Physical and motor skills milestones for a 5-year-old child may include:
- Erupting the first permanent teeth (the majority of children do not get their first permanent teeth until age 6)
- Developing increased coordination
- Skipping, jumping, and hopping with good balance
- Maintaining balance while standing on one foot with eyes closed
- Tying own shoelaces
- Showing increased skill with simple tools and writing utensils
- Can copy a triangle
- Spreads with a knife
Sensory and cognitive milestones:
- Increasing vocabulary to over 2,100 words
- Composing sentences of 6 to 8 words, and with all parts of speech
- Identifying coins
- Counting to 10
- Properly naming the primary colors and possibly many more
- Questioning more deeply, addressing meaning and purpose
- Responding to "why" questions
- Behaving more responsibly and apologizing for mistakes
- Decreasing aggressive behavior
- Outgrowing earlier childhood fears
- Accepting the validity of other points of view (while possibly not understanding them)
- Demonstrating increased mathematical skill
- Questioning others, including parents
- Strongly identifying with the parent of the same sex
- Has a group of friends
- Engaging in imaginative play (for example, a trip to the moon)
Ways to encourage a 5-year-old's development may include:
- Reading together
- Providing the necessary space for physical activity
- Instructing the child to participate in -- and learn the rules of -- sporting activities
- Encouraging the child to play with other children, which helps develop social skills
- Playing creatively with the child
- Monitoring both the time and content of television viewing
- Visiting local areas of interest
- Encouraging the child to take responsibility for small household chores, such as helping set the table
- Having the child pick up his or her toys after playing
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