Developmental Milestones: Age - 5 Years

Definition

This article describes the skills and growth markers relevant to 5-year-old children.

Information

Physical and motor skills milestones for a 5-year-old may include:

• Erupting the first permanent teeth (the majority of children do not get their first permanent teeth until age 6)
• Developing increased coordination
• Skipping, jumping, and skating with good balance
• Maintaining balance while standing on one foot with eyes closed
• Tying own shoelaces
• Showing increased skill with simple tools and writing utensils

Sensory and cognitive milestones include:

• Increasing vocabulary to over 2100 words
• Composing sentences of six to eight words, and with all parts of speech
• Identifying coins
• Properly naming the primary colors and possibly many more
• Questioning more deeply, addressing meaning and purpose
• Behaving more responsibly
• Decreasing aggressive behavior
• Outgrowing earlier childhood fears
• Accepting the validity of other points of view (while possibly not understanding them)
• Demonstrating increased mathematical skill
• Questioning others, including parents
• Strongly identifying with the parent of the same sex

Ways to encourage a 5-year-old's development may include:

• Reading together
• Providing the necessary space for physical activity
• Instructing the child to participate in -- and learn the rules of -- sporting activities
• Encouraging the child to play with other children, which helps develop social skills
• Playing creatively with the child
• Monitoring both the time and content of television viewing
• Visiting local areas of interest
• Encourage the child to take responsibility for small household chores such as helping set the table
• Have the child pick up his or her toys after playing

Update Date: 6/13/2006. Updated by: Benjamin W. Van Voorhees, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.