Important Milestones: Your Child at Five Years

How your child plays, learns, speaks, and acts offers important clues about your child’s development. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age.

 

Check the milestones your child has reached by his or her 3rd birthday. Take this with you and talk with your child’s doctor at every visit about the milestones your child has reached and what to expect next.

 

What most children do at this age: Social and Emotional

   Wants to please friends

   Wants to be like friends

   More likely to agree with rules

   Likes to sing, dance, and act

   Shows concern and sympathy for others

   Is aware of gender

   Can tell what’s real and what’s make-believe

   Shows more independence (for example, may visit a next-door neighbor by himself

   [adult supervision is still needed])

   Is sometimes demanding and sometimes very cooperative 

Language/Communication

   Speaks very clearly

   Tells a simple story using full sentences

   Uses future tense; for example, “Grandma will be here.”

   Says name and address

Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)

 

   Counts 10 or more things

   Can draw a person with at least 6 body parts

   Can print some letters or numbers

   Copies a triangle and other geometric shapes

   Knows about things used every day, like money and food

 

Movement/Physical Development

 

   Stands on one foot for 10 seconds or longer

   Hops; may be able to skip

   Can do a somersault

   Uses a fork and spoon and sometimes a table knife

   Can use the toilet on her own

   Swings and climbs