How do Third Graders Act?

What does a typical 8- or 9-year-old do? Knowing can help you assess your child’s developmental progress.

What You Need to Know

Here are just some of the things an 8-year-old will do:

• Work quickly with a limited attention span
• Be highly social
• Cooperate and work well in groups
• Bite off more than he or she can chew
• Bounce back quickly from mistakes
• Be full of ideas
• Exaggerate
• Begin to master basic academic skills and feel a sense of competence with cognitive skills

By age nine, children are more likely to:

• Be industrious and impatient
• Be more coordinated
• Fatigue easily and be prone to injury
• Be aloof
• Create exclusive friendship groups
• Prefer the same gender
• Be competitive
• Criticize herself and others
• Be discouraged easily
• See adult inconsistencies and imperfections
• State things as negatives: “I hate it,” “I can’t,” “boooring,” “yeah, right”
• Be increasingly able to deal with multiple variables in learning

How You Can Help

Remember that these lists are goals and that children vary greatly in their development, some by as much as two and a half years. Your child is likely to have qualities on both lists and be missing a few as well. Here are tips to help you assess your child’s progress.

• Ask yourself whether your child’s skills are growing in the overall areas mentioned on the lists. Growth is much more important than simply being able to check off a skill set.
• Don’t sweat it if your child isn’t proficient in some of the skills. It’s the whole picture of development that’s important.
• If your child does seem to be falling behind or is concerned about what he or she can do compared to others, you may wish to consult with teachers, counselors, or your pediatrician.

For more information about developmental goals for third graders, please see the full article:

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Developmental_Goals_third_graders/.