Quicklinks:
Developmental Milestones of the First Five Years
Developmental Milestones by Age Five
Encouraging Your Child’s Development
Improving Your Child’s Health and Development
Despite what some commercials and ads may say, there is no magic pill or supplement that creates lifelong health. It’s something that begins in childhood by following the right habits and choices for true, holistic balance. At Cameron Family Chiropractic, we make a point of walking families through these journeys together at every step of the way, from the early days of pregnancy to parenthood and beyond.
As our children grow, it’s only natural to wonder if they are progressing in a healthy way, and what some of the milestones of development can be. We’ve previously covered these in babies, in infants, in toddlers, and in preschoolers, and now let’s look at the final stage of childhood: ages five and up.
Developmental Milestones of the first five years
The first five years of life are full of activity. It’s when we learn how to move and speak, interact with others, engage with our surroundings, and think of ourselves as independent entities with our own thoughts and feelings. Listing out every milestone of these years would take a while, but feel free to visit our previous blogs about the earlier stages of childhood for more information. Some of the biggest highlights include:
Motor Skill Milestones
Learning to crawl, stand, run, and jump
Manipulating objects by hand with fine motor control
Able to eat and drink on their own
Drawing shapes, writing letters, climbing stairs, and other repetitive movements
Communication Milestones
Sentences of up to three words, from a variety of grammatical categories and constructions
Using body language and gestures
Can follow simple instructions and tell simple stories
Cognitive Milestones
Understanding object permanence, simple problem solving, and comparisons
Grasping that other people have their own personalities and emotions
Basic counting of small whole numbers
Grasps time progression and sequencing of events
Shows imagination in creating scenarios and play
Social and Emotional Milestones
Strong bonds with caregiver and recognition of faces and expressions
Can play and cooperate with others and shows empathy to them
Develops a unique personality with a distinct sense of self
Invention of games and other play situations, often playing familiar roles like Mom or Dad
Shows curiosity for new experiences
Physical Milestones
Constant growth from birth all the way through this phase and into adolescence (proper nutrition is critical to ensure that your child gets enough vitamins, minerals, and protein to grow)
Teeth appear during the toddler phase
Do parents have to track milestones?
There is often a lot of debate about whether or not it’s necessary to monitor your child’s milestones. Some of this confusion may arise from the idea that kids must “tick off” every option from a list or run the risk of falling behind their peers.
The truth is that milestones are general guidelines for a very broad range of people and life journeys. Rather than a checklist, they should be used as trend markers that provide early identification of health issues, benchmarks for individual progress, and areas where engagement and communication can be focused. They are meant to provide peace of mind, not interfere with it.
All children are different, after all. Yours may deviate quite a bit and still be perfectly healthy and “normal”. Interpret these milestones in the context of their entire life experience, and always consult your pediatrician if you have questions.
Developmental Milestones by age 5
It may seem like just yesterday, your child was a tiny newborn in a crib – and now, around age 5, they’re getting ready to start kindergarten. They’re more independent than ever, curious about the world, and full of energy for playing and learning.
Much of the fundamental social, communication, emotional, and motor skills have been established now. In the years ahead, refinement of these skills will continue, eventually shaping your child into an adult with their own flourishing stories, experiences, and personality.
Some key milestones by the age of 5 include:
Sensory and Motor Development
At this stage, your child should have fairly strong control of all basic movements and muscles and continue refining their fine motor skills. Some things to watch out for are:
Somersaults, one-foot hopping, and coordinated movements like skipping
Swinging and climbing on ropes, furniture, trees, etc.
Copying geometric shapes and drawing recognizable people with a head, body, arms, and legs
Getting dressed and undressed independently, aside from particularly fine processes such as tying shoelaces
Using capital and possibly some lowercase letters
Using cutlery like forks and spoons
Language, Communication, and Cognition
As children approach school age, their communication skills continue to grow – and so do the underlying cognitive processes that spur that communication. Memory, problem solving, causation, and recognition of basic items are all increasingly important, and language inventories rapidly expand to cover all of this new information. By age five, most children:
Recognize most letters of the alphabet
Can count to 10 or more
Recognize and differentiate 4+ colours
Understand temporal concepts like “now”, “soon”, and “later”, and can use the future tense
Know the functions of items like money or household appliances
Can recall parents’ phone numbers or their home address
Can carry on a conversation with others
Know relationships between people and objects, such as “Joey’s dad” or “the girl with the pencil”
Can tell stories, or talk about them
Socialization and Emotional Regulation
With the imminent entry into schools, learning how to interact with others and modulate emotions is a vital skill for children to have. Much of this sprouts organically from natural play time and exposure to other kids and adults. By age five, children often:
Make up and agree to shared “rules” during play situations
Show increased distinction between fantasy and reality, with enjoyment of both
Do things to please their friends, which may manifest as being mean to others
Develop a unique way of playing (e.g., rough and physically active, or more social-based)
encouraging your child's development
As mentioned above, every child’s journey is unique. It’s virtually guaranteed that there will be differences between yours and others, and that’s okay! The important thing is to show love, support, and encouragement as they grow into the person they will be.
If you want to ensure that you’re helping your child develop the right skills in the right ways, here are some useful practices to keep in mind.
Keep communicating! Talking to your child – about their day, their feelings, and anything else – encourages them to open up and express themselves, while also helping them learn new words and emotional control. It also shows you’re interested in them, and lets them know they are important to you.
Understand that they’re going through big changes – less naps, more responsibilities, longer days, and a lot of new information. This can lead to grumpiness and bad behaviour. Be loving, but also set boundaries and consequences, too.
Feel free to go off script with their favourite stories and encourage the creation of new endings.
Create routines and familiar places where they can take refuge if they feel overwhelmed.
Stay on top of their physical health, and especially their dental health. Around age 6-7, when baby teeth start to fall out, proper brushing routines and checkups have cascading effects for overall health and nutrition.
Encourage them to get active through sports or other physical play. This can help not only for now, but also later in life if they continue with an active lifestyle.
But to add on to that, don’t schedule every minute of their time. Unplanned play is still important, and gives your child some control over how they spend their time. You can even join in to get a special insight into their thoughts and feelings.
Continue to encourage reading, writing, music, and other cognitive skills that will continue to reap immense rewards as they grow.
Avoid criticisms and put-downs when they make mistakes. Though they are gaining independence, your child is still learning by figuring out what doesn’t work in new situations. Instead, make note of their effort and encourage them to try something different.
improving your child's health and development
Even though the meeting of these milestones is different for everyone, when taken together, they can provide a good roadmap of what to expect as a parent or caregiver. You’ll know what to look for and what to be wary of, and you can approach new situations with a bit more confidence.
No matter what stage of the parenthood journey you are at, we’re proud to support you at Cameron Family Chiropractic. We are happy to offer our prenatal chiropractic care to expectant mothers, and also help new moms, and even the growing children with our pediatric chiropractic services, which have been holistically designed to fit into a healthy lifestyle regimen. In turn, this treatment helps address underlying health issues that may be creating different symptoms on the surface – potentially saving years of chronic pain and other ailments as your child grows.
This has been the last entry into our blog series that began with our Comprehensive Guide to Baby Development Milestones where we had briefly touched on all of the major stages of development from birth all the way up until 5 years old.
To learn more, contact Cameron Family Chiropractic today and discover how chiropractic care is part of a lifelong journey to better health!
