Child development chart: Preschool milestones

Every child grows and develops at his or her own pace. Still, child development tends to follow a fairly predictable path. Check out these general child development milestones for ages 2 to 5. If your child's development seems to be lagging behind in certain areas, share your concerns with your child's doctor.

	Age 2	Age 3	Age 4	Age 5
Language skills
	Links two words together	Identifies most common objects	Describes the uses of common objects	Uses compound and complex sentences
	Speaks clearly enough for parents to understand about half the words	Says first name and age	Speaks clearly enough for strangers to understand	Says full name and address
	Knows some adjectives (big, happy)	Uses pronouns (I, you, we, they) and some plurals	Uses verbs that end in "ing" and some irregular past tense verbs, such as ran and fell	Uses future tense
	Speaks about 50 words	Answers simple questions	Tells simple stories	Understands rhyming
Social skills
	Becomes aware of his or her identity as a separate individual	Imitates parents and playmates	Cooperates with playmates	Wants to be like friends
	May become defiant	Takes turns	Tries to solve problems	Follows rules
	Becomes interested in playing with other children	Expresses affection openly	Becomes interested in new experiences	Understands gender
	Separation anxiety begins to fade	Easily separates from parents	Becomes more independent	Wants to do things alone
Cognitive skills
	Begins to play make-believe	Plays make-believe	Becomes involved in more complex imaginary play	Uses imagination to create stories
	Begins to sort objects by shape and color	More confidently sorts objects by shape and color	Prints some capital letters and names some colors	Correctly names at least four colors and counts at least 10 objects
	Understands some spatial concepts (in, on)	Understands more spatial concepts (over, under)	Understands more complex spatial concepts (behind, next to)	Distinguishes between fantasy and reality
	Scribbles	Copies a circle	Draws a person with two to four body parts	Copies a triangle and other geometric patterns
	Finds hidden objects	Understands the concept of two	Understands the concepts of same and different	Understands the concepts of time and sequential order
Physical skills
	Walks alone and stands on tiptoe	Walks up and down stairs, alternating feet	Stands on one foot for at least five seconds	Stands on one foot for at least 10 seconds
	Climbs on furniture and begins to run	Kicks, climbs, runs and pedals tricycle	Throws ball overhand, kicks ball forward and catches bounced ball most of the time	Hops, swings and somersaults
	Builds a tower of four blocks or more	Builds a tower of more than six blocks	Dresses and undresses	May learn to skip, ride a bike and swim
	Empties objects from a container	Manipulates small objects and turns book pages one at a time	Uses scissors	Brushes own teeth and cares for other personal needs

Child development chart: Preschool milestones

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