Your little one is of preschool age now. They have abundant energy, and their motor skills are already being perfected.
Their mind is alive with imagination, and they are also slowly understanding their place amongst their peers.
Now that they are past their ‘terrible twos’, you’ll find that your little one is much more cooperative and calmer.
Between the ages of 3 to 4 years old, they have new milestones and developmental goalposts to reach, as is the natural process of growing up.
Here’s what’s in store for your child at this pivotal stage in their lives.
Physical Development
Between the ages of 3 and 4 years, your toddler should be around 96 to 100 cm tall.
Their weight should also have increased to 13-17 kg.
Your child’s ‘baby fat’ is also starting to disappear, giving them a thinner, more adult-like appearance.
Because their legs are growing much faster than their arms, your toddler may still look a bit ‘knock-kneed’. This is when their knees tend to knock or bump against each other when they walk or stand.
This is usually nothing to worry about, as they usually outgrow knocked knees by 6 years old, if not sooner.
Your child is also sporting a full set of ‘baby teeth’. This is their first set of teeth and will also slowly fall out as they grow into their adult teeth.
They are much more dexterous now, able to walk, jump and run with great ease.
They can climb stairs unassisted and with alternating speed and can even kick a ball.
You can experiment with their physical milestones by getting them a tricycle to train their eye-hand-foot dexterity.
When it comes to self-feeding, they will still need some help with utensils. However, they can otherwise do it on their own if they’re eating with their hands.
In terms of fine motor skills, your toddler is still stacking blocks, playing with crayons and turning the pages of a book.
But they are becoming much more skilled at it as their hand-eye coordination improves. Hand dominance typically shows up at this age.
Your child will start showing a preference between their left hand or right, or in some cases, both.
This is a great time for toilet training, and most toddlers outgrow diapers before they turn four.
Cognitive Development
Between 3 and 4 years of age, your toddler’s brain is thirsty to soak up as much new information as they can.
Your toddler still doesn’t quite understand how to read, but they will pretend to do so when given a book.
However, they can understand the procession of pictures telling a ‘story’ and when adults read to them a sentence from a book.
It’s important for parents to spend a lot of time reading to their little ones, as their brains are super absorbent at this stage.
The more you read to them, the faster their language develops and the faster they can learn to read and write.
Puzzles are good toys for three-year-olds, as they teach logical thinking and reasoning.
Toys where kids can push different-shaped objects into the correctly shaped holes teach them about dimensions and size.
Aside from shapes like squares, triangles and circles, your little one is also able to recognise basic colours like red, blue and green.
You can test this by asking them to match clothes, toys, etc. with similar colours.
Ideas like time (tomorrow, yesterday) and quantity (a lot, a little) are beginning to make sense to them.
When they speak, they can form complete sentences; however, they may still not be able to write them out or read them (that comes later).
Now that they have mastered the most difficult milestone of growing up (walking), they’re focusing all their attention on their speech and language.
You may find that your toddler becomes quite the little chatterbox.
They should have between three hundred and one thousand words in their vocabulary at this point.
As part of their brain maturing, your little one’s curiosity will be insatiable.
They will not have any shortage of questions to ask you (and it’s important to answer them).
This is part of how they learn speech etiquette like turn-taking and eye contact.
This does not, however, mean that they will immediately conform to these conversational rules (it’s important to be patient).
In many cases of more advanced children, some toddlers can even have intelligent conversations with full-grown adults.
Emotional Development
Your little one is now much more cooperative. They have exited their terrible twos and are much more well-behaved.
However, do not be alarmed if they still have a few meltdowns here and there.
While they are more amenable to instructions and coaxing, your little one can still be quite territorial of their things.
They may throw a fit if someone touches or plays with their toys or possessions.
The most important thing you need to do is teach them self-regulation when they do experience a tantrum.
However, at this stage, they are already better at self-soothing (playing with their toys, hugging a parent, etc.).
Playtime may still require supervision, especially with other children. While mistrustful of their peers, 3-year-olds are softer towards younger children, often showing affection to them.
Between 3 and 5 years old, your child is slowly transitioning from parallel play to associative play, especially if you’ve been sending them to daycare or playdates.
In terms of their relationship with you as their parent, they will still be very attached and clingy.
However, they will let you know when they don’t want to be bothered, such as when they’re playing with themselves or others.
But don’t celebrate yet, mums and dads.
True detachment doesn’t begin until much later, between the ages of 8 and 12, when your child truly desires identity and autonomy away from their primary carers.
More Milestones Await
Between the ages of 3 and 4, your toddler still has plenty of energy and curiosity, but their excitement has slowed down enough for them to really start immersing themselves in the joys and wonders of childhood.
They are now much more self-aware and are slowly expanding their social circle to include other children.
As their growth spurts come and go, their bodies will also start changing more and more, getting stronger by the year.
It’s important to give your child’s hungry brain something to feast on. Books, puzzles, games and, of course, plenty of social interaction and outdoor adventures.
Slow and steady wins the race, as they say, and your child still has a long way to go before they cross the finish line.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice from Motherhood. For any health-related concerns, it is advisable to consult with a qualified healthcare professional or medical practitioner.
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