Four to five years of age is the average pre-school period. It is a very important stage in the life of a child. This is a period of intensive development and growth of the child's body. At this stage, the nature of the child changes significantly , cognitive and communicative abilities are actively improved. There are specific age-specific features of children 4–5 years old according to the Federal State Educational Standard, which parents simply need to know in order for the development and upbringing of the preschool child to be harmonious. And this means that as a child grows up he will always find a common language with his peers.
Physical features of development
In the middle preschool age , the child’s physical abilities increase significantly: coordination improves, movements become more and more confident. At the same time, there remains a constant need for movement. Motility is actively developing, in general, the average preschooler is becoming more agile and faster than younger ones. It should be noted that the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old are such that physical activity must be dosed so that it is not excessive. This is due to the fact that the muscles in this period grow, albeit quickly, but unevenly, so the child quickly gets tired. Therefore, babies need to be given time to relax.
As for the pace of physical development, from 4 to 6 years they do not significantly change. On average, a child grows up by 5–7 cm per year and gains 1.5–2 kg of weight. There is a growth and development of all organs and systems of the child's body.
Mental development of the child
At the age of 4–5 years, various mental processes quickly develop: memory, attention, perception, and others. An important feature is that they become more conscious, arbitrary: volitional qualities develop, which will be useful in the future.
The type of thinking that is characteristic of the child now is visual-figurative. This means that basically the actions of children are practical, experienced. For them, visibility is very important. However, as they grow older, thinking becomes generalized and gradually transitions to a verbal-logical one by the older preschool age. The amount of memory increases significantly: he is already able to remember a small poem or assignment of an adult. The arbitrariness and stability of attention increases: preschoolers can concentrate on some activity for a short time (15–20 minutes).
Given the above-mentioned age characteristics of children 4–5 years old, preschool teachers can create conditions for productive work and harmonious development of the child.
Role of the game
Gaming activity is still the main one for the baby, however, it is significantly more complicated compared to early age. The number of children participating in communication is increasing. Themed role-playing games appear. The age characteristics of children 4–5 years old are such that they are more likely to communicate with peers of their gender. Girls are more fond of family and everyday topics (daughters, mothers, shop). Boys prefer to play sailors, military, knights. At this stage, the children begin to organize the first competition, strive to succeed.
Creative skills
Middle preschoolers are happy to master various types of creative activity. The child likes to engage in plot modeling, application. One of the main is visual activity. The age-specific features of children 4–5 years of age according to the Federal State Educational Standard suggest that at this stage the preschooler already masters fine motor skills, which allows him to draw in detail and pay more attention to details. Drawing becomes one of the means of creative expression.
The average preschooler can compose a small fairy tale or song, understands what rhymes are, and uses them. Vivid imagination and rich imagination allow you to create entire universes in your head or on a blank sheet of paper, where the child can choose any role for himself.
Speech development
During the middle preschool period, the active development of speech abilities occurs. Sound pronunciation is significantly improved, vocabulary is actively growing, reaching about two thousand words or more. The speech age-related features of children 4–5 years old allow for more clearly expressing their thoughts and fully communicate with peers.
The child is already able to characterize this or that object, describe his emotions, retell a small literary text, answer adult questions. At this stage of development, children master the grammatical structure of the language: they understand and correctly use prepositions, learn to build complex sentences, and so on. Connected speech is developing.
Communication with peers and adults
In middle preschool age, contacts with peers are of paramount importance. If before the child had enough toys and communication with parents, now he needs interaction with other children. There is an increased need for peer recognition and respect. Communication, as a rule, is closely related to other activities (playing, working together). The first friends appear with whom the child communicates most readily.
In the group of children, competition and the first leaders begin to arise. Communication with peers is usually situational in nature. Interaction with adults, on the contrary, goes beyond the scope of a specific situation and becomes more distracted. The child regards the parents as an inexhaustible and authoritative source of new information, so he asks them a lot of different questions. It is during this period that preschoolers have a special need for encouragement and are offended by comments and if their efforts go unnoticed. Sometimes adult
family members do not notice these age-related characteristics of children 4–5 years old. A memo for parents, compiled by educators and psychologists of the preschool, will help to properly and fruitfully build communication with the child.
Emotional features
At this age, there is a significant development of the sphere of emotions. This is the time of the first sympathies and affections, deeper and more meaningful feelings. A child can understand the mental state of an adult close to him, learning to empathize.
Children are very emotional both about praise and comments, they become very sensitive and vulnerable. By the age of 5, the child begins to be interested in issues of gender and their gender.
As already mentioned, one of the distinguishing features of this age is a vivid fantasy, imagination. It must be borne in mind that this can give rise to a variety of fears. A child may be afraid of a fairy-tale character or imaginary monsters. Parents do not need to worry too much: this is not a problem, but only the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old.
Psychology knows many ways to deal with such fears, but it is important to remember that these are just temporary difficulties that themselves will go away over time if the parents do not focus on them or use them against the child for educational purposes.
Teaching children 4–5 years old
During training, employees of preschool institutions take into account the psychological and age characteristics of children 4–5 years old. According to the program “From birth to school”, currently used, the emphasis is on the formation and comprehensive development of the individual.
At the same time, thematic classes are held with children, which explain the rules of behavior in the team, at home and in public places, the basics of safety, speech is developed, hygiene skills are improved, and so on. In this case, the learning process is built on the game. Thus, teachers acquaint the child with new concepts and rules through an accessible and attractive type of activity, taking into account the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old. According to traffic rules, for example, game classes can be held where traffic rules are given in poetic form, easy to understand and remember. Also at this age, it is necessary to expand the horizons of the child and his knowledge of the world.
Parenting
Speaking about the upbringing of children of this age, it must be remembered that at this stage the character changes significantly. The crisis of three years passes safely, and the child becomes much more obedient and complaisant than before. It was at this time that children needed full communication with their parents. As a matter of fact, this is the basis of education. The main function of adults now is to explain as much as possible and show on a personal example. The child absorbs everything like a sponge, with the curiosity of the discoverer, he is drawn to new knowledge. Parents should carefully listen to numerous questions and answer them, because in the family children get their first knowledge about the world around and their place in it.
Now it is necessary to lay moral qualities, to develop kindness, politeness, responsiveness, responsibility, love of work in a child. At this stage, the child makes first friends, so it is very important to teach how to communicate with peers: to give in, to defend your interests, to share.
The role of preschool institutions
It is worth noting that the best success in education can be achieved in the case of close and confidential cooperation between the family and the preschool institution, as kindergarten employees take into account the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old. Counseling for parents is one of the ways in which this interaction can take place. Adult family members must have at least minimal psychology training in order to better understand their child. Another way to characterize the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old is the parent meeting. At it, educators and a child psychologist, together with adult family members, can outline the basic principles of education and discuss all interesting and contentious issues.
Family is the most important
According to practicing child psychologists, the family plays a crucial role in the formation of the personality of the child. Relations between parents - the first thing a growing baby sees is the standard that he considers to be the only true one. Therefore, it is very important that the child has a worthy example in the face of adults.
Parents should remember that it is in preschool age that character traits such as kindness, justice, truthfulness develop, life values and ideals are laid down. Therefore, it is so important to consider the age characteristics of children 4–5 years old. Assistance in the upbringing of certain character traits should also be carried out in accordance with the gender of the preschool child and the roles of adults in the family. So, the mother teaches the child to find a common language, to seek a compromise, from her comes affection, care and love. The father is the personification of order, protection, this is the first teacher of life who helps to be strong and purposeful. Relations within the family are the most important factor influencing the upbringing of the child and his entire subsequent life.