Development at 50 Months
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Activity 1
Age Appropriate Fine Motor Development
Copies Picture Of A Vertical-Horizontal Cross
 I am learning to copy the picture of a vertical-horizontal cross! Sit beside me at the table with a piece of blank paper and a crayon. Show me a picture of a vertical-horizontal cross (from my point of view) and observe if I am able to copy the cross on the sheet of blank paper. I usually develop this ability between 42 and 60 months. (3 year 6 months and 5 years). |
Steps
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Sit beside your child at the table with a piece of blank paper and a crayon.
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Show him a picture of a vertical-horizontal cross (from his point of view). Premium members : You can login and print out the pictures under the "Tools" section.
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Observe if your child is able to copy the cross on the sheet of blank paper.
Feedback
Your child is developing good visual perception and visual-motor integration skills in this activity. These are essential foundation skills for good writing and copying abilities. As he matures, he will be able to copy more complex line patterns and shapes. You may look at the suggested activities for more ideas with this task.
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Provide lots of opportunities for your child to copy pictures of simple patterns made up of vertical and horizontal lines.
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Gradually progress him to copy diagonal lines and patterns too.
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If you child needs some assistance for this, you may get your child to trace over dotted lines of a picture of a vertical-horizontal cross. Gradually decrease the dotted lines as he improves and finally get him to copy the picture on a blank sheet of paper.
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You may also put four dots at the four ends of the cross, giving your child a rough boundary to draw within.
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Commercially available stencils can also be used to help him understand the concept of a cross and how to draw it.
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 You may also put up some paper on the wall or use a chalkboard to motivate your child to copy the picture of a cross, or have him draw the picture in sand or grains with his fingers to make it more interesting.
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Activity 2
Age Appropriate Cognitive Development
Reasons Out The Steps In An Activity
 I can describe simple steps to everyday activities. Watch me reason out how I can proceed with an activity using words. I will relate several steps in a simple familiar activity between 48 and 58 months (4 years and 4 year 10 months). |
Steps
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Use a familiar activity, e.g. drawing and coloring pictures.
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Ask in a natural way "Let's do some drawing today! Can you tell me what we need?"
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Observe his responses.
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Ask "What do we do next?"
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Observe his responses.
Feedback 1
Your child is able to use words to relate the simple steps in an activity. He is developing his reasoning abilities as this skill usually develops between 4 years and 4 years 10 months. Your child is combining his knowledge of words, the memory of an event, with a basic level of sequencing out simple steps in order to do this activity.
Take a look at some suggested activities to further encourage and use this skill in everyday life.
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Let your child describe and express the steps involved in everyday experiences that apply to him. For example, "How do we wear our shoes?" just before going out for exercise or "How do we start bathing? Can you teach Baby Dolly how to bathe herself?" This will make thinking and talking in steps meaningful to him.
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Be creative and try different ways of introducing things to your child. Start with your child's interest. For example, if he is interested in airplanes, bring him to the Museum and look at what a pilot needs to do before the plane can fly and express that in words to him. When he comes home, talk to him about it through books or drawing. Ask specific questions instead of general questions.
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Ask your child what happened at school or home today when you return from work. Ask him specifically (e.g. "What did you do in the park today?" instead of "How was your day?"), so that he can relate the steps.
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Take photos of interesting outings (e.g. "zoo") or special occasions ("his birthday"). Place these photos in sequence. Look through these photos and talk together with him to recall and relate what had happened. This activity promotes not only your child's recall and reasoning abilities, it also provides a heart-warming quality time spent with your child.
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Feedback 2
 If you observe that your child is having some difficulties with this task, do try to analyze where the difficulty lies. He has to combine his knowledge of words, the memory of an event, with a basic level of sequencing out simple steps in order to do this activity.
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Does your child have limited vocabulary? Introduce a variety of action words using commercially available picture cards and relate with his everyday experiences to expand his vocabulary. For example, show a picture of a boy running and say, "Look, the boy is running. Can you tell me what he is doing?"
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Does your child have difficulty organizing his thoughts even though he has the words? Use everyday activities to slowly talk through the steps, e.g. in bathing, in eating a banana, in baking cookies, in riding a bicycle, in feeding a fish, planting a small plant, etc. These hands on experiences make words related to the steps a lot more meaningful to the child.
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Note: If your child has yet to use appropriate words to relate steps in an activity at this stage (i.e. your child is using limited words generally), we do suggest you check with a pediatrician, speech and language therapist or a psychologist for assistance if necessary.
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