Early childhood is a time of extraordinary brain development. Trillions of brain cells are connecting during these precious years. Did you know that the size and shape of a child’s brain is literally formed in response to every relationship, experience, and environment a child encounters?! Mind blowing, right?!
Read on to learn more about the crucial role you play, get your questions answered, and learn some tips that encourage healthy brain development.
What is Early Childhood Development?
Early childhood development refers to the growth that takes place from the prenatal period through age eight. This growth and development occur across five domains, or areas: social & emotional, language, physical, creative, and cognitive.
Depending on who you ask, there can be more or less than five domains. Some like to separate social and emotional, while others do not include creative development. In my FREE Guide to Early Childhood Development, you will find six domains as I prefer to separate math and science.
Social & Emotional Development
Social and emotional development refers to a child’s capacity to manage their emotions and behaviors, follow limits and expectations, and establish caring relationships with others.
We can divide this area of development into three categories, or skills: sense of self, sense of responsibility, and sense of others.
Sense of Self
Having a positive sense of self is nurtured by the ability to interact successfully with one’s environment. Preschoolers that have a healthy sense of self are able to adjust to new situations, stand up for their own rights, recognize and manage feelings, and demonstrate self-direction and independence.
When a child feels competent, she is more willing to try new things and strive for success. Therefore, providing a safe and nurturing environment along with responding with warmth and validation can help develop a clear sense of self.
Sense of Responsibility
Children with a healthy sense of responsibility follow rules and routines, care for classroom materials, maintain attention, and adapt well to transitions. However, preschoolers are not developmentally ready to think about what is best for the group or to understand their role in a group setting.
Children this age want to feel important and they love to be busy! Therefore, maintaining a predictable and consistent routine, and giving them age-appropriate and manageable tasks can help develop this sense of responsibility.
Sense of Others
Learning how to socialize and get along with others will get you far in life! When preschoolers interact with other children close in age, they have the opportunity to build positive relationships, to cooperate and respect the rights of others, to care for and respond to others’ needs, and resolve conflict.
Children this age are learning to share toys, take turns, and work together toward a common goal. Therefore, providing plenty of time for open-ended, cooperative play will help develop a strong sense of others.
Language Development
Language development supports all areas of a child’s development allowing them to communicate and engage with others, express their thoughts and feelings, and learn something new.
Listening
While hearing is a physical process that refers to the sounds that enter your ears, listening requires engagement to accurately interpret the messages being communicated. A preschooler with good listening skills can hear and discriminate between the sounds of language (phonological awareness), a predictor of future reading success. Other benefits include the ability to follow verbal directions, and having the ability to create meaningful friendships.
There are many ways that we can help our preschoolers develop and improve their listening skills, such as being attentive listeners ourselves and playing fun listening games.
Speaking
Conversation skills are important for happiness and well-being. When preschoolers are able to have conversations, they are able to ask for what they need and develop strong relationships with their peers and caregivers.
We want our preschoolers to communicate ideas using sentences, actively participate in conversation, ask questions, and answer questions. We can facilitate this development by encouraging extended conversations and asking open-ended questions.
Reading
Instilling a love of reading is vital to a child’s emotional and intellectual development. When children are too young to read for themselves, we have the unique opportunity to bond and connect. It’s a really nice way to slow down and spend time together. When both of my adopted children came home, reading and interacting with books seemed to be the time that they felt most safe and secure. To this day, my son, now 10 years old, cannot fall asleep without a bedtime story.
Other benefits of reading include an expanded vocabulary, increased attention span, cognitive development, and life lessons. In addition to enjoying and valuing reading, we want our preschoolers to comprehend and interpret meaning from books, identify letters and words, demonstrate an understanding of print concepts, and to make meaning from print. We can accomplish this by reading and sharing books every day, pointing to words as we say them, making connections between the story and what is happening in the child’s life, and asking questions about what he thinks and sees.
Writing
Emergent writing is three-fold. First, there is the idea that writing has a purpose and that print is meaningful. For example, when your preschooler makes a sign that reads, “SAVE,” and she places it on her block structure, others know not to touch it until she returns.
Second, children are gaining alphabetic knowledge, including how to form letters and learning the sounds associated with each letter. Letter builders are a way to see that all letters are made with lines and curves. I just love the multi-sensory approach these provide! Single page charts, such as this FREE Nature Themed Alphabet Chart from my TPT store benefit emergent writers as they begin to make letter-sound-symbol connections.
The third aspect of emergent writing involves the child’s ability to express themselves in phrases and sentences with different forms of written communication, such as stories, notes, and lists. Teachers, parents, and caregivers can encourage this growth by providing daily writing opportunities for preschoolers, along with a variety of papers and tools. We should definitely encourage all attempts at writing, regardless of the child’s current skill level.
Physical Development
Physical development refers to the ability of children to use, control, and take care of their bodies. These skills develop through regular movement and activity.
Gross Motor
Gross Motor development involves large muscle groups, including the arms, legs, and torso. We want our preschoolers to demonstrate basic movement skills, to build balance, climb up and down, pedal and steer a wheeled toy vehicle, and to show throwing, catching, and kicking skills.
We can encourage gross motor development by providing plenty of opportunities to run, hop, balance, climb, throw, catch, kick, and pedal a riding toy. Our preschoolers should also be encouraged to push and pull large items, such as a stroller or a wagon. Dumping and filling water or sand is another excellent way to build up those large muscle groups.
Fine Motor
Fine Motor development involves the small muscle groups including hands, wrists, fingers, and thumb. We want our preschoolers to control small movements, demonstrate eye-hand coordination, and to use tools for writing and drawing.
Stringing beads on a pipe cleaner, drawing with chalk, using tongs to pick up pom poms and squeezing turkey basters in the water table, as well as manipulating buttons, zippers, and snaps are some excellent choices for strengthening fine motor skills.
Health and Safety
Healthy habits ensure that our preschoolers eat better, exercise safely, and practice cleanliness. Caregivers can promote these healthy habits by allowing children to choose from a variety of healthy foods, planning a consistent bedtime routine together, demonstrating proper teeth brushing and hand washing, and frequently discussing reasons for safety rules.
Creative Development
Creativity is a way to express ourselves, which motivates us to be imaginative and inventive. Creative expression is not about talent or ability. Rather, it nurtures problem-solving, exploring the senses, decision-making, the strengthening of motor skills, and so much more!
Music
The repetition and rhyme of songs allow children to practice phonological awareness. Singing helps children learn volume and speed. Children explore cause-and-effect relationships with musical instruments. Music can be both invigorating and relaxing, so choose your times wisely!
Dance and Movement
Dance and Movement help children develop imagination and strengthen gross motor skills. Dance and movement experiences are also a healthy outlet for releasing energy and stress. Adding costumes and props can enhance the creative process here.
Visual Arts
Experimenting with paint, paper, glue, clay, wood, (you name it!), provides a plethora of math and science opportunities such as science inquiry, physical science, shapes, spatial awareness, and patterns. I find it best to provide a wide variety of tools and mediums and invite children to create with those materials, allowing them to get messy!
Dramatics
Pretend play activities give children the space to process and act out the roles and responsibilities of the adults in their lives. There are endless possibilities for arranging your Dramatic Play Center. You may first think of “Home Living,” and this is a great one for family role-playing. But imagine an airport, grocery store, sushi restaurant, firehouse, camping, or a post office!
Every single area of development can be strengthened through dramatic play. Here are just a few examples: cooperating with others, resolving conflict, listening and speaking, exploring new cultures, writing a shopping list, making healthy food choices, community role-playing, setting a table, counting money, and stargazing.
Symbolic Thinking
Symbolic Thinking refers to making and interpreting representations. When children plan a drawing or a construction that represents something specific and then names what it is, this is symbolic thinking. From elaborate block structures to playdough cupcakes, it is important for us to comment on the process, not the product.
Cognitive Development: Math
Whether they are building with square and triangular blocks, counting how many grapes are in their lunch, or making a patterned pink and white beaded bracelet for Mom, preschoolers naturally play with math every day! Building upon a child’s natural curiosity in a playful way has been proven to set the foundation for future reasoning and logical thinking.
Number Concepts
We want our Preschoolers to identify numerals, count to determine quantity, and understand simple operations. I like to start one of my small group times every day with a set of number cards, like these Ocean Themed Counting Cards in my TPT Store.
Depending on the age and readiness of the child, I fan out 10-20 cards, face-down, and ask them to choose randomly. Armed with a cute pointer, the child starts counting, saying a number for each dot they point at. During this time, we also draw the numeral in the air and count how many syllables are in the name of the ocean animal.
Shapes
By the time our preschoolers leave for Kindergarten, we want them to be able to identify most 2-dimensional shapes and some 3-dimensional shapes. The Blocks Center is the ideal place for learning shapes. As you build together, simply talking about the number of sides the block has provides excellent exposure and experience.
A fun game to play is The Freeze. You know the song where you dance when the music is playing and freeze when the music stops? Well, instead of standing there like a statue, give the students a shape to find. For example, if you say rectangle, they might point to a book, a block, a rug, or a tissue box. This game is fun to do with colors too!
Spatial Awareness
To have spatial awareness means that you have the ability to visually perceive two or more objects in relation to each other. In our adult lives, we use spatial awareness to pack the trunk of a car, fill a pantry with groceries, follow a diagram to assemble a trike, and follow a map at an amusement park.
We can help our preschoolers develop this essential skill by providing them with puzzles and pattern blocks. These Ocean Animal Pattern Block Mats in my TPT store work very well for this skill.
There are lots of natural ways to incorporate spatial awareness into our day such as letting our preschoolers put the containers back in their own lunchbox, sit in a semi-circle at group time, or placing books back on the shelf with the covers facing out and right-side up.
Patterns and Sorting
Sorting develops reasoning skills as your preschoolers select more than two objects that have something in common, usually size, shape, color, or texture. Small group activities, such as sorting seashells on a giant shower curtain (more on that here) should be done in order to teach the skill.
And don’t miss out on natural opportunities to practice the skill such as cleaning up the dramatic play center…bowls on this shelf, silverware in this container, fruits and veggies in the basket. A simple math center can be to place a variety of buttons and any vessel that has multiple sections, such as a muffin tin. Whatever you do, keep it hands-on by using real objects.
Patterns are literally everywhere and occur naturally in our everyday lives. Our daily routines, sunrise and sunset, and even walking are all patterns. Point them out to your preschooler and before you know it, they will be showing you ALL the patterns!
Patterning is really fun for kids and what’s great about it is that you can pattern with virtually anything! Put a collection of things out and have at it! Coins, silverware, buttons, you name it! Just be sure to keep your expectations developmentally appropriate for their age and skill level.
These Sea Glass Pattern Strips are FREE in my TPT store. While I encourage you to use real sea glass, I included paper cards if you’re in a pinch.
Measurement
Children begin measuring as early as infancy, so Preschoolers come to us ready to apply it to their everyday lives. They compare sizes of toy sharks, the weight of two pumpkins, the length of sticks, and their height to a classmate.
Preschoolers are also ready to expand on their understanding of measurement with activities such as estimation. One of my favorite activities is placing a number of small items in a jar related to our current Unit of Study, and the children estimate how many are in the jar. After I write down all the estimations, It is so fun when we finally take the items out of the jar, one at a time, counting each one, and figuring out who had the closest guess.
Non-standard measurement activities work well in learning centers, such as the whale measurement activity in my Whales Activity Pack! The kids can link together cubes or use these adorable ocean animal counters to measure the whales.
Cognitive Development: Science
Science development begins with curiosity and includes making observations, asking questions, making predictions, conducting experiments, and recording discoveries.
Inquiry
Science inquiry skills are a vital part of a child’s development. We want our preschoolers to observe objects and events with curiosity, approach problems flexibly, show persistence in approaching tasks, exploring cause and effect, and applying knowledge or experience to a new context.
My FREE Guide to Early Childhood Development includes a long list of simple activities to do with your preschoolers that encourage science inquiry skills along with every other area of development. Get your copy today!
A Final Thought: Relationships Matter the Most
Responsive caregivers who provide a nurturing environment and offer meaningful experiences are helping to create millions of connections in the brain, stimulating the child’s growth and development, and setting them up for a successful life.
