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Print | YORK REGION>Services>Public Health and Safety>Child and Family Health |
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4 to 5 Years
Congratulations! All of your hard work in parenting your child has helped to prepare your child for school! If your four year old is not in school, give them lots of opportunities to be involved in group activities or programs.
At this stage, your child is capable of playing games with simple rules. Your four year-old will ask lots of questions, such as "How?" and "Why?" By five years of age, your child will enjoy having conversations with people about things that they find interesting.
Growth and Development
Your child's self-esteem and confidence is growing!
Your child is full of energy. They are more independent. Children at this stage can undo buttons, zippers and feed themselves. As they learn to control their behaviour, your child will sometimes be co-operative and, at other times, they will not be co-operative.
Your child can now walk on a straight line, and hop on one foot. They will sort items by shape, size and colour. During this stage, your child will start to play well in a group and follows rules. Your child will speak clearly in adult-like sentences most of the time.
What you can do to help your child grow and develop:
- Read, talk, sing and share time with your child
- Provide opportunities for them to tell stories
- Talk to your child about what they are doing, where they have been, what they did and what they saw
- Give your child lots of opportunities to cut, draw and colour
- Offer your child opportunities to do simple household tasks and help with baking and cooking
- Provide opportunities to play with other children
Toys to offer:
- Crayons, markers, paper, paint, children's scissors and glue
- Toys to build with and put together in different ways (example: Building blocks and play dough)
- Clothes to dress up in, props and puppets for make-believe play
- Story books
- Puzzles
Speech and Language Development
By talking with your child, singing with your child, and reading with your child you start the process for life long learning. Your child's communication skills will develop over time. By five years of age your child will have learned most of their language skills and will be talking to you in complete sentences.
By 5 years of age, your child will:
- Use sentences that sound almost like an adult
- Be able to say most speech sounds (example: "sh…shoe")
- Start to recognize letters and the sounds that they make
- Use sentences to describe objects and events
- Follow more than one request at a time (example: get your paints, make a picture and put it on the fridge)
- Count from one to ten
You can encourage your child's speech and language development by singing or saying a simple rhyme with them. Learn the words and actions to Tony Chestnut Knows I Love You. Remember to maintain eye contact with your child, relax, and have fun. You can find more communication tips for this age group at the York Region Preschool Speech and Language Program website.
For more information on growth and development or speech and language development, visit Programs & Resources.
Parenting can be a challenge. We can help.
For more information or to speak with a Public Health Nurse, please contact
