain often thinks faster than your child can speak.

Moving
At 5 years, children are more coordinated and love to show off new physical skills – you’ll often hear shouts of ‘Look at me!’

Your child can learn how to ride a bike, jump rope, balance on one foot for a short period of time, walk downstairs without needing to hold your hand, skip and catch a large ball. Many 6-year-olds will also be interested in playing team sports like soccer.

Does it seem like your 6-year-old can’t ever keep still? Wriggling while watching TV, at the dinner table or even while sleeping is quite common.

Your child’s fine motor skills are improving, which leads to more independence with things like tying shoelaces, using zips and buttons, and brushing hair. Your child might still find it hard to cut up food with a knife but enjoys the chance to practise.

Daily life and behaviour
At this age, children are becoming more independent and love making small decisions, like what clothes to wear or what to eat for lunch.

Starting school opens up a whole new social world, which comes with a new set of rules. This might be demanding or challenging for your child. School can be tiring so you might notice that your child is easily upset, especially after a long day. On these days you might want to keep your child quiet at home after school and aim for an early bedtime.

Whether your child is feeling worried about starting school or bursting with excitement, a bit of planning and preparation can ease the transition.

At this age, your child might also:

  • copy simple shapes with a pencil
  • copy letters and write their own name
  • say their full name, address, age and birthday
  • draw more realistic pictures – for example, a person with a head with eyes, mouth and nose, and a body with arms and legs
  • read simple picture books
  • understand the importance of rules, and the simple reasons behind rules.

Helping child development at 5-6 years

Here are simple things you can do to help your child’s development at this age:

  • Encourage physical activity: play different sports and do recreational activities together or with others. These teach social skills like taking turns, cooperating, negotiating, playing fairly and being a good sport.
  • Include your child in simple household chores: setting the table or helping you to put clean clothes away develops moving and thinking skills, while also teaching cooperation and responsibility. These skills are important for school.
  • Make time for play each day. Play can include outdoor play, imaginative and creative activities, digital play, physical play and more. It's also important for your child to have time for free play.
  • Play with your child each day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Playing together gives you the chance to enter your child’s world and find out about their thoughts and feelings. It also shows your child that you care about them and want to spend time together.
  • Read with your child. Reading is important for literacy development. You can also try literacy activities like telling stories or making your own book.
  • Practise classroom behaviour: for example, you could give your child small tasks that need attention or involve following rules or instructions. Have conversations about your child’s favourite animal or sport and encourage your child to listen, respond and question. This all helps your child get ready for school.
  • Arrange playdates: spending time with other children, especially if they go to the same school, helps with social skills and gets your child used to being apart from you.
  • Talk about feelings: you can help your child work out why they’re feeling something and help them put words to these feelings. This will help your child form friendships and show empathy.

Parenting a school-age child

As a parent, you’re always learning. It’s OK to feel confident about what you know. And it’s OK to admit you don’t know something and ask questions or get help.

It’s also important to look after yourself. Looking after yourself physically, mentally and emotionally is good for you, and it’s good for your child. When you’re well, you can give your child the loving attention they need to grow and thrive. You can also guide your child’s behaviour in positive ways, even when you find their behaviour challenging.

And remember that part of looking after yourself is asking for help, especially if you’re feeling stressed, anxious or angry. There are many people who can support you and your child, including your partner, friends, relatives and GP.

Never shake, hit or verbally abuse a child. You risk harming your child, even if you don’t mean to. If you feel like you can’t cope, it’s OK to take some time out until you feel calmer. Gently put your child in a safe place like their bedroom. Go to another room to breathe deeply, or call your state or territory parenting helpline.

When to be concerned about child development at 5-6 years

You know your child best. So it’s a good idea to see your GP if you have any concerns or notice that your child has any of the following issues at 5-6 years.

Communicating and understanding
Your child:

  • is difficult to understand or isn’t speaking in full sentences
  • can’t understand multi-step, complex instructions like ‘Please put the soccer ball away, wash your hands, and sit down for dinner’.

Behaviour and play
Your child:

  • has tantrums whenever they don’t get their own way
  • doesn’t show empathy – for example, doesn’t try to comfort others who are hurt or upset
  • shows no interest in letters or trying to write their own name
  • is very withdrawn, worried or depressed or gets very upset when separating from you
  • doesn’t interact well with others – for example, is aggressive or shows no interest in interacting with other children or adults.

Everyday skills
Your child:

  • still wets or soils their pants during the day, but note that night-time wetting is typical up until the age of 6-7 years, especially for boys
  • has difficulty falling asleep at night or staying asleep.

See a child health professional if at any age your child experiences a noticeable and consistent loss of skills.

Development usually happens in the same order in most children, but skills might develop at different ages or times. If you’re wondering whether your child’s development is on track, or if you feel that something isn’t quite right, it’s best to get help early. See your GP.

Developmental Milestones 5-6 years olds – Skoolzy

Let's look at the main developmental milestones for 5 to 6 year olds. 

This is the year many kids start kindergarten. It's a real transitional year for your child as they learn to adjust to new routines and expectations, as well as navigate new relationships and situations.  

Between the ages of 5-6 years old, these are the milestones you should expect to see:

  • Many five-year-olds love to sing, dance, and act! They love attention and aim to please.
  • They can tell what's make-believe and what's real and have active imaginations.
  • By this age, they will have developed a desire for more independence and can be quite cooperative (when they want to!).
  • Your kindergartner now knows how to share, but doesn't necessarily always want to!
  • They are now speaking much more clearly than before and will talk in full sentences, with a strong vocabulary of around 2000 or more words.
  • Vocabulary growth is so rapid at this age, as they’re learning 5-10 new words each day, that their brains often think faster than they can speak.
  • Their knowledge is expanding at such a speed and they can understand everyday concepts, such as food and money.
  • They’ll be more skilled using pencils to write with, scissors to cut shapes with and can also now tie their own shoelaces (if taught).
  • Their balance has gotten a lot better and they can now stand on one foot with their eyes closed
  • Some kids will have started reading simple picture books – starting off with easy three-letter words (like "sat", and "mat"), and sight words (like "the" and "she" and "he").
  • They know their primary colors, can count to 10 and can memorize their phone number and birthday (if taught)
  • Instead of always being the ones to ask the questions, your kindergartener can now provide reasons and answers when asked “why”.
  • They can also make small decisions like what they want for lunch.
  • They can complete a puzzle board with 8 to 12 pieces and draw a person with at least eight body parts.
  • They know to look both ways before crossing the street and can buckle their seatbelts.
  • They can pronounce most sounds, although Z, L, R and TH may still be too hard.
  • They're getting better at controlling their behavior, taking turns to speak in a conversation, and understanding when they're being disruptive.
  • They understand daily routines and can begin/complete familiar tasks. 
  • They're great at grouping objects together, for example, they know that "pink" and "yellow" are colors, and that "rabbit" and "pig" are animals, etc
  • They can also understand jokes and riddles – and find jokes about poos and wees especially funny!

 

The Best Activities for Kids: 5 to 6 year olds

 

Running Around an Obstacle Course

Playing catch with your kindergartners is a great way for them to practice their hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills. You can even build them a mini obstacle course in the backyard for them to run, hop, skip and jump around!

 

Spending Time at a Playground

Watch your 5-year-old and their friends giggle in delight as they roll down the hill, ride their scooters down the path, climb up the play structure, and go down the slide at your local park. A great way for your kids to exercise their gross motor skills, get some fresh air, and stay active!

 

Telling Their Own Stories

Bring their favorite stories to life by encouraging your children to act out stories they love the most. They'll have fun playing different characters, talking in silly voices, and dressing up.

 

Drawing on Sidewalks

This is a great way for your children to demonstrate their artistic abilities, think big, and use their imagination! They can draw, scribble, and color in. They can play hopscotch, tic tac toe, or make a track for their car toys and trains!

 

Skoolzy’s Recommendations:

Skoolzy's Connect A Straws

These connect-a-straws enable children to design and create simple shapes or complex structures using their imagination and creativity as they build multi-dimensional shapes and forms using the connecting straws. The interlocking connecting pieces provide endless building and thinking possibilities and can be enjoyed by toddlers, preschoolers, and adults! The building set can be used for fine motor skill development, eye-hand coordination, primary color recognition, pre-math skills, occupational therapy, and just plain old open-ended fun!

 

Skoolzy's Preschool Alphabet Puzzle

This Montessori alphabet puzzle is multi-purpose in fine motor skills development using the peg stems for stacking and spelling games with the double-sided flower petals; one side has lowercase letters and the other uppercase. The flowers are designed for easy manipulation by little hands and younger kids can e

xercise their pincer grip and develop fine motor skills while color sorting the flower manipulatives and stacking the pegs. Preschoolers will develop letter recognition skills and memory through gameplay as they learn to spell their names for the first time and sound out the letter sounds. This preschool learning toy can actively boost memory while having fun.  

 

Skoolzy's Three Bear Family

Your preschooler is sure to love the language and counting bears set. Our matching cups scholastic learning toy includes 27-counting bears with three containers (large, medium, small), and three dice for size, color and preposition. This set is great for teaching prepositions (behind, in front, etc), color sorting and size recognition. 

 

Skoolzy Number Puzzles

This great STEM toy is an awesome preschool learning toy that promotes number recognition, counting, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and STEM learning, all while having fun! It can be used with bingo chips and abacus for extended learning!

 

Skoolzy's Butterfly Counting Game

Kids can strengthen their fine motor muscles when building the sorting garden by interlocking the petals together. They'll have fun while learning colors as they  match the different butterfly shapes. They can also learn to count using the number cards to create simple math equations. This award-winning math manipulative toy includes rainbow color sorting & counting activities and is designed to encourage, motivate and stimulate your child's mind.

 

Skoolzy's Learning Tree

 

 

Learning how to count is an important milestone in any child's life, and now your child can have fun while learning with this popular number button and tree set.  The set contains 10 pairs of colorful shapes to help preschoolers learn to count, sort, and match! This learning toy can be used for competitive or cooperative play and has three levels of play to grow with your child. 

 

Download and share our free Developmental Milestones Checklist for 5-6 year olds

Other Milestones you might want to look at:


DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: Birth to 4 months old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 4 to 8 months old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 8 to 12 months old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 12 to 18 months old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 18 months to 2 years old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 2 to 3 years old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 3 to 4 years old
 
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES: 4 to 5 years old

senior preschool age 5-6 years old

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How to raise a child?

Child development calendar: senior preschool age 5–6 years

  • Tags:
  • Expert advice
  • 3-7 years
  • child's talents

At the age of five, a child enters a special period of his life - senior preschool age. Psychologists call it basic, since during this period 90 percent adult personality traits. He is already moving away from the authority and complete acceptance of the opinion of an adult, active processes of self-identification continue, which began at the age of three. The child develops his own opinion and his own view of the world. For adults during this period, it is important to find an approach to the child in order to maintain an emotional connection with him and help him take the first steps towards growing up.

What can a child of 5-6 years old do?

Healthy baby from five to six years old:

  • Physically well developed: can change the speed and direction of walking or running, walk on heels and toes, side steps, raising knees high. Can perform various manipulations with the ball: catch, throw, toss, jump on two legs, including over obstacles. Jump from a small height, play sports games, following the rules; nine0003

  • Possesses self-care skills: brushes his teeth, washes his hands, undresses and dresses, folds his clothes, sits quietly at the table;

  • Possesses communication skills: greets and says goodbye, thanks and asks for forgiveness, interacts with people, actively engages in play and cognitive activities with peers, understands adult instructions and acts in accordance with them;

  • Develops intellectually: knows geometric shapes, shapes, colors. Capable of purposeful memorization, traces spatio-temporal and causal relationships, begins to analyze, group, generalize, counts to at least ten and knows numbers, solves simple addition and subtraction problems, is familiar with the days of the week and months; nine0003

  • Develops speech: operates with all parts of speech, knows synonyms and antonyms, knows how to add suffixes to words, forms adjectives from nouns, selects words with the same root, divides words into syllables, pronounces all sounds, can come up with a short story.

10 principles for the development of a child 5–6 years old

I am a Parent offers you ten principles for raising a child (https://www.ya-parental.ru/parents/base/) aged 5–6 years, which will help him successfully overcome the difficulties of this stage of development. nine0003

1. Start preparing your child for learning

From the age of five, a child can and wants to study systematically. In order to make it easier for the child to adapt to school in the future, try to organize regular training sessions for the child. It can be both developing classes with a teacher teaching literacy and the basics of mathematics, as well as home lessons with parents. You should not take classes as seriously as at school - training is carried out in an easier and more playful way, but it contributes to the formation of the habit of regularly obtaining and mastering knowledge. nine0003

2. Develop the skill of concentration

A five-six-year-old still needs to play, he does not know how to control his attention to the necessary extent and is distracted by external stimuli. The task of parents is to gradually, in a playful way, help him form the skill of keeping attention on one task in order to bring it to completion.

3. Expand your child's horizons

It has been proven that at the age of five, a child is able to remember the maximum amount of information. It is now that he begins to actively take an interest in the world around him. Adults should encourage this interest: read encyclopedias about the world around you with your child, visit museums and exhibitions, talk about what you know yourself. nine0003

4. Train your memory

As long as the baby's involuntary memory functions to a greater extent, he remembers well only what he is interested in. You also need to train your arbitrary memory: learn poetry, retell stories, play memory games.

5. Follow the development of speech

It is important for parents to pay attention to how clearly the child pronounces sounds, whether his speech is coherent, whether he can clearly express his thoughts. If problems arise, you should contact a speech therapist: now is the time to correct speech disorders. It is better to eliminate all problems before school so that they do not cause difficulties in learning and communicating with peers. nine0003

6. Start teaching reading

Many of the children with whom we often study are already showing an interest in reading. It is necessary to read more to the child, choosing bright and interesting books. When reading, seat the child so that he sees the text: run your finger along the lines or use a bookmark to read. This creates a connection between the sound of words and their spelling.

7. Play role-playing games

At the age of five or six, the child begins to attach importance to the rules of the game and follow them. Also at this age, fantasy begins to develop rapidly. Therefore, meaningful play activity is important. If a child does not go to kindergarten, he must regularly spend time with his peers: now he especially needs the company of children of the same age and joint, so-called free games. nine0003

8. Develop your child's talents

Senior preschool age is the most fruitful age for drawing, music, and construction. If you have not done this before, now is the time to choose a circle of interests for the baby. It’s good if parents find time for homework: the child can already cut with scissors, make applications on his own, draw, sculpt.

9. Involve your child in work activities

From the age of five or six years, the child is ready for meaningful work activity. You need to gradually accustom him to domestic work, let him have his own duties around the house. nine0003

10. Set a good example for children

Parents are still the main authority for the child. At the same time, he acquires the ability to analyze and evaluate their behavior, to notice the features of relationships between adults. Therefore, the competent behavior of parents and positive relationships in the family will be the key to the full development and mental health of the child.

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Ekaterina Kushnir

What a 5-6 year old child should know and be able to do. Checklist for Parents

Preschoolers are transitioning from an early age into a new world of exploration and formal learning. Many of them have started school or will just enter preschool and will complete this period of development by entering school.

In one of the articles we have already written about what a 3-4 year old child should know and be able to do.

Preschoolers are even more open to learning numbers, letters, reading and simple math. This is also the optimal period for studying music. They improve gross and fine motor skills, which encourages them to be interested in arts, crafts and all kinds of riding toys (vans, scooters, bicycles, etc.). They also develop athletic skills, leading to participation in a variety of sports towards the end of this developmental period. nine0003

The most important way of learning during this period is play. Games of all kinds arouse curiosity and promote the development of language, socialization and creativity. Interest in the study of the environment contributes to an early interest in science. They also enjoy building things around the house, as well as building sets like Lego, Kinex, blocks, and more.

So, let's consider what a child of 5-6 years old should know and be able to do, depending on the area of ​​development.

Speech development

  • At this age, children talk a lot, sometimes even when no one is in the room.
  • The child answers questions with fairly accurate short or detailed answers.
  • The ability to evaluate the statements and answers of comrades, to supplement, correct errors is developing.
  • In the sixth year of life, the child can quite consistently and clearly compose descriptive and plot stories on the proposed topics.
  • A child correctly pronounces all sounds, closer to six years old is able to distinguish the first sound from a word, is capable of sound analysis of words. nine0015
  • In simple sentences he correctly agrees parts of speech by gender, tense and cases, but in complex sentences he can still make similar mistakes.
  • In general, the vocabulary is significantly enriched. The child is able to generalize some groups of objects that are often found in everyday life.
  • The child knows more antonyms and synonyms.
  • A sense of humor begins to form, understands jokes, anecdotes, and invents his own.

Physical or motor development

The first few years of a child's life are critical to their physical development. This is the time when his body constitution develops most actively. Pay attention to the following milestones in your 5-year-old's physical development:

  • Five-year-olds are more coordinated and love to demonstrate new physical skills, often accompanied by words like, "Look at me!"
  • The child's ability to run, jump or jump over becomes better because his balance improves by this age. nine0015
  • The child's fine motor skills are better developed, he can unbutton his shirt and tie his shoelaces.
  • A child can learn to ride a bicycle, jump rope, balance on one leg for a short period of time, walk up stairs without holding a hand, jump and catch a big ball. Many six year olds will also be interested in team sports such as football, hockey, etc.

Social and emotional development

Social and emotional development can help a child make new friends. This helps him understand his feelings and the feelings of others. He will be able to sympathize or, for example, share his problems with friends. This makes his personality complete.

At this age, the child is able to express his feelings, although he may need help and time to identify and discuss difficult emotions, such as disappointment or jealousy. The baby is often much more in control of his feelings and unexpected outbursts of anger and sadness are much less common. nine0003

The child's growing understanding of the world around him may cause some fears. For example, some children may fear the supernatural (such as ghosts), criticism, trials, failure, physical harm, or threats.

We also list the characteristic features of the development of a child at the age of 5-6 years:

  • By the age of 6, children become more and more independent from their parents. They will try to show how "adult" they are.
  • Peer acceptance becomes more important than before. Children learn to collaborate and share. nine0015
  • Boys will play with boys and girls with girls.
  • Parents should allow children to choose their own sports and toys. Make a wide range of examples available.
  • As their language skills develop, children become better and better at describing what happened, how they feel and what they think.
  • At this age some lies and deceit are to be expected. Children find out where the boundaries are, which, however, is quite acceptable.
  • A child distinguishes reality from fantasy. nine0015

Cognitive development

Cognitive development means the development of thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills. Cognitive development ensures that the child grows both mentally and emotionally. Child aged 5-6:

  • Child can participate in imaginative play (for example, planning a trip to the moon)
  • He can understand the concept of rules and even follow them, distinguish between "right" and "wrong".
  • Knows the alphabet and begins to read syllables. nine0015
  • Can write letters and numbers.
  • Counts up to 10, familiar with numbers up to 100.
  • Knows the concepts of "equality", "subtraction", "addition".
  • Can remember your phone number and home address.

Child Development Assistance at 5-6 Years Old

Here are a few simple things you can do to help your child develop at this age:

  • Encourage Movement: Play sports and activities together. It teaches social skills such as taking turns, cooperation, negotiation, fair play and good sports. nine0015
  • Involve your child in simple household chores: setting the table or helping you clean your clothes develops movement and thinking skills, and teaches cooperation and responsibility. These skills are very important for the school.
  • Set aside time for free play: Even if your child has already started school and other structured activities, play is still very important at this age. Let your child choose how to spend this "free" play time.
  • Play with your child every day, even if it only takes 10 minutes. Playing together gives you the opportunity to enter your child's world and learn about his thoughts and feelings. It also shows your child that you care about him and want to spend time together. nine0015
  • Practice behavior in the classroom: for example, you can give your child small tasks that require attention, or follow simple rules or instructions. Talk about your child's favorite animal or sport and encourage them to listen, respond, and ask questions. All this helps to prepare for school.
  • Get Together: Spending time with other children, especially if they go to the same school, helps develop social skills and helps your child get used to being apart from you. nine0015
  • Talk about feelings: You can help your child understand why he feels something and help him put those feelings into words. This will help him form friendships and show empathy.

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