At aged five, your child shows keeness to try new things, starts having a group of friends and feels 'grown up'. The KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) General Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Service shares coping strategies for parents.
Child development milestones: 5 years old
The Fascinating 5s
- Your child can skip, jump, and hop with good balance. Your child can even maintain balance while standing on one foot with both eyes closed. Your child has well developed ball-handling skills at this age
- Your child can draw person with a body, copy a triangle and colour pictures carefully, keeping within lines. Your child can also write his or her own name, and prints some letters
- At this age, your child's vocabulary would have grown to over 2,000 words, and he or she is capable of speaking a sentence of more than five words
- Your child is able to talk about the past, present and future with a good sense of time
- Your child can dress and undress without assistance. He or she can cope well with personal needs, and starts showing a caring attitude towards other
- Your child is aware of gender at this age
- Your child is able to distinguish fantasy from reality
- Your child possesses
good language skills: With language proficiency, your child loves to talk, tell stories and question adults at this age
- Your child shows
high Initiative: usually, wanting to start a conversation or try new things.
- Your child engages in
vigorous and noisy group games: your child would have a group of friends of the same age and is capable of choosing friends.
- Your child shows a need for approval: The approval of being a "good boy" or "good girl" is all-important at this stage, so there is a definite desire to cooperate with both parents and teachers
- Your child starts to devlop a sense of responsibility: They feel "grown-up" when they do little tasks and duties and are always keen to help mum and dad do things
Tips for handling 'Fascinating Fives'
- Allocate some time to have conversations with your child. Read stories together, encourage them to tell stories and share jokes with one another
- Teach your child to distinguish good work from bad, and compensate them appropriately
- Organise games for your child and encourage him or her to participate in group activities. Restrict TV-watching TV and bring them out for the exercise they need
- Teach your child to be responsible at home with simple chores such as setting the table, drying dishes, picking up toys etc
Because #healthiswealth #healthforgood
Ref: M19
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