Early childhood experiences, from birth to eight years old, lay the foundation for your child’s long-term life outcomes. This is when most of the brain development takes place, which in turn impacts the child’s lifelong learning abilities, behavior, and health.
The preschool phase of early childhood, between three and five years old, is crucial for preparing your child for success at school and beyond. Keep reading to discover the key developmental milestones and parenting tips for children in preschool.
What Should Preschoolers Learn?
The CDC has a comprehensive guide to learning and developmental milestones for children based on their age. These milestones are the things that three-quarters of children of that age can do.
According to the CDC’s guidelines for four- and five-year-olds, children in preschool have to learn:
- Social and emotional skills: Playing pretend, comforting and helping others, avoiding danger, following rules, doing simple chores
- Language and communication skills: Talking about their day, answering simple questions, making up and retelling stories
- Cognitive skills: Naming colors and letters, drawing people, counting to 10, using time-related words, concentrating on an activity for five to 10 minutes
- Movement and physical skills: Completing tasks that require fine motor skills (unbuttoning buttons, using scissors), catching a ball most of the time
How 3-5 Year Olds Develop and Learn
Play is one of the main ways children learn, both in preschool and elementary school (up to age 8). Be it indoors or outdoors, a solitary or a group activity, play teaches self-regulation, language skills, symbolic and imaginative thinking, and problem-solving skills.
But, of course, that’s not the only way preschoolers learn. They also ask tons of questions and experiment with things hands-on.
To facilitate preschoolers learning, provide plenty of opportunities for play and a rich environment for those hands-on interactions. Strive to maintain a balance between guided and autonomous learning: preschool children need both to create new neural connections.
6 Proven Tips for Parents of Preschoolers
While autonomous play is important, it’s your job as a primary caregiver to guide your child’s learning through structured tasks, encouragement, and a positive environment. These six preschool tips for parents will help you do exactly that.
1. Set a Good Example
“Do as I say, not as I do” might sound like rational advice on the surface, but make no mistake: children instinctively fall back on imitation over following instructions. So, remember that your child watches how you act and mirrors that behavior, all without realizing it.
That’s why, when it comes to teaching emotional and social skills, setting a good example is crucial. Strive to become a positive role model for your child. For example, explicitly name and validate emotions when discussing them.
2. Encourage Curiosity
Preschoolers are, by nature, curious. That curiosity helps them learn more about the world and their place in it. To foster curiosity-driven exploration, expose your child to environments that present opportunities to try new things. Think arts and crafts activities, nature outings, and science experiments.
Of course, be prepared to hear a lot of questions from your child while you’re at it. Make sure to answer them to the best of your ability; don’t discard or ignore them.
3. Establish Clear Limits
At this stage of their lives, children only begin to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Besides teaching manners, successfully doing so also helps keep your child safe by establishing clear rules (e.g., “no running into traffic”).
As the CDC aptly puts it, clarity and consistency are key here. Vague instructions are hard to comply with, even for adults, so be precise. Explain and/or demonstrate what you expect from them. Don’t change your mind on a whim; stick to your word.
4. Introduce a Routine
Unpredictability may be part of life, but too much of it will cause unnecessary stress for a child. So, establish a daily routine to make their lives more structured, from regular bedtime to chores (manageable and appropriate for their age, of course).
Besides preventing anxiety and stress, routine also fosters a sense of responsibility and positive habits like brushing teeth before bed. It also teaches the child to follow a schedule and manage their time later at school.
5. Provide Opportunities for Play
Games and sports are just as important as going to a museum. Group activities teach crucial social skills like working as a team or taking turns. Solitary play, in turn, is a great opportunity to explore different interests and experiment.
Strive to expose your child to as many play opportunities as possible, both at home and beyond. Keep those activities diverse to enable them to try new things — but don’t force them to engage in an activity they don’t like.
6. Limit Screen Time
Excessive screen time correlates with poorer academic performance, executive functioning, language development, and mental health outcomes later in life. Put simply, children need adults and peers to learn and develop their skills. Every hour they spend in front of a screen equals one hour less for learning from human interaction.
Of course, screens aren’t inherently evil. For example, cartoons or science programs can help them learn. That said, for children up to five years old, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises limiting screen time to one hour a day and prioritizing high-quality programming.
Do Preschoolers Need to Stick to a Schedule?
Overall, children feel safer when their daily lives are familiar and predictable, much like adults. At home, a structured schedule helps children feel in control, gain autonomy, and engage in learning.
That said, it doesn’t mean that parents of preschoolers have to create strict, minute-by-minute schedules. That would have the opposite effect: stressing everyone out. Instead, strive to have a general outline for the day that establishes the usual wake-up time, meal time, and bedtime routine. Add play and learning activities and naps to it as necessary.
Make sure to strike the fine balance between predictability and flexibility — and visualize the schedule to help your child understand and remember it.
The Many Types of Play to Account For
Speaking of play and learning activities. They come in many shapes and forms, and each of them plays a different role in your child’s development. Incorporate all of them in preschool education and home life:
- Constructive play. It helps foster problem-solving, creativity, and fine motor skills. Examples: Building blocks, Legos, coloring, crafts.
- Physical play. As the name suggests, it promotes physical development (coordination, agility, etc.). Examples: Rope skipping, hide and seek, Simon Says, tag you’re it.
- Pretend play. It promotes imagination and creativity. Examples: Dress-up, action figures, charades.
- Sensory play. It combines fine motor skill development, imagination, and experimentation in one neat package. Examples: Finger painting, play dough, baking bread.
- Outdoor play. It promotes exploration and curiosity. Examples: Nature walks, picking flowers, “I spy.”
- Story time. The CDC recommends continuing to read to children as they enter preschool age.
In Closing
Even if your child attends preschool, their learning doesn’t stop once they’re back home. You have as crucial a role to play in their preschool learning as the preschool itself.
For one, children model their behavior after adults they look up to, and parents are at the top of that list. So, think of yourself as your child’s guide to the world at large. Set a good example, foster their curiosity, and provide them with opportunities to explore and experiment.