Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is building a vocabulary foundation

36 Months Milestone

Joyful chatter is gaining momentum 

Your three-year-old’s language skills develop at a rapid pace.

Word usage: Children now use many nouns (names of things), verbs (action words) and adjectives (descriptive words). They also use plurals (where they add “-s” to describe “more than one”), the correct word order and grammatical agreement in sentences. For example, “The dog is wet” and “The boys are gone”. 

Size and classification: They can identify sizes and point out which of two objects is bigger or smaller. They can also categorise objects into groups, for example, if you show them pictures of a cat, apple, jacket, ball and tree, they can say which one is an animal, food, clothing, to­y or plant.

Language comprehension: They understand long and complex sentences and they can follow commands that have two parts, for example, “Please go to your room and fetch your shoes.”

Rhymes can shape your child’s mind 

Rhymes and songs give young children a sense of mastery
The words help increase vocabulary as children learn about animals (“See you later, alligator”), 

numbers (“One, two, three, four, five…once I caught a fish alive”), the names of body parts, (“Head, shoulders, knees and toes”), directions (“Put your left foot in”) and all kinds of day-to-day elements (“Mr sun…sun…Mr golden sun.”) 

Rhymes accentuate sounds and rhythms

Rhymes are also valuable from a developmental perspective because they accentuate the sounds and rhythms that are unique to a specific language. As children discover that certain words end on the same sound they slowly but surely start to pay attention to the specific sounds within words. Being able to do this is important. It lays the foundation for developing a skill that is called “phonological awareness”. 

This skill is a prerequisite for mastering any alphabetic system. Why? Because the basic premise of an alphabetic system is that symbols are used to represent speech sounds on paper. To be able to use these symbols, a reader has to be able to identify the individual speech sounds that we use to produce words. 

Rhymes and Songs add words to a child’s “sound library”

The goal is to expose children to as many rhymes as possible so that they learn to notice all the distinct sounds within words that they will need to identify one day when they learn to read.

Play with the rhymes and songs that your child already knows

This will introduce them to the concept of rhyming. Say the rhyme, or sing the song, but leave off the rhyme words for them to insert, for example,

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you ___. (Your child says: “… are”)

Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the ___. (Your child says: “sky”)

Play rhyming games

1. Teach your child to move rhythmically from side to side to the beat of a song.

With your child on your lap, sway rhythmically from side to side as you sing the classic song, “Row, Row, Row your Boat.” When your child is a bit older, the two of you can sit facing each other, holding hands. Most children learn to sway rhythmically, without support, when they reach their sixth birthday.

These swaying side-to-side movements help to develop a child’s sense of the opposite sides of their bodies.

2. Teach your child to respond to “stop” and “start”.

Play a game where you walk around rhythmically while saying a rhyme, but whenever you get to a rhyming word at the end of a phrase, you freeze … silently wait a few seconds … and then resume. 

Stopping and starting helps develop the ability to respond to sudden commands. It also develops a sense of ending off and starting again that children need for learning to form phrases in speech and thinking. 

Tip: Fingerplay fun 

These are special rhymes that have corresponding hand movements. Many are passed down through generations because children love them! They sharpen memory skills through imitation and repetition and teach children to visualise the meaning of words.

Here’s one for 3-year-olds:

One little baby (one finger up), rocking in a tree (rock hands side-to-side). 

Two little babies (two fingers up), splashing in the sea (hands splashing).

Three little babies (three fingers up), crawling on the floor (crawl fingers up legs). 

Four little babies (four fingers up), banging on the door (knock on head).

Five little babies (five fingers up), playing hide and seek (cover face with hands). 

Keep your eyes closed tight now, until…I say…PEEK! (uncover on "peek!")

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is developing a sense of their body

37 Months Milestone 

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

Three-year-olds start to develop a sense of their body and what they can do with their body parts. They will soon start to add eyes to circles when they scribble. Lines extending out of a circle represent arms or legs. Children typically do not draw people with distinct heads and bodies before age four.

Identifying body parts: Typical three-year-olds can learn to show and name basic body parts: head, feet, hands, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hair, tongue, tummy, arms, legs, back, shoulders, knees and fingers. Many can also show and name their thumb and forefinger.

Developing a sense of position in space: To do this, you can raise the bar by asking your child to place their hands above, below, in front, behind and beside certain body parts.

Raise a competent mover with “ABC” 

Play “ABC” games to scaffold your child – between the ages of three and five – on their way to becoming a competent mover. 

A-GAMES are aimed at developing a strong athlete
Think of a capital letter A and see a stick figure with its legs planted far apart, standing strong. 

This represents physical strength and endurance. In other words, you need to play games that aim to develop skills that you would associate with a gymnast (balancing) or a rugby player (scoring a try). Such an athlete is strong, agile and fast and has impressive co-ordination and balancing skills. 

B-GAMES help children to understand their bodies better
Young children are designed to learn, slowly but surely, from what their eyes, ears, skin and muscles tell them as they move and explore. They tune into their bodies and relate to their surroundings in four ways: 

1. They develop a body scheme (“body awareness”) as they discover where different body parts are and what they can do. This leads to developing something called “midline crossing”, where they learn to feel comfortable with moving the right hand across the midline of the body and using it while it’s on the left side and vice versa. 
2. They develop “spatial awareness” as they learn about position, distance and speed. They discover how much space their bodies occupy, how to use their bodies in the space that is available and how their bodies take on different shapes as they assume different positions. 
3. Children also learn about the direction of movement by sensing the left and right sides of their own body, and then using that inner sense of direction to relate to all the other directions in which their bodies, and objects around them, can move (called “directional awareness”).
4. They develop “temporal awareness” as they practice moving their bodies in relation to rhythm and time. This makes it possible for them to understand how sequences are put together and it prepares them for being able to follow and create patterns – a skill necessary for learning to read, write and do mathematics.

C-GAMES help children to develop movement vocabulary 
Children need to know different basic “moves” for them to learn specialised sports skills in primary school. This is the same as learning numbers in order to learn maths or the letters of the alphabet in order to read and write. 

Think of a C and turn it on its side to form a bowl. Now…think of the fundamental movement skills that pre-schoolers are introduced to: rolling, balancing, sliding, jogging, running, leaping, jumping, hopping, dodging, galloping, skipping, bouncing, throwing, catching, kicking and striking.

Imagine adding those movement skills to the bowl one by one. This represents you building your child’s movement vocabulary.

Tip: Develop your three-year-old’s sport skills  
You can provide enough skills by keeping the letters “ABC” in mind.

A-games point to games that build strength and stamina. Pulling up on monkey bars and running up and down a flight of stairs are A-games that build strength and develop balance and coordination.

B-games focus on developing body awareness. Pointing to body parts with eyes shut and doing an obstacle course develop body awareness.

C-games involve teaching fundamental movement skills. Things like teaching your child to kick or throw a ball, swing a bat, stand on one leg, or balance on a kerb as the two of you walk around the block fall into this category.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is starting to understand feelings

38 Months Milestone

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands 

Three-year-olds can name their own feelings such as happy, sad, scared, angry and excited. They can also recognise and name these feelings in other people.

They no longer view children as interesting living toys, but as friends with whom they have relationships that may or may not last. They refer to another child as “my friend” and may announce, “He’s not my friend anymore.” They also like to have and be a “best friend” to someone.

A three-year-old understands rules, however, they use their prior social experiences with the important adults and children in their lives as a frame of reference, to know which behaviours are socially acceptable or not. It is therefore important for a child to be surrounded by good role models.

Tip: Positive attention 

Show your child that you are paying attention and are interested in their thoughts and feelings. 

Regard your children as if their actions are the result of their unique ideas and emotions, rather than view what children think, say and do as predictable and child-like in an inferior way.

Be genuinely interested in what your children are thinking and feeling, for example, “I see you’re looking at the lion. Do you remember the day when we saw the big lion at the zoo?”

Interestingly, children who are treated with positive attention tend not only to be smart, but also exceptionally kind.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is learning to hold a pencil in a tripod grip

39 Months Milestone

Nip, flip, grip – I know how to hold my pencil

Children typically learn to hold a crayon in the tripod grip (like an adult) when they are three to four years old. It’s important that they learn to bring the tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers together in this way. This is a functional skill that enables them to do many other things such as fastening buttons.

Three-year-olds can turn a large key in a door and they typically thread six large beads onto a lace, before losing interest. 

If you prepare coils of playdough, your child can now practice using a pair of scissors to cut them into shorter pieces. They can also practice opening and closing the scissors by snipping into the edge of a sheet of paper. Encourage your child to hold their elbow close to their body and hold the scissors with their thumb facing up.

Tip: Pencils and Pegs 

Introduce your child to the feeling of holding a pencil with the tips of three fingers. You can play games where each player gets to place a peg in a pegboard whenever they get something right. The first player that completes a row wins. 

Doing this practices the skill of bringing the thumb, index and middle finger together. It also helps develop in-hand-manipulation skills when your child uses the fingers and palm of one hand to turn a peg to face the right way before placing it into the hole.

If you don’t have a pegboard set, use a toothpick to punch holes into a box and cut earbuds into short “pegs”.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] needs to feel safe and loved

40 Months Milestone 

The greatest gift is to let your child know they are loved

Children are totally dependent on their parents for survival. This explains why children become anxious on a deep survival level when parents are stressed and too busy to spend time with them.

Children express their fears in various ways
Most become whiny and clingy. Some become uncharacteristically naughty and some act like babies to try and force their parents to devote more attention to them. Others withdraw and become overly picky about things. Some even show unexpected bouts of aggression.

This is when many parents ignore their children or send them into time-out.
This sounds perfectly reasonable, until one stops to consider what the child needs.

Anxious children need the exact opposite of being ignored or sent into time-out. They need attention and reassurance. Why? The reason they are acting out is that they feel unwanted. 

Touch Therapy 

Imagine a circle around every child called “the circle of resilience” which makes them resilient to stress. Now, see this circle shrink as everyday frustrations and feelings of being disconnected from parents eat away at it. 

This is a good way of explaining the impact of stress on children.
The problem is that some frustrations are inevitable: parents experience conflict, siblings grab and adults refuse to hand over cookies for dinner.

What’s more, children feel disconnected when parents are busy and emotionally distant.
When parents are not truly 100 % present, but quick to attend to other things, little ones feel as if they are a burden and that their relationship with their parents is hanging by a thread. 

When a child’s circle of resilience gets uncomfortably small, everything becomes too much.
They become whiny and clingy and easily upset by the most unlikely things. 

Parents have circles too.
Parents’ circles also erode when typical everyday frustrations eat away at them and when they feel disconnected from the people that they love. 

And so, before you know it, everyone in the family is edgy and caught up in a negative cycle. 

Fortunately, circles can be nurtured to grow bigger again.
Touch therapy can be used to enlarge our circle of resilience. 

Deep pressure touch on a child’s muscles triggers their brain to release a valuable hormone called oxytocin, which has a dual function. First, it works to counteract the negative effects of stress hormones in the body. Second, it’s a ‘bonding hormone’ that fosters trust between people.

Touch therapy is called “therapy” because it is healing and it works.
Doing touch therapy for five minutes in the morning and five minutes before bedtime typically makes a very noticeable difference. Within two to three days, children become more resilient to frustration and are less whiny and clingy.

Now that you know that it works, here’s how to do it:
Sit with your child on your lap with their back facing you. Cup the palms of your hands over their shoulders. Then squeeze …. and release. 

Repeat these “squeeze and release” movements slowly and move your hands a little farther down towards their wrists every time you do it. 

When you reach their hands, squeeze them together in front of their body. 

Repeat, but now move your hands from their hips down towards their feet.

Next, place your hands on either side of their head to cover their ears and give their head a long and loving hug. 

Do this, moving repeatedly from their arms to their legs and head for at least five minutes at specific times twice a day to get the desired impact.

One last comment
Be careful not to do touch therapy directly after an emotional outburst to ensure your child doesn’t start seeing it as a reward. 

The best times for spreading your love with touch therapy are early in the morning, when you get back from work, and/or just before bedtime.

Tip: Positive Parenting: The 5-step plan for dealing with meltdowns 

1. Stay calm.
2. Use a loving tone.
3. Stand your ground. When your child doesn’t have a choice, state the facts. For example: “Honey, it’s cold out and you need to put that jacket on. Those are the facts.”
4. “Staylisten” if they explode. “Staylistening” is when you let your child cry and get it all out. Focus on being warm and reassuring, without offering explanations or trying to fix the situation. Simply say, “This is really hard for you, hey?” 
5. The last step is called ‘start over’. When the storm is over, hold your child and say, “I love you even on the bad days. Let’s start over, okay?” 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is getting better at counting

41 Months Milestone 

Look who’s counting 

Three-year-olds typically count to 10 and they hand over one, two or three items when you ask for them. They also develop classification skills as they learn to group things. This is important for future mathematical development. Here’s what to expect:

1. They can sort objects if they can use one rule at a time. In other words, they can sort blocks either by colour or shape in one session. However, if you ask them to do one directly after the other, they will most likely struggle to switch mental gears. 
2. They can group objects based on where things can be found such as in the kitchen, garden or shop.
3. They can use categories and say whether something is an animal, food, toy, clothing, furniture, tool, musical instrument or vehicle. This is based on prior discussions with parents or teachers about what things are used for.

How to build a solid understanding of numbers 

Grade Rs typically count to one hundred, but few truly understand the quantities that different numbers describe. Many freeze when you ask: “If Johnny has six balls and Mary has eight balls, who has more?” 

Children who don’t understand the value of numbers will naturally not be able to conjure up a mental image of two sets of objects (in this case, a set of six balls and a set of eight balls) and then compare the sets against each other to determine which one of the two is bigger or smaller. As a result, they won't be able to add and subtract with understanding.

Ultimately, every child in Grade R should be able to picture an image in the mind's eye of a number line with each of the numbers in its place, based on the value that it represents.

Sadly, the majority of our South African children across all income groups don't reach this milestone in time. 

What can I expect from my child at every age along the way?

Toddlers discover the meaning of “one and many” during their second year of life. 

Two-year-olds usually learn to rote count to three and you can teach them to hand you either one or two toys. 

Three-year-olds can be expected to count to five and they understand the concepts of one, two and three well enough to be able to hand you that many objects if asked. 

Well-developing four-year-olds can be expected to rote count to 10 and count any number of objects from one to five. 

Most five-year-olds can count to 20 and have a real understanding of numbers up to 10. 

And finally, a six-year-old should be able to count to 100 (also in tens); count any number of objects between one and 20; and arrange the numbers from one to 10 in order to build a number line. 

Young children need to experience concepts on three levels for them to develop a clear understanding of the value of different numbers. 

1. Engage your child on a physical level, using their entire body. You can, for instance, ask your 
three-year-old to move (clap, jump or twirl) one, two or three times.

2. Let your child use their hands to discover the “how-many-ness” of numbers. You can, for instance, ask your child to hand you one, two or three of something whenever the opportunity presents itself.

3. Involve the mind’s eye. You can place a heap of single construction blocks, two-block towers and three-block towers in a bag and take turns with your child to use your sense of touch to find one of each number without looking. Then arrange your towers from one to three. 

Our goal is for our children to feel as comfortable with numbers as they are with their own name by the time they enter primary school.

Tip: Understanding numbers

The following game is a simple – yet effective – way to expand a child’s understanding of numbers at three years of age.

Play a game where you put only one, two or three pieces of food (such as blocks of cheese, bread or grapes) in a bowl. Say, “If you can count it, you can eat it!” Repeat with different numbers, but only one, two or three. 

When your child counts with a forefinger and touches one piece of food for every word, you can see that they understand the numbers. You have reached an important milestone when the last number said is the one indicating how many pieces of food there are. When this happens, you can introduce four and later five pieces of food.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s vocabulary has grown

42 months Milestone 

A child needs a forest of words

Your child’s sentences are becoming longer and more complex as their vocabulary grows from a few hundred words at age three to more than 2 000 words at age five. 

Topics for conversation: Typical 3 ½ year-olds can relate experiences from the recent past and they can tell you what they are doing at that moment. They can also describe what objects are used for.

Developing a sense of identity: They can give their name, surname, age and gender as well as the names of their parents.

Language comprehension: They understand questions that start with what, who, where and why. They can follow commands that require them to keep three things in mind. For example, “Point to the cat, the dog and the cow.” They understand words such as loud, quiet, fast, slow, light (weight), heavy, hot, cold, soft, rough. They also recognise many colours.

Tip: Teach children to question

One very effective way to stretch a three-year-old’s language and build reasoning skills is to have everyday conversations that teach them to question and think about things. 

Practically speaking, when you are about to do something that is going to bring about a certain change, don’t do it straight away. Pause, ask a “What will happen” question and then have a discussion to find an answer together. 

• • • What will happen if we put the dough into the warm oven?
    • What will happen if I blow air into this balloon?
    • What will happen if I add bubble solution to the water?
    • What will happen if I hang the wet shirt on the washing line?

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s balance is getting better each day

43 months Milestone 

Life’s a great balancing act

At 43 months, children learn to balance with increasing confidence. 

Stairs: They now walk up and down a flight of stairs easily, with sure footing and one foot to a step.

Tip-toe: Almost all three-year-olds learn to walk forwards and backwards on their toes. Towards the end of the year they learn to run on their toes.

Heel-toe: If you create a line, that is 1 ½ cm wide, with chalk or masking tape on the floor, your child can now learn to balance on it in a heel-toe position for 10 seconds. 

Riding a tricycle: Being able to ride confidently and fast – without slowing down in a turn – shows that your child is developing an internal sense of balance and an awareness of the two sides of their body.

Practice makes perfect 

Unlike a child’s language and thinking skills, physical skills develop pretty much on their own during the first two years. Language and thinking is shaped by a parent’s interaction with their child right from birth. However, if parents give babies space to move around, food, love and a safe environment, they will learn to sit, pull themselves up against furniture, walk, and bend over to pick things up from the floor. Parents won’t remember doing anything specific to train or teach them. The process is programmed into their DNA.

By the child’s third birthday, most parents are so used to seeing their little one’s physical skills appearing out of nowhere, that they don’t realise that things have changed.

Three-, four-, five- and six-year-olds need their parents to help them refine their movement skills. Their physical development is no longer in automatic mode. If you look at a group of three-year-olds on the playground, you’ll notice only slight differences in the way they move, how confident they are and how much they enjoy themselves.

But look at that same group three years later, when they’re six years old. Some of them will be much stronger, fitter, more agile, better coordinated and more competent than others.

Early childhood is the optimal time to develop fundamental motor skills and body awareness. Refining motor skills takes a great deal of time and effort and are best practiced while playing. It is therefore important to provide opportunities for young children to be physically active. This gives them opportunities to develop and master their motor skills. The fundamental motor skills developed during early childhood will serve as the foundation for more advanced movements required for sports later in life.

Be proactive about refining your young child’s motor skills. Find out what a child of their age should be able to do every step of the way. If you feel they are lacking confidence when they play a certain game that should be within their ability, stop and see which skills they are expected to use for playing that particular game. Then, target that skill by playing other games that also involve using that same skill. The key to helping your child reach their full potential is to strengthen weaker skills as you identify them.

As parents, we all make sacrifices to work and earn money to provide a good life for our children, but ultimately, it’s the time we invest in them that changes their lives forever.

Tip: Body awareness 

It is important for your child to recognise where their body is in space so that they can navigate their environment. Body awareness tells us, for instance, how far to reach for something or how close to stand next to someone. 

To support your child in this area, play a game where you ask them to touch three body parts or touch one body part with another, for example, “Touch your eyes – nose – toes!” or “Touch your foot with your elbow.”

Can your child do this with their eyes closed? This is important because it requires the skill of visualising where different body parts are in the mind’s eye.

This game is also valuable for building a child’s auditory working memory – a skill that involves keeping information in mind for long enough to be able to work with it.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is starting to understand responsibility and sharing

44 months Milestone 

Your child is starting to share

Typical three-year-olds separate more easily from parents if they believe their caregiver has an agreement with their parent(s) to take care of them and support them when they need help.

At this age, a child’s growing understanding of the concept of ownership makes it easier to share possessions, but only if they know their property will be returned and the other child is not imposing on their ownership.

They’re starting to play cooperatively with other children. However, since the pre-frontal lobes in their brains are still immature, their working memory allows them to keep only one or two things in mind at a time. This is also why they speak in short sentences. A three-year-old still struggles to inhibit impulsive behaviour. They have trouble adapting to sudden changes, such as when they’re playing pretend with other children and somebody does something unexpected. 

Tip: Playgroup confidence 

If needed, you can help your three-year-old to feel happier at playgroup:

• Ask the teacher to take care of your child and wait for their affirming response in your child’s presence.
• Take pictures of your child with their teacher and in different areas of the school environment such as the sand pit, bathroom, swings and block corner. Your child can show these photo’s to friends and family and talk about what happens in these areas.
• Invite a child from the class over for a playdate. This will help your child will feel confident that they will be invited to join in when the rest of the kids are playing at school. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s little hands have mastered a lot

45 Months Milestone 

Your child is learning to use those little hands 

Your child’s fine motor skills are developing. They are now able to pour water from a jug. 

They can learn to undo buttons and trace on a line with few deviations. Many children learn to fasten buckles and some even try to lace their shoes at this age.

Hand preference often emerges at this age, however, left-handed children may develop hand preference somewhat later, and this is perfectly fine. 

Another exciting milestone that children typically reach during the six months before their fourth birthday, is learning to use a pair of scissors to cut a circle, while stabilising and turning the paper with the supporting hand and staying within 1 cm of the line at least ¾ of the way.

Tip: Cutting 

To help your child remember to keep their thumb facing upwards while using a pair of scissors, you can draw a little smiley face on the thumb nail. 

Then simply say, “Smiley up and elbow down!” to help your child develop good habits as he or she practises scissor cutting skills. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] enjoys helping with chores

46 months Milestone 

Cleaning together can be fun

Three-year-olds can help around the house and it is important to give them this opportunity. It is a way of developing self-worth and responsibility in them. It also teaches them to solve problems and collaborate with people. 

What’s more, they get to refine their processing skills as they have to learn to remember the steps of what to do, stay on task, plan ahead and adapt to changing demands.

Three-year-olds can do the following chores:

• Pick up toys and put them away under supervision
• Feed pets
• Dust furniture
• Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket
• Pack books away in a bookshelf
• Help to set and clear the table
• Wipe down the front of appliances
• Help to sort laundry, for example, match socks and help fold towels.

Exercise develops thinking skills in children

We’ve all heard, somewhere along the line, that exercise is good for us. Every parent would agree, in theory, that children should be encouraged to be physically active. Yet, few make it a family priority. 

Here is a study that should provide us with the necessary motivation to get moving!

A group of 171 children, aged between 7 and 11 years, who had a sedentary lifestyle and were overweight at the time, were divided into three groups. All of them were transported to sports grounds after school, five days a week, for a period of 13 weeks.

During their time at the camp, Group 1 was kept busy with paper-based games and activities that naturally didn’t involve physical exercise. Group 2 exercised for 20 minutes per day and Group 3 exercised twice as long, completing two separate 20 minute sessions every day. Activities included running games, skipping with a rope and modified soccer and basketball games. Children were rewarded when they tried to maintain an average heartbeat of 150 beats per minute.

All 171 of the children were pre-tested and re-assessed afterwards with regard to reading, maths and executive functioning skills.

Note: Executive functioning refers to a child’s ability to stay focused on a task to reach a goal. It encompasses many skills, but the three major areas involve being able to keep information in mind to work with it (working memory), not giving in to impulsive behaviour (inhibitory control) and the ability to adapt to changes in demands, for instance when the rules of a game change (flexible thinking).

After 13 weeks, researchers detected no effect on the children’s reading skills in any of the groups. However, there was a very noticeable improvement with regards to their executive functioning skills, and subsequently also in the mathematical achievement of the children in Group’s 2 and 3.

What’s even more interesting, is that the children from Group 3, who exercised twice as much, benefitted roughly twice as much, compared to those in Group 2.

The most convincing part of all this is that the researchers were able to use MRI scanners to get a glimpse into how the pre-frontal brain activity of a number of the children, who were involved in the study, changed over time.

These findings are interesting, considering that the exercise that these children did was purely physical. The activities didn’t involve special games with complicated rules designed to practice and enhance executive functioning and none of the children received extra maths tutoring.

Since this study was published in 2011, scientific evidence has been mounting that exercise is not only good for our bodies, but also for our brains.

Yet, exactly why physical activity benefits the pre-frontal lobes specifically is not yet well understood. 

What is clear, however, is that the parents of young children will be doing their children a huge favour if they encourage them to engage in physically challenging activities and different kinds of sports from early in life. 

S: Davis, C.; Tomporowski, P.; McDowell, J.; Austin, B.; Miller, P.; Yanasak, N.; et al. (2011). Exercise improves executive function and achievement and alters brain activation in overweight children: A randomized, controlled trial.Health Psychology, 30(1), 91-98.

Tip: Yoga helps with concentration 

Researchers say we have good reason to believe that focused movement and breathing exercises, like yoga, can help our children to be more focused and settled. 

When people focus their attention on executing movements in a specific way, our thinking brain (prefrontal lobes) is activated along with the cerebellum at the far back of our brains. This coordinates voluntary movements which work with the motor regions that span from side to side over the top of our heads. 

This north-south-east-west activation organises the brain in a special way. 

In line with this, researchers in schools in the USA have found that doing yoga exercises before school helps children with special needs to concentrate better and be more settled.

Lees meer: Barclay, E. 2012. Classroom Yoga Helps Improve Behaviour of Kids with Autism. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/10/12/162782583/classroom-yoga-helps-improve-behavior-of-kids-with-autism Date of access: 28 May. 2015.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is beginning to follow instructions

47 months Milestone 

Your child is learning every day 

Your almost four-year-old’s mind is developing every day and they can now point out which of two objects is bigger, smaller, longer or shorter.

Three-year-olds understand instructions to physically climb on and under or in and out of something. They know what is means to stand next to and behind or close to and far from something. 

These physical experiences prepare them for learning to use two blocks to follow instructions such as, “Put the red block under the blue block”.

If you take the lid of a bottle, a thick crayon, a teaspoon and a teabag and draw an outline for each item on paper, your child will now learn to match the objects with their outlines. 

Tip: Visualisation skills

Tell your child they are a bunny rabbit, hopping around. When you say, “Stop Bunny!” your child must freeze and wait to hear which new animal is going to make its appearance. Possible suggestions include: dog, mouse, lion, elephant, butterfly, slithering snake or a stork lifting its long legs through a pond. 

These interesting ways of moving develop body awareness as children explore what their different body parts can do. On a mental level, they also help children to practice their visualisation skills. What’s more, three-year-olds assume that everyone else sees and experiences what they experience. Pretending to be someone or something else prepares them for learning to “Look beyond themselves” at four years of age.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is gaining language confidence

48 months Milestone 

Out of the mouth of babes 

Your child is gaining language confidence and possibly sharing the most hilarious stories about your household to their teacher. Typical four-year-olds use sentences of five words or more. They are learning to use words to express negative emotions, such as disappointment or anger, instead of using only physical actions.

Topics for conversation: They understand and use what, who, where, why and when and they are excited to talk about past and future events. Most four-year-olds don’t use the past and future tense well before the age of 5 ½.

Classification: Your child can now sort pictures into categories such as animals, food, clothing, toys, plants, tools, musical instruments and vehicles.

Practice opposites: Stating the opposite of something gives children a sense of mastery. First, ask your child to complete sentences such as: “This ball is big, but this one is ___” or “The glass was full, but you drank the water and now it’s ___”. Then ask: “What is the opposite of ___?”

Tip: Have fun with working memory and vocabulary

Without your child seeing, put different objects inside a bag. Use items such as an orange, pebble, sponge, crayon and a coin. Describe one of the objects in the bag and invite your child to feel inside the bag to find it. For example: “Can you find something flat and hard?” (the coin). If your child can’t find the right object, give another clue such as, “It feels a bit cold and it is round.” 

Researchers say that adults can keep five to seven things “in mind”, whereas a small child can only keep one or two. This game helps to build their working memory and it broadens your child’s vocabulary with words and concepts that can be used for describing things. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] will enjoy playing ball games

49 months Milestone 

The more I practice, the luckier I get

Your four-year-old can practice ball skills in many exciting ways. 

Kicking: Show your child how to run towards a ball and kick it towards a target without stopping first. They can practice running and kicking a slow-moving ball. Your child will start getting good at kicking at about 4 ½ years of age.

Catching: Typical three-year-olds catch a tennis ball with their elbows bent in front of their bodies. In contrast, four-year-olds usually learn to keep their elbows nearer to their sides. They also now enjoy practicing to catch a larger ball that is bounced in their direction.

Throwing: Most four-year-olds are ready to learn how to “underhand” throw a tennis ball towards a target. They also enjoy learning how to throw it so that it hits the floor once before hitting the wall.

Having a ball

Ball play is very beneficial to a child’s development. There are two main reasons why we should play ball with our children from early on.

Firstly, ball play helps to develop important skills that impact a young child’s development in many practical ways.

Consider the following: 

• Practicing to hit, catch, throw or kick a ball develops a sense of rhythm in your child. Interestingly, a well-developed sense of rhythm is necessary for smooth coordination as well as visualisation skills.
• Any kind of ball play also helps to develop body awareness. As children handle balls, they discover where their different body parts are, their functions, the space they need to carry out different actions and how much pressure these actions require. This develops the foundation for practical skills such as pressing down on a pencil with the correct amount of force.
• Learning to catch a large ball with two hands involves coordinating the left and right sides of the body. This is no easy feat as it involves the two-way communication of the brain, where the right half of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. Without this skill – known as bilateral integration – children struggle to do practical tasks such as dressing themselves and cutting with scissors.
• Whenever children practice throwing a ball, they develop an internal sense of timing and direction. Practicing to throw a ball strengthens a child’s neural network in their brain. Each throw improves the communication between the brain, muscles and ligaments that work together to perform this action. These messages coordinate the movement of your child’s arms and hands to aim in the intended direction and release the ball at exactly the right time. Neural networks learn from experience. 

Secondly, learning to control a ball is a necessary part of developing “movement literacy”.
Nobody needs to teach a typical child how to walk, bend over to pick something up, or climb a flight of stairs. Why? Because these skills are necessary for survival and acquiring them is built into the human DNA. 

On the other hand, many of the task-specific skills that your child is going to need to play sports are learnt. 
Skills such as jumping over hurdles, handling balls and somersaulting are learnt. They do not happen automatically. The only way to master them is to be taught, followed by lots of practice until the technique becomes second nature.

The good news is that we can prepare our children for success in any kind of sport by teaching them a set of fundamental movement skills. 
These skills are recognised worldwide as the building blocks of movement and the “alphabet of movement literacy.” They include locomotor and non-locomotor (stabilisation) skills. Encourage your child to roll, balance, slide, jog, run, leap, jump, hop, dodge, gallop and skip. 

Ball skills teach object control and can be learnt by bouncing, throwing, catching, kicking and striking balls.

There you go! Now, where’s that ball?

Tip: Alternatives to balls 

If your child does not yet enjoy playing with balls, bear in mind that smaller and heavier balls are more difficult to catch as they require better timing and faster tracking skills. 

So, to provide more opportunities for success, put the soccer and tennis balls aside for a while and play catch with balloons, beach balls, foam balls or bean bags instead.

Also, demonstrate how to throw a tennis ball like a cricket bowler (with an overarm action). Show your child how to grip the ball firmly in the dominant hand, touch it to their ear. Next, they must step forward with the foot opposite to the throwing hand while straightening their arm to cast it forward. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] practices life skills during fantasy play

50 months Milestone 

Magical thinking creates endless possibilities

Four-year-olds believe rules should be obeyed because adults say so. They have not developed a sense of right and wrong yet. They can also learn to adapt the rules to changing circumstances, for example, “You may be loud outside, but we use our ‘inside voices’ in the house.”

Three to five-year-olds are wired to experience the world as if anything is possible and they are the main characters in a fantasy play. This explains why most are afraid of imaginary things and some have imaginary friends.

Sometimes they are unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. This is a small price to pay for being able to slip in and out of a fantasy world where they experience feelings and do imaginary things that would otherwise be totally impossible. The fantasy world gives children a place to practice and develop life skills. 

Tip: Prepare your child for social success 

The easiest way to effectively prepare a pre-schooler for social success is to explain to them how they should behave before they go somewhere such as a shop, Grandma’s house or a friend’s house. The explanation should be given in detail and repeated several times before arrival.

Pre-empt any difficulties your child might experience. For example, if your child is shy, prepare them by explaining that when Aunty Mary opens the door, they can go to her and say, “I’m happy to see you!” Explain that if they want to give her hug, they may. If they don’t want to give her a hug, they should be kind and say “Hi five!”.

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s cutting skills are improving

51 Months Milestone 

Your little one’s making the cut

Your child’s ability to use a pair of scissors is developing. With practice, they will learn to cut more accurately on a straight line (15 cm long) while staying within ½ cm of the line. Your child will get better at using the supporting hand to hold and rotate the paper, while the dominant hand opens and partly closes the scissors in a continuous movement to cut. Children at this age can typically cut a circle within 1 cm of the cutting line. 

Four-year-olds are also able to learn how to copy a cross by drawing a vertical and a horizontal line while looking at an example. They can draw a picture of a person with four body parts and by their fifth birthday, they will be drawing people with 10 or more body parts. 

Tip: Encourage repetition 

Young children are mostly focused on what they are experiencing in the moment. To encourage them to repeat an action for the sake of practicing a new skill, it is important to present these repetitive exercises as either part of a game or steps required to complete a fun project.

A tried and tested way to get children of this age to practice their cutting skills is to work together on making a paper chain. Draw lines with a ruler on an A4 size of paper. Work together to cut them into strips. Use a stapler (or glue) to make rings that connect to create a chain. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is discovering how the world works through play

52 Months Milestone 

Play is the work of childhood

At this age, children play in certain predictable ways with everything that they are allowed to play with because they are naturally driven to figure out how the world works. As they move their bodies and handle physical objects, they discover patterns and learn to understand concepts.

Children find much satisfaction in moving their own bodies and objects from one place to the next. Often, after getting everything to their destination, they end up doing nothing with it. Developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, refers to this kind of play exploration as “transporting”.

Young children also learn to turn everyday materials into their own creations. They love to explore how paint, water, sand, clay and loose blocks can be used to make something.

Tip: Treasure hunts 

One fun way to develop your four-year-old’s working memory is by setting up treasure hunts. Hide three things when your child isn’t looking and surprise them by announcing, “It’s almost bath time! But … before we can go, you need to find three things for me that we will need. Listen closely: You must find the bath plug … your hairbrush … and your duck.” Let your child repeat what you’ve said and then give them hints by telling them they are “getting warmer” when they are in the region of the treasure or “colder” when they move away from it.

When your child finds one of the hidden objects, ask them to tell you what else is still on the list.

If you don’t have much time, just hide one object. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name] is starting to understand others feelings and views

53 months Milestone 

Tuning into others

Children’s thinking skills expand in special ways at age four as they develop “theory of mind”. This new insight enables human beings to understand that other people may not always share their thoughts, feelings and perspectives.

As a result, four-year-olds learn to look at other people differently as they begin to consider what other people may be thinking in various situations; what their intentions, emotions and perspectives may be. 

As children develop theory of mind, they pay closer attention to their own thoughts and begin to talk about their opinions. In other words, a four-year-old can learn how to explore their thoughts and actions from another perspective.

Encourage conversations about what your child is thinking and planning to do. Discuss how some things could possibly be done differently.

Board games 

One of the things that make games fun is that they challenge children to keep information in mind so that they can work with it.

Board games and educational games teach concentration skills. As we play these games, everyone is expected to focus their attention, wait their turn (even when they feel like doing other things) and follow a set of rules. When the rules change, they need to adapt accordingly. 

All of these things work together to strengthen neural networks in the “control centres” of the child’s developing brain. This strengthens something that developmental psychologists refer to as “executive functioning”.

Executive functioning skills are wired into the developing brain over time. 

This process starts at birth, spikes during the four- to six-year period, then continues throughout a child’s adolescent years and into early adulthood. In fact, researchers believe it only fully matures after a person’s 24^th birthday.

Educational toys and board games are slow paced and interactive. As a result, they work to build the three major areas of executive functioning: working memory, inhibitory control and flexible thinking.

1. Working memory 

An example of your child’s working memory is the ability to recite three given numbers backwards. Board games require your child to keep information active in their mind for long enough to be able to work with it. You can also ask your child to spot small differences between two images that are almost identical. You will see your child form a mental picture of the first image, then look at the second image to compare them.

Children who don’t have a well-developed working memory find it difficult to concentrate in a classroom because they cannot remember what the teacher said a few minutes ago. They also struggle to read with understanding because, by the time they reach the end of a paragraph, they have forgotten what was said at the start.

2. Inhibitory control 

This is a child’s ability to hold back impulsive behaviours and impulses. Board games allow children to practice their inhibitory control, which is the key to being able to stay on task because it makes them: sit and listen when someone is talking; keep their hands to themselves when they feel like grabbing something desirable from someone; use their “inside voice” when appropriate; and finish a task when they no longer feel like it. 

3. Flexible thinking

This refers to being able to shift mental gears, a useful skill for board games. People who haven’t developed flexible thinking cannot think on their feet and quickly change direction when a situation demands them to do so. They easily get stuck in doing things in a particular way and follow certain thought patterns.

In conclusion, one of the beautiful things about educational games and board games is that they are games. 

Children don’t even realise that they are developing important learning skills while having fun with the family. 

Tip: Boosting concentration through books

When we read to our children, the closeness that we share with them motivates them to pay attention. As they listen to the story and focus on the illustrations, they’re swept away on an exciting, but relatively slow journey that unfolds as the pages are turned. 

Eventually, the culmination of many story book experiences reward children for their mental engagement by strengthening the neural networks in many important areas of their developing brains.

Reading to your child will help them to: develop executive functioning skills; boost their vocabulary; enhance their visualisation skills as they learn to give life to static illustrations; think creatively; and organise thoughts and ideas. 

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s working memory is improving and sentences are getting longer

54 months Milestone 

My new language skills are expanding my world

Children’s language development go hand in hand with their intellectual ability. As their working memory develops and they learn to keep more information in mind for longer, their sentences become longer and more complex. 

As a result, they learn to connect ideas and start using transition words (connectors) to join phrases together. For example, “I ran home and I got there just in time” or “I ran home, but I was still late”. 

They also typically use because to indicate that something resulted as a consequence of something else, for example, “The girl was upset because her jacket got torn.” 

Another direct consequence of their growing intellectual abilities is that children become ready to engage in word play, jokes and friendly teasing as their fifth birthday approaches.

Tip: Fantasy play

One way to teach children to follow a storyline is to create little plays and invite them to be part of the production by adding sound effects. 

The easiest storyline (that children love) is where an animal meets a series of other animals, while on their way somewhere. 

Here is an example: Once there was a lonely donkey. He went for a walk. Before long, he met Duck. Duck said “I swim well and I go ___ “ (let your child say ‘quack-quack’). “Can I go with you?” asked Duck. “Of course!” said Donkey. And on they walked together. Add more animals in this way, such as cow, horse and monkey. End your story with: “They came to a big field. Everyone played together and Donkey wasn’t lonely anymore!”

Event Name: [Child’s name]’s Nankid® Milestones

Event Description: [Child’s name]’s body awareness is increasing

55 months Milestone 

Pre-learning skills in action 

Certain physical activities build confidence and develop core strength and stability in 4 ½ years-olds.

Wheelbarrow walking: Your child can now walk forward rhythmically on extended arms with support at the hips, and later at the ankles. 

Somersaulting: Many children of this age still fall sideways as they roll over. As their fifth birthday approaches, they typically learn to tuck their chins in and roll onto their backs. Some even learn to roll over twice.

Clambering on jungle-gyms: At this age, children typically climb by pulling up with one hand, followed by bringing their other hand up to it. Encourage your child to practice looking up as they climb and as their fifth birthday approaches, demonstrate how to climb a ladder with alternating arm movements.

How body awareness boosts confidence and learning readiness 

At birth, babies have no idea that they exist in bodies, nor what their body parts can do.

Developing body awareness

Children develop a sense of their own bodies by physically interacting with their environment. As they move around, handle objects and play, their senses send information to their brains about their space. This helps them build an idea of what their bodies look like and where all their body parts are in relation to each other and the objects around them, without thinking about it.

As children move, they learn how much space their body parts occupy and how these parts work together. They also learn about rhythm, speed, distance and the amount of pressure required to perform tasks.

Sensory systems

Two sensory systems play a hugely important role in body awareness known as the vestibular and proprioceptive systems. 

The vestibular system is situated in the inner ear. It controls a person’s sense of balance and spatial orientation. It constantly sends movement information to the brain. 

The proprioceptive system consists of a network of special receptors in our muscles, tendons and joints. This forms a continuous feedback loop with the nervous system and sends information to the brain about the position of our body parts in relation to each other as well as objects in the environment.

Decreased body awareness

Children who have issues with sensory processing lack body awareness. This leads to clumsiness and low self-confidence. Children with low body awareness may, for example, put too much pressure on a pencil when they draw or write. If they struggle to use the two sides of their bodies together, they have trouble guiding a piece of paper with one hand, while cutting with a pair of scissors in the other. 

Body awareness forms a foundation

Body awareness connects a child with their environment from the very core of their physical experience (the body). As a result, it develops parallel to many other developmental skills. In fact, many of the “higher mental skills” cannot develop fully when there is something amiss with a child’s sense of their body. As an example, children have difficulty placing objects relative to other objects when they haven’t yet developed an awareness of how they can position their own bodies in relation to objects.

Before a child can learn to read and write, they need to grasp how circles and lines can be connected to create letters. This skill is called visual-motor integration.

Practically speaking, a child has to be able to physically walk in the shape of a diamond and draw a diamond with a finger in the air, before the child will be able to visualise how three loose lines can be connected to draw a triangle on paper. 

The connection between a child’s physical development and learning readiness is not obvious. Therefore physical education and play are vitally important.

Tip: How to promote body awareness and balance