Three Year Olds!

Physical Development

• Gross Motor Skills– Throwing, jumping, and hopping skills improve as

a result of better coordination.– Their balance is improving, too. They’re now able

to go up and down stairs.– By 36 months of age, children’s catching skills

become more refined.

Physical Development

• Fine Motor Skills– Their cutting skills become more refined. But they

still can’t cut across a straight line.– Their drawing skills also improve, they can copy

simple shapes.– Kids this age love to manipulate blocks and put

together simple puzzles.

Cognitive Development

• Language Comprehension Skills– These children can start to remember and follow

three-part instructions.– They begin to understand the pronoun you and

they.– They can answer simple questions like “Why is the

girl crying?”, “Who lives at the north pole?”, etc.

Cognitive Development

• Expressive Language Skills– They now have improved grammar and use

sentences with 4-5 words.– They begin to understand the difference between

past and present tense.– They also begin to understand possessive nouns.

Cognitive Development

• Math Readiness Skills– They start to understand the words full, empty,

less, etc. They constantly compare things.– They start counting at this age. They count to

three while pointing to the corresponding object.

Social-Emotional Development

• Social Development– Three year olds are eager to help, especially

adults. They are learning new ways to show concern for others.

– They begin to play with, rather than next to, other children.

– They share better than two year olds but they don’t like to too much.

– They being to learn the difference in genders.

Social-Emotional Development

• Emotional Development– They have strong visible emotions. However, they

are beginning to learn more appropriate ways to express these emotions.

– They begin to develop a self-concept. A set of beliefs about him or herself.

– These children may become more fearful of pain. They may get scared of a dog biting them, etc.

Teaching Three Year Olds

• They enjoy playing in groups of three and you can introduce themes to their play.

• The objects you supply will influence a 3 year old. They enjoy being cooks, calling others, etc

• They become independent and feel the need to do things for themselves. You should encourage that, they need to feel like they can do things for themselves.