Parents always want to know whether their child is developing normally or not. Here are some basic development milestones that your five-year-old child should achieve. If you are concerned that your child may not be developing at the same pace as her peers, then take a look at the Developmental Alarms and find out if you need to make an appointment with your child’s pediatrician.
Mental Development
Mental reasoning improves; will argue and link cause and effect. "I won’t talk to Ted because he hit me"
Can remember address and phone number
Can draw pictures to show person (with legs, hands, eyes, nose, hair and smile), animals (dog with four legs and a tail)
If taught, can write all alphabets and some numbers
Cannot tell time but knows difference between "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow"
Can easily express his feelings or can clearly make himself understood to strangers
Becomes more creative, can make up stories with a "beginning" and an "end"; can tell jokes and riddles
Will read a book from left to right and top to bottom
Can make comparisons in size (tall, taller, tallest) or weight (fat, fatter, fattest)
Can identify basic colors like red, yellow, blue, green and orange
Can count 10 objects or more
Concentration improves along with attention span
Can draw familiar shapes
Physical/Motor Development
Body coordination improves – can skip, jump rope, hop on one foot, run on tiptoe; can also learn more complex things like swimming, skating, and riding a bicycle
Makes creative movements like dancing or somersaults
Can play with a ball skillfully (can easily throw with an aim, grip on ball becomes steady)
Can climb up and down stairs without using handrail
Feeds himself with minimum spilling. Becomes more dexterous with spoon, fork and knife
Can groom (bathe, wear clothes) without assistance. Can tie shoelaces. Can take care of his toilet needs
Social and Emotional Development
Play becomes more innovative and organized. Will invent simple games, make teams, and assign roles.
Can take turns and share but may act bossy
Becomes more sensitive to feelings of people around her. For example, he may obey you if you say, "Please don’t make any noise, dad is tired."
Becomes fonder of some playmates. May have "best friends".
May want to make own decisions
May follow rules and seek adult permission
May outgrow many anxieties like fear of dark or monsters
Understands relations like parents, uncle, aunt, etc.
Feelings like shame or embarrassment will surface if she does anything that is not approved by adults or peers
Language Development
Vocabulary grows to accommodate about 13, 000 words
Can carry on conversations.
Sentence structure becomes more complex. May use 6-8 words in a sentence.
May make only a few grammatical errors
Will make up stories and enjoys telling them
Development Alarms
Make an appointment with your child’s doctor if she:
Is disinterested in making friends
Cannot feed or groom himself
Cannot take care of his toilet needs
Cannot make himself understood (difficulty in speech)
Shows extreme mood swings or a lot of violent behavior
Cannot identify colors, letters, numbers, or shapes despite being taught
Has difficulty in skipping, hopping, jumping, running, etc.
