What skills does a five year old have?

During the nursery years your child develops rapidly in thinking, social skills, independence, communication and movement. The pace of change can take us parents by surprise — our little one becomes so open, cooperative and independent. The world opens up in a flash, and they’re constantly on the move, exploring and learning.

What can a five year old do? 

They can share toys with others, help out, show care and cooperate — all while getting better at recognising and regulating their emotions. Board games with clear rules are a real help here, introducing chance and learning to accept losing. In card games, children can also tune into each other’s feelings, which strengthens their focus on peers.

A five year old loves role play. They enjoy trying on adults’ clothes and curating charming, quirky outfits from Mum and Dad’s wardrobe. Stories and music run right through childhood, so this experience should be offered to them consistently.

By the final year of nursery, children are very independent. They brush their teeth, rinse the toothbrush, do up buttons and zips, tidy away, and follow toilet and handwashing rules. They can carry out a whole sequence of actions which they’ve planned in advance. We can support rule-learning with a warm, encouraging tone, for example: “if you pop your dolls back on the shelf, they’ll feel much more at home there than on the floor”.

How can we support our child’s independence? 

Independence includes the ability to decide, act and solve problems. It’s important to give this plenty of room in childhood, because with practice they’ll be better able to handle life’s challenges later on. Children need to feel capable and useful. There’s real joy in creating, solving and inventing something. Every child is different — some like to be out front, others prefer the background. So how can we help them grow in independence?

The sweet spot is letting them experiment and make mistakes while protecting them from danger. This takes patience and consistency. Here are a few tips to get started:

• Encourage and cheer them on

• Involve them in things that affect them

• Give small tasks that match their maturity

• Let them practise and experiment

• Don’t expect perfection

• Praise their efforts

• Be patient and flexible

• Know when to step in and when to let them try alone

Independence can dip if a big change happens — parents separating, moving home, a new sibling, a bereavement — and they crave more care. They may be reluctant to fall asleep alone or to get dressed by themselves. With patient, loving understanding we can help them through tough patches.

Nursery’s key role in socialisation 

Every child develops at their own pace with their own interests, personality and temperament. In the safe setting of nursery, children learn to express emotions, form habits, communicate and resolve conflicts. In nursery your child gains age-appropriate experiences of the world, with the right tools on hand. The shared adventures of the group are truly special.

Which skills does nursery help to build?

• Openness to new knowledge, taking things in with ease

• Flexibility, plus the ability to use self-control when needed

• Making decisions and acting independently

• Adapting to friends and group rules

• Bringing ideas to life — explaining them and planning the steps to get there

• Forming and expressing their own opinions

• Developing a sense of inner discipline

• Feeling solidarity, an inner drive to help those who are smaller or less able, and thinking without prejudice

What is the “social why” phase? 

A common stage at 4 to 5 years. You’ll spot it by the seemingly endless questions that often don’t build on each other. The aim is mostly to keep the conversation going with the adult the child wants nearby. If questions are answered — and, most of all, the adult’s attention stays with the child — they feel secure. If they’re routinely turned away, it harms the parent–child relationship and the child may stop asking altogether.

Connected speech emerges 

The pace of speech development varies. Every child needs to go through the stages of language development. Around five years, specialists start to work with speech sound errors, which are diverse. Many physiological sound errors are part of natural development. Speech and language therapy plays a major role in improving them — a specialist assesses pronunciation. This matters because corrected sounds can then be properly linked to letters at school.

A preschooler’s vocabulary grows rapidly. They learn new expressions and coin delightful words of their own, often by pairing known words. Their speech becomes fluent and sentence structures more varied.

Spatial relationships appear 

In drawing, they can place figures before, after, above, below, behind one another, and try to show this clearly on the page. Similarly in speech they use prepositions such as above, under, next to, behind, in front of. They can judge size from different distances, even though objects further away look smaller.

Movement is well coordinated: skilful and swift 

They can do so much already — hop on alternate feet, stand on one leg for a few seconds, even rise onto tiptoes. They can roll, pump a swing and go down stairs without holding on. They manage more complex movement combinations and you’ll notice their stamina increasing.

They’re almost always climbing, now with a good eye on their own safety. There are so many outdoor games to practise jumping - skipping, long jump, leaping over, hopscotch. They enjoy PE-style activities, skill-based games, and they follow the rules.
Watch your child outdoors. Notice how fast they can run, how sharply they can stop and turn. They climb play frames with confidence and jump their way forward.

Modern playgrounds are like mini obstacle courses, full of things to see, hear and touch. Some parts are real tests of bravery and focus to complete. They create a fantastic setting for team play, role play and trying out skills. At five, friendships blossom - little ones often call a newly met playmate their best friend after a burst of joyful play together.

Sources:

CDC — Important Milestones: Your Child By Five Years

NHS (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough) — 5 year developmental milestones