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3 – 6 years of age
At this age, language skills are developing quickly. Children engage in more group play where they begin to learn skills like sharing and taking turns.
Children are learning important social and cognitive skills.
Erik Erikson believed that children this age learn to coordinate their impulses and act on plans successfully to develop the virtue of purpose. If this stage is not successfully completed, children may develop feelings of guilt.
Children begin to use some reasoning skills by age three and understand a few abstract concepts, like what to do when they are hungry or tired.
By age four, they engage in make-believe and recognize colors and many objects.
By age five, children can usually count to 10, know their age, and understand concepts such as yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Most children attend Kindergarten at age five, thus beginning a long career of schooling. Fine motor skills such as holding a pencil, coloring inside the lines and writing become a focal point.
Children need clear and consistent rules and consequences. Arbitrary rules that are only enforced by one parent and ignored by the other (or the sitter, grandparents, etc.) teach children to manipulate and play one adult against another.
Consequences and responsibilities should be based on the child’s age. Children need to know exactly which rule they violated when they receive consequences.
Initially, children do what their parents want for one of two reasons: fear of punishment or a desire to please. The motive for behavioral choices changes as a child’s moral development progresses.
Frederick Douglass is quoted as saying, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
(Pierce, L. (2013). Development Part 2: The Preschool to Puberty Years. Theravive.)
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