Child development: your 3-4 year old

Time for School - Child development: your 3-4 year old

Tips and ideas to help you use CBeebies to support your pre-school child at this important stage in their development

Emotions and behaviour

Making friends and developing social skills

You might notice that your child starts to have 鈥榬eal鈥� friendships for the first time at this age. At around 3-4 years old, children begin playing cooperatively with one another (as opposed to playing alone, or just alongside others).

Your pre-school child still needs lots of support from you to 鈥榩lay nicely鈥� though, and you may feel like a peacekeeping force at times!

Tantrums

Although we think of tantrums as part of the 鈥榯errible twos鈥�, 3 and 4 are still prime tantrum territory! They鈥檙e a perfectly normal part of life as your children tries to assert control over their own life, and will gradually subside as their communication skills and understanding develop.

Learning to share

When children are very small, they naturally believe that life is all about them, and they鈥檙e the centre of the universe. It takes time for them to 鈥榞et鈥� that give and take is the order of the day, and learning to share is a huge milestone for many children in this age group.

Communication

At this age, children鈥檚 vocabulary and their understanding of what 测辞耻鈥檙别 talking about is growing all the time, and they鈥檙e starting to have fun with language. You can use the stories in the CBeebies Storytime App as a jumping off point to make up your own tales together.

Physical development

Staying active

Children learn more physical skills in their first five years that they will at any other time in their lives, and there are lots of things you can do to help their development.

Developing vital skills

Find out how you can use shows like Tree Fu Tom to help your child develop the essential movement skills they鈥檒l need for doing things like dressing themselves. Try cooking or baking with your pre-schooler to help build up their fine motor skills.

Getting ready for school

Once your child starts school, they鈥檒l be learning to read, write and do maths for themselves, but there鈥檚 a lot you can do now to give them a head start when they get there:

Literacy

Find out how enjoying books and stories together at home can help to prepare your child for learning to read.

Maths

It鈥檚 never too early to introduce your child to simple maths. Our parents' guide to early years numeracy is filled with fun ideas to build maths into your child鈥檚 everyday life.