A fun loving four year old matures faster than you imagine.

In the 1st three years of life, your toddler has spent a good portion of time in developing gross and fine motor skills through various activities. It is no wonder that he is filled with great confidence while performing physical activities; now is the phase when he will learn to fine tune those activities, learn new practical skills from the real world and loves playing or being with other kids of his age.

What are the gross and fine motor developmental milestones developed during this phase?

Your four year old may have lots of confidence in his physical activity, but emotionally he may be bold or timid. In wither case he needs monitoring while he is out playing.

Here is a list of the gross motor skills for 4 years old to master as they start exploring the world outside home. The child can do the following:

• Stand on one foot for more than 10 seconds
• Do hops and somersault
• Walk up and downstairs easily and swiftly
• Use a tricycle with ease
• Walk along a straight line for little distance

The fine motor skills for 4 years old are equally advanced now. The child should be able to do the following:

• Understand and draw a circle, triangle, square and other shapes
• Draw a person with body parts
• Use a fork and spoon
• Stack more than 10 blocks
• Thread beads to make a necklace
• Manage his own toilet needs, during the day time

How to improve my baby’s physical and motor skills?

Here is a list of gross motor activities for 4 years old, to boost your child’s gross motor skills:

• Take him to park or garden regularly and allow him to play and enjoy with all the rides present
• Play either football, cricket or throw-ball with him using a fairly big sized ball
• Take him to the beach, play with him in mud or sand

Here are some fine motor activities for 4 years old that you can have your toddler indulge in for sharpening his skills:

• Provide him different drawing and coloring books
• Play dress up games
• Pretend play with toys or puppets
• Praise him, whenever he manages his own toilet needs

What are the cognitive and lingual developmental milestones at 4 years of age?

 Here is a cognitive development checklist for 4 years old:

• Understands concept of time in a much better manner
• Can count 10 or more objects
• Can count till number 30 by memory
• Recognizes most of the alphabets and can write or read his own name
• Understands difference between reality and fantasy
• Understands the concept of size like biggest, longest, largest etc.
• Correctly names 4 or more colors
• Correctly identifies 3 or more shapes

These are the language developmental milestones of 4 years old that your chatty 4 year old has probably started championing by now:

• Understands grammar
• Speaks relatively complex sentences (sentences having more than 5 words)
• Says name and address
• Uses past-tense, future-tense, verbs, singular-plurals etc
• Knows and speaks about 1000 words

What can I do to promote cognitive development in children at age four?

So far, we saw the list of intellectual and language milestones for 4 year olds.   Some activities that sharpen their intellect and promotes language development are as follows:

• Read small story books with the toddler which have a moral at the end of the story
• Ask the child to narrate some part of the story or the moral of the story
• Sing songs with him/her
• Recite nursery rhymes
• Allow him to play with clay or dough and ask him to make different animals or shapes
• Encourage your child to talk about what is happening around or has happened sometime back

What social development milestones are advancing in your 4 years old?

Your self-centered kid now understands the importance of other’s feelings and he is able to work through conflicts while controlling his emotions.

Here is a 4 year old developmental milestones checklist for his social-emotional sphere:

• Becomes more social and loves playing with other children
• Likes to please his friends
• Becomes even more independent
• Expresses displeasure in words, rather than physical aggression
• Recognizes emotions of others

Disclaimer: The information in the article is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor.

Also read: Developmental Milestones: 55-60 Months

Explore the entire collection of articles: Baby Growth And Development

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