PRESCHOOLER'S

PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENT
GROUP 6
MEMBERS: HELAIZA MAY IBONALO
MARIE CRIS IMPERIAL
KIANA HERDA
 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT MILESTONES:
PRESCHOOL
OBJECTIVES:
• Identify typical physical developmental milestones in preschool
children.
• Discuss what to do if you are concerned about a child’s
development.
• Discuss factors that influence physical growth and development.
Physical Growth and Appearance
During the preschool years, there is a steady increase in children’s height, weight, and muscle
tone. Compared with toddlers, preschoolers are longer and leaner. Their legs and trunks
continue to grow, and their heads are not so large in proportion to their bodies. Enabling
them to perform gross-motor skills such as running, jumping, throwing, climbing, kicking,
skipping, and fine-motor skills such as stringing beads, drawing, and cutting with scissors.
 
Milestones
Milestones should not be seen as rigid checklists by which to judge or evaluate children’s
development. Rather, as highlighted in the Cognitive Development course, milestones
provide a guide for when to expect certain skills or behaviors to emerge in young children
based on cognitive development, gross-motor development, fine-motor development,
hearing, speech, vision, and social-emotional development.
 
CHART: MOVEMENT AND PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES IN PRESCHOOL

Age 3 Age 4 Age 5

Climbs well
Runs easily
Pedals a tricycle
Walks up and down stairs, one
foot on each step
Washes and dries hands
Hops and stands on one foot up
to 2 seconds
Pours, cuts with supervision,
and mashes own food
Catches a bounced ball most of
the time
Draws a person with two to four
body parts
Uses scissors
Stands on one foot for 10
seconds or longer
Hops, and may be able to skip
Can do a somersault
Uses a fork and spoon and
sometimes a table knife
Swings and climbs
 Influences on Physical Growth
• Brain development: Even though motor abilities in preschool emerge as a result of physical
growth and development, many new motor skills are also the result of brain growth.
• Heredity: Genetic inheritance plays a significant part in children’s physical growth.
• Nutrition: In order to reach optimal physical growth and development, especially at times
when their brains and bodies are developing so rapidly, young children require healthy,
balanced diets that provide vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
• Cultural differences: Despite universal patterns in child development, there are variations,
such as how children develop motor skills.
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF
PRESCHOOLERS
Cognitive development provides children with the means of paying attention
to thinking about the world around them. Cognitive development
encompasses a child's working memory, attention, as well as a child's ability
to manage and respond to the experiences and information they experience
on a daily basis.
Preschoolers often ask lots of questions and start understanding more
complex concepts. Children learn best when you let them lead play. Play
ideas for preschooler cognitive development include reading, board and
memory games, building games and outside play.
1.Questioning - When a child asks ‘why?’
2.Spatial Relationships -Exploring the spatial and physical aspects of their environment.
3.Problem Solving -When children experiment, investigate, and work together with other
children to problem solve.
4.Imitation -When children imitate the behaviors of those around them.
5.Memory -Beginning to differentiate between objects and people, and learn their daily
routines.
6.Number Sense -A child’s understanding of number concepts and number relationships.
They begin to understand quantities, recognize relationships and understand the order of
numbers.
7.Classification -A child’s ability to categorize, sort, group, and connect objects.
8.Symbolic Play -During play, children use objects, ideas and actions to stand for other
things.
 3 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILD’S
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

1. Practice the Alphabet

2. Practice Counting
3. Practice Colors and Shapes