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Welcome to our child development section! Your child has spent the last 48 months growing from a toddler to a young child. After your child's fourth birthday, your child should be officially enrolled in a kindergarten.
It is worth mentioning that your child is unique and will develop at his/her own pace. Use this guide for a general overview of your toddler's development. If you have any concerns about your child's rate of development, we advise you to consult with your pediatrician.
Learning and Skills
Learning is becoming a more complex process for your child at year 4. Your child now has the mental capacity to make plans and plot to learn new skills. For example, your child can now pick an activity with the intent to learn a new skill such as writing down the alphabet to improve his/her handwriting or climbing the tree several times in order to become a better climber and compete with peers.
At this stage, your child will become more self-reliant in matters of daily routine such as grooming, getting dressed and undressed, putting on his/her shoes, picking an outfit to wear. This newly-found independence is one of many self-sufficiency milestones your child will have over the years.
At four years of age, your child is also primed for ideal mathematics teaching. Your child will exhibit new interest in mathematical concepts such as giving and taking, which will develop at a later stage to processes of subtraction, addition, multiplication and division.
Your child at four years of age has more energy to expend. He/she will be more willing to play and exercise outdoors for longer periods of time whether it is climbing, running, skipping with a rope, hopping or simply walking outside.
Many children at this age begin to pursue competitive sports such as martial arts, gymnastics, track and field, swimming or fine arts such as dancing and ballet.
Hand-eye coordination is much better at this age enabling your child to process more complex actions such as unbuttoning a shirt, playing with toys with smaller parts – not too small though.
Your child gains over the course of this year a new understanding of tone and intonation. This of course leads your child to experience new shades of feeling such as indifference, boredom, contentment, satisfaction, and anxiety instead of the four basic: anger, fear, happiness and sadness.
Your child also begins to realize at this age that different people in his/her life have different ways of doing things and coping with their feelings.
For such as reason, you should be careful with your actions and what messages you send your child.
Your child is now capable to starting and sustaining longer conversations using the vocabulary learnt over the years. He/she will often have conversations centered on their life, as they have yet to learn the art of listening and responding to someone else's world and problems.
How to Help Your Toddler Grow
To help your child grow at this stage, you must:
be sure to check out our Year 5-6 guide.