Early Years Education: Learning Characteristics and Developmental Milestones

Age

Body Coordination

They…

Language Acquisition

They…

Individual Features and Intelligence

They…

0-1

Begin to focus their sight on objects and people

Can sit without assistance

Can grasp objects with their hands (9 months)

Can stand with assistance.

Can walk with help (12 m)

Start using their vocal cords and organs by crying and shouting (0-6 months)

Produce single syllables without sense (6-8 m)

Produce single syllables with sense (8-12m)

Feel insecure

Need constant presence of their mothers or known people

Begin to explore the world

Like to play alone

1-2

Can walk without help (12-15)

Can scribble with a pencil

Can climb stairs with help (15-18)

Difficulty turning around (16-19)

Can go down the stairs with help (18-24)

Can use their feet to kick an object

Can go up & down the stairs without help (24 months)

Can draw vertical lines (24 m)

Can understand most of their parent’s speech

Can utter some simple meaningful words

Start producing grammatically incorrect sentences

Cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction

Start using their memory

Are impatient and want everything they like at once

Start taking on hygienic habits

Are very stubborn

Are very selfish

Like to play alone

Are very enthusiastic

Like learning

Do not have a sense of time or space (right/left, inside/outside, up/down)

2-3

Can jump 30 cm high (2’5 years)

Can skip (2+2month)

Can stand on one foot for a short period of time (2 years & 6 m)

Can draw horizontal lines and crosses (2 years & 6 m)

Can tiptoe

Can catch a ball with open arms

Understand practically everything they hear

Learn new vocabulary very fast

Can orally express what they like.

If they do not know the words, they invent new words.

Make many grammar mistakes.

Can start with activities which prepare them for reading & writing

Start thinking in a symbolic way

Feel both very self-sufficient and helpless

Their character is very unstable

Love playing

Learn very fast but forget very quickly

Understand in/out in front/behind

They can tell the difference between day and night.

3-4

Can draw circles

Jump down from a certain height with feet together

Can hop

Can clothe & unclothe themselves with help

Can walk sideways & backwards (3’5 years)

Can kick a ball more than 10 meters

Can catch a big ball bending their arms

They can understand almost everything in their mother tongue and are able to figure out the meaning of words and expressions in a second or foreign language

Accept more and more social rules

They like playing with other children

Start having their own personality

Can feel fear and have nightmares

4-5

Can clothe and unclothe themselves without help

Can button and unbutton things

Can stand on one foot more than 10 seconds

Can catch a smaller ball bending their arms

Can draw simple geometrical figures

Can kick a ball with strength and precision

Can run & jump (more than 1 m) at the same time (4 years & 8 m

Understand everything

Can still have some pronunciation problems, but are able to correct them.

Are curious about new words and they learn very fast from their parents, teachers, media…

Start being able to control their feelings and behaviors

Can express their own feelings

They start feeling that they belong to a group

5-6

Start being able to control their feelings and behaviors

Can express their own feelings

They start feeling that they belong to a group

Can draw squares, rectangles, triangles, oblongs and diamonds

Can walk in a straight line

Use grammar almost correctly

Start reading and writing

They do not make any mistake with grammar They can read and write

Children imitate adult’s behaviors Relationships with classmates and friends are more and more important

They admire teachers and parents

They can work very well in group