Development calendar: what a child should be able to do at 4 years old

Physical development of a 4 year old child

By the age of four, children acquire the following motor skills:

• Confidently jump from a place and from a running start;
• Run, quickly changing direction;
• Stand on one leg;
• Climb a rope ladder;
• Overcome obstacles;
• Walk and stand on tiptoes;
• Tumble forward;
• Ride a scooter and a bicycle with side wheels.

A four-year-old child has fairly well-developed coordination and balance, making various types of physical activity more accessible to the child, such as dancing, gymnastics, and cycling.

Child at 9 months - weight and height

The increase in weight and height in babies during the ninth month varies from person to person. Some babies grow a little faster, others a little slower, but there's nothing wrong with that. On average, children gain 300 grams of weight and 1-2 centimeters of height. The circumference of the chest and head increases by 0.5-1 centimeter.

The height and weight of boys and girls at 9 months may differ. Boys are usually larger than girls, but this is not necessary.

Standards for height and weight of children WHO TABLES VIEW

Table of average weight and height indicators for boys and girls at 9 months

Speech development in children 4 years old

At 4 years old, a child is actively improving phrasal speech; he can speak in sentences of 4 to 8 words. The baby's vocabulary is already about a thousand words. Nouns are used most often, verbs and adjectives are used a little less often. Also, usually at the age of 4 years, children already know how to coordinate parts of speech with each other (for example, a noun and an adjective) and correctly place stress, so their speech sounds more competent than that of younger children. However, complex lexical structures are difficult for four-year-olds, so they often avoid conjunctions “if,” “although,” “otherwise,” etc.

To keep your child’s vocabulary constantly expanding, read books to your child more often, play with him and just talk.

Speech development occurs actively, as children at this age strive to communicate with peers. They ask adults and each other questions, learn to listen and not interrupt the interlocutor. A 4-year-old child can talk about how his day went, share his impressions of a cartoon, or retell the plot of a fairy tale. At the same time, the baby’s intonations can be very diverse, and speech is supported by facial expressions and gestures.

If you notice speech impediments in your four-year-old child, it is recommended that you consult a speech therapist. The specialist will play sounds for the baby, work on articulation and give advice on how to help the child at home.

Comparison of the heights of boys and girls

Everyone knows that boys grow slower than girls. This difference is not visible until children are 10 years old. Once they enter puberty, the difference in height becomes more noticeable. The American doctor, head of the department of endocrinology, MD Zoltan Antal, concluded that before children begin puberty, they grow no more than 5 centimeters per year.

In girls, the period of rapid growth occurs at the beginning of puberty. For some, the growth spurt occurs at 10 years of age, for others at 8 years of age. It depends on the individual characteristics of the organism. 2 years after puberty ends, girls stop growing completely. Usually, at the age of 15, girls reach their adult height.

For boys, the opposite is true; the time of active growth occurs at a later time. They begin puberty at 12 years of age. But intensive growth begins at 13-15 years. But even after puberty ends, boys, at least slowly, gain height up to 18-20 years, depending on how early they began puberty.

conclusions

So, 4 years is a period of discovery, both for the baby and for his parents. A four-year-old child actively learns about himself and the world, his abilities and talents manifest themselves. The skills acquired earlier continue to be improved. The child’s intensive physical, mental and personal development occurs: the baby learns to control his body and emotions, memory, attention, thinking, speech and imagination develop. Four-year-olds simply need to communicate with their peers, because the development of children occurs mainly in role-playing games.

Baby at 9 months - nutrition and sleep

The baby's diet becomes more varied due to the introduction of new products into the children's menu. In addition to vegetables, cereals and fruits, by 9-10 months the child is introduced to low-fat varieties of meat, fish and fermented milk products.

The timing of administration and products must be discussed with the doctor and adjusted according to the baby’s well-being.

Read more about the first feeding

The number of meals at 9 months is usually 5 or 6. Breastfed babies have one more nightly feeding than formula-fed babies. This is due to the fact that formula saturates the baby longer than breast milk.

A 9-month-old child sleeps 14-15 hours a day. The baby sleeps about 10 hours at night, the rest of the time is divided into two daytime naps.

Most babies wake up for night feedings, and infants wake up more often than bottle-fed babies. The older the baby gets, the less time he takes during the day, and the night sleep becomes stronger.

Relationship with the potty

A child at 9 months is ready to get acquainted with the potty, provided that he sits confidently and can sit down independently. It is better to make the first attempts to put your baby on the potty immediately after waking up and after a walk. Since at this time the child most likely wants to go to the toilet.

Don’t get carried away; the time spent on the potty should not exceed two minutes. Before one year of age, it is precisely the introduction to the potty that occurs; you should not expect that your baby will immediately start going to the toilet as expected.

Home > Information for parents > Advice for parents > Physical development of children

Body weight for age. BOYS

From birth to 5 years (percentiles)

In order to plot points on a graph, you need to understand certain graphing terms and rules for plotting points:

The X-axis is the horizontal coordinate axis at the bottom of the graph, which indicates the child's age. It is necessary to put dots on vertical lines corresponding to the full age of the baby. Y-axis is the vertical coordinate axis on the left side of the graph, which indicates body weight (kg). It is necessary to plot points on horizontal lines corresponding to body weight with maximum accuracy. Plotted point is the point on the graph at which the straight line from the corresponding measurement indicator on the X axis (age) and the straight line from the measurement indicator on the Y axis (body weight, kg) intersect.

Let's look at an example

The body weight of a girl at the age of 6 months is 5.5 kg. Let’s use the “Body weight for age” graph: the point on the graph is below the red curve, which means the child is underweight and urgently needs to seek advice from a pediatrician.

Body length/height for age. BOYS

From birth to 5 years (percentiles)

In order to plot points on a graph, you need to understand certain graphing terms and rules for plotting points:

The X-axis is the horizontal coordinate axis at the bottom of the graph, which indicates the child's age. It is necessary to put dots on vertical lines corresponding to the full age of the baby. Y-axis is the vertical coordinate axis on the left side of the graph, which indicates body length/height (cm). It is necessary to place points on horizontal lines corresponding to body length/height with maximum accuracy. Plotted point is the point on the graph at which the straight line from the corresponding measurement indicator on the X axis (age) and the straight line from the measurement indicator on the Y axis (body length/height, cm) intersect.

Let's look at an example

The height of a 2-year-old boy is 88 cm. Let’s use the “Body length/height for age” graph: the point on the graph is located at the 50th percentile, respectively, the child’s height is within the average values ​​for his age.

Body weight to body length. BOYS

Birth to 2 years (percentiles) 2 to 5 years (percentiles)
Weight for length/height
In order to plot points on a graph, you must understand certain graphing terms and rules for plotting points: X-axis - horizontal coordinate axis at the bottom of the graph, which indicates the body length/height of the child (cm). It is necessary to put dots on vertical lines corresponding to the full age of the baby. Y-axis is the vertical coordinate axis on the left side of the graph, which indicates body weight (kg). It is necessary to plot points on horizontal lines corresponding to body weight with maximum accuracy. A plotted point is a point on the graph at which the straight line from the corresponding measurement indicator on the X axis (body length/height, cm) and the straight line from the measurement indicator on the Y axis (body weight, kg) intersect.

Let's look at an example.
The girl's body weight is 17 kg, height 99 cm. Let's use the “Weight to body length” graph: the point on the graph is between the 50 and 85 percentiles, this means that the child’s physical development is average.

Why does a doctor measure and weigh a child?

Anthropometric data indirectly show what influence various internal and external factors have on the development of a child and the state of his health. Thus, insufficient weight gain indicates:

• inadequate quantity and quality of nutrition,
• the presence of rickets,
• anemia,
• immunodeficiency states,
• various endocrine diseases.

With growth retardation, a frequent diagnostic finding is reduced production of somatotropic hormone, a substance that regulates the growth and development of the musculoskeletal system.

For such control, in 2006, the World Health Organization updated special tables indicating age-specific height and weight standards for boys and girls. They use not only clear numbers, but also normal boundaries. This is due to the fact that many children are bottle-fed. Such babies gain weight and grow much faster than “natural” children, and it would be wrong to indicate the same numbers for these two groups.

Children grow unevenly. On average, the body length of a newborn born on time and without developmental pathologies is 48-51.8 cm for boys and 47.3-51 cm for girls. Subsequently, during the first year of life, children grow quite quickly, gaining an average of 25 cm. Later, growth rates steadily fall. After a few years, a period of uniform growth begins, when the child gains 5-7 cm per year.

There are 1-2 leaps, during which the rate of increase in body length increases sharply for 1-2 years. Experts associate this with the onset of puberty. This is a normal process, if it is not accompanied by any signs of trouble in the body, a visit to the doctor is not required.

The child also gains especially much weight in the first year. Starting from the second year of life, weight gain occurs more slowly, stabilizing by 17-18 years. Everything that happens to body weight and height at an older age is associated with the characteristics of a person’s life.

All indicators beyond the limits indicated below are considered a deviation. The pediatrician must carefully study each such case, identify the causes of the deviation and take all measures to return the child’s health to normal.