Developmental Milestone

• Movement: They’ll be doing more skilled movements, and with this comes with more risk. You’ll see their drawing and writing skills get better. Drawings will become more recognizable and will start looking like objects they had meant to draw.

• Brain Development: They’ll begin reading books by themselves and will often use books or other forms of media to search for  more information. You’ll also see that they will want to be more independent and will want to do things on their own. They also think of concepts as either black or white. For example, they will only think of things as either good or bad, beautiful or ugly, right or wrong. 

• Language: They will have better language skills and will use correct grammar most of the time. They may still struggle with grammar when writing. 

Social-Emotional Milestone 

They’ll begin growing their social consciences, such as caring for the environment, for others, or the sad things of the world. When they were younger, they showed more confidence. Around this age, they’ll begin to be more sensitive, overly dramatic, and will be more critical of themselves. They may become more bossy, rude, silly, giggly, demanding, and have more curiosity towards the world. These emotions can shift daily.  These emotions are ok t but make sure that limits are set so that they can manage their behavior as they grow. As they get older, they will also feel more complicated emotions like embarrassment, guilt, shame, but they can better explain these feelings. Help them with strategies to tackle how to value themselves and how to forgive themselves. They love spending more time with their friends, and how others view them will be more important to them.

Lifestyle Skills:  RESPECT

Although your kids may currently have a good handle on their emotions, they are still far from controlling and mastering all their feelings. As they grow older, you may see them glaring at you, making demands, and using words that are definitely not appropriate.  It is a part of our job as parents to make sure that we lay down foundations of respectfulness within our kids, not just for themselves, but for others as well. As we teach them how to be respectful, we also teach them how to be kind, how to be considerate of others,  and how to be honest. This is hard to teach, and it will definitely take time. These lessons can come through more practical life lessons: setting expectations of their behavior in certain settings, teaching them how to properly answer the phone, or just making sure they know the importance of looking at people’s eyes when having a conversation. These are lessons on proper ways to talk to adults when they’re just kids. But it can also be lessons on how to arrive on time and dress the part for job interviews.  Learning how to be respectful is not just a one time lesson but constant lessons over time. Just know that these skills that they learn, they will take with them in different parts of their life.  The most important step is that we practice what we preach. Make sure we model respect in our lives. Also, make sure to explain why it matters to be respectful. And when they practice what they learn, make sure that you praise them when they do it.   Gently remind them of the importance of these skills as they grow older. Check out these articles on practical steps you can take to teach your kids the importance of Respect. [Article]  

Action Items

•  Maintain habits that you have been teaching your kids when they were growing.

•  Show them plenty of affection and encourage being patient with others and themselves. 

• Since they may become really hard on themselves, make sure you recognize their achievements. 

• Reassure them that no one gets everything right when things don’t go as he plans.

•  Allow them to feel negative emotions but make sure to set clear boundaries on poor behavior. 

• Give them praise and assurance when they healthily deal with their emotions. For example, “Great job on taking a breather. I knew you were frustrated.”