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By the time your child is 4-years- old, he or she will be playing with other children, playing make-believe and tells stories.
Jade Elliott spoke with Carrie Martinez, Utah Department of Health, to discuss the important milestones your child should reach by 4-years- old and tools to help parents on this episode of the Baby Your Baby Podcast.
Social and Emotional
- Enjoys doing new things
- Plays “Mom” and “Dad”
- Is more and more creative with make-believe play
- Would rather play with other children than by himself
- Cooperates with other children
- Often can’t tell what’s real and what’s make-believe
- Talks about what she likes and what she is interested in
Language/Communication
- Knows some basic rules of grammar, such as correctly using “he” and “she”
- Sings a song or says a poem from memory such as the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” or the “Wheels on the Bus”
- Tells stories
- Can say first and last name
Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving)
- Names some colors and some numbers
- Understands the idea of counting
- Starts to understand time
- Remembers parts of a story
- Understands the idea of “same” and “different”
- Draws a person with 2 to 4 body parts
- Uses scissors
- Starts to copy some capital letters
- Plays board or card games
- Tells you what he thinks is going to happen next in a book
Movement/Physical Development
- Hops and stands on one foot up to 2 seconds
- Catches a bounced ball most of the time
- Pours, cuts with supervision, and mashes own food
What do you do if your baby is not meeting these milestones?
- Early Childhood Utah: https://earlychildhoodutah.utah.gov/
- Utah State Preschool program: https://www.schools.utah.gov/specialeducation/programs/preschool
- https://utahparentcenter.org/
- Office of Home Visiting: https://homevisiting.utah.gov/
- Parents as Teachers program: https://pcautah.org/programs/parents-as-teachers.php
- Help me Grow Utah https://helpmegrowutah.org/
- Ages and Stages free resources page: https://agesandstages.com/free-resources/
- CDC milestone tracker has many videos for all ages of development available here: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/photolibrary/6months.html
Video examples 4 year old:
- https://youtu.be/Gr9KyV1xKBQ
- https://youtu.be/hEHvgGS0B3Y
- https://youtu.be/s6fmOSMzxY8
- https://youtu.be/Ijp0BvoHTzA
Can parents get their baby on back on track on their own, or is this something they need a professional for?
Most of the time, children get the developmental skills they need when they are given opportunities to practice. Parents play a huge role in their child’s development, and often can help their child right away. For example, if your child’s screening showed a delay in language, you help your child right away, just by practicing this area of development.
However, sometimes your child may need professional intervention. In these situations, it’s best to work with your healthcare or childcare provider to get resources or referrals to professional agencies who are trained to help your child reach their developmental milestone needs.
The Baby Your Baby program provides many resources for all pregnant women and new moms in Utah. There is also expert advice from the Utah Department of Health and Intermountain Healthcare that air each week on KUTV 2News.