36-42 Months: Preschooler Discoveries -- Milestones

1. Understands new information and begins to explore more complex situations and concepts.

Three-year-olds have been exposed to the concepts of color, shape, size, and even time in many conversational and natural ways. At this preschool age, teachers and parents begin to focus on these concepts in a more organized way. Three-year-olds still learn best and most easily when abstract concepts are a part of everyday conversations and concrete experiences, rather than made into lessons. Children can learn to understand quantity as adults talk about the number of eyes, ears, or hands they have, and then go on to count higher by suggesting, "Let's count our fingers!" or asking "How many people are in our family?" Color is learned as they choose which shirt to wear, find socks to match, and notice the green leaves or the beautiful yellow flowers. Conversations about size occur as they help pick out a big squash at the grocery store, discuss whether to get the big tube of toothpaste or the small one, and notice how much bigger the baby is getting. Shapes come up naturally as they talk about the round ball, the round buttons on their shirts, and the round apples and oranges. Round is the first shape that young three-year-olds can understand and learn to recognize. For example:

Developing as expected, they might:

• ask many questions about almost everything they see
• recognize color words and pick out the "red blocks" or the "blue paint jar"
• enjoy the feeling of being able to transform the paper on the easel as they cover every inch of it with red paint
• show an understanding of the concept of gender when they tell a friend that he cannot be the mommy because he is a boy
• make up hand motions to go with a song
• act out being the doctor in charge of dolls in the dramatic play area
• show pride in the new finger play they just taught a friend, using all the motions "all by myself"
• notice the tiny sprout just appearing above the dirt in the cup where they planted a radish seed

Needing development, they might:

• not be able to pick out circles in the environment, such as a round light fixture or a round clockface
• point to objects randomly when asked to look for things that are red
• put all the crayons together in one box even though the teacher asked that the broken ones be put in one box and the whole ones put in another
• not be able to recall the name of the main character in the story that was just read
• do the same puzzle over and over

2. Makes a plan before taking action.

Three-year-olds' classroom play shows much more planning than ever before. Their block play now includes combining toy cars and trains with the block structures they've built. Sand play becomes purposeful as pies, cakes, roads, and houses become evident. Dramatic play includes themes and gathering appropriate props. Play dough turns into snakes and cakes and pots and animals. Climbing structures become forts and areas for circus performances. For example:

Developing as expected, they might:

• look over a collection of buttons and sort them so that all the big ones are in one box and the little ones are in another box
• bring their favorite truck from home because they want to build a garage for it with the unit blocks
• look through a container of beads for another green bead in order to complete the pattern they started
• look for a hose, or its substitute, so they can act out being firefighters after a visit to the fire station

Needing development, they might:

• move back and forth from one area of the classroom to another, without a plan
• continue to push and poke at the play dough, not trying new ways to use it
• run around in the play yard, but not try any of the wheeled toys
• make a choice at choice time, but stay only a few minutes before leaving and wandering to something else

3. Thinks about a problem and figures out what to do.

Young preschoolers have lots of ideas about how the world works. They test their ideas and use their understanding and experience to solve problems, many of which are social. Even though they are learning about negotiation and how to figure out new ways of doing things, they have little patience or endurance for staying with a problem if it doesn't get solved quickly. For example:

Developing as expected, they might:

• run over to the dramatic play area to find a cooking pan to use at the sand table, because the sand pail is missing
• go to the carpentry bench to get a hammer, because the wheel on the wagon is broken and needs to be fixed
• find another long block for a classmate who is building an airport in the block area
• tell a friend that they are the oldest, "and I know because I am taller than you!"
• bring over the book with the torn page and ask for tape so they can fix it
• ask for another cookie because a friend has two and they want to have the same
• tell Jason that he can't play in the block house unless he wants to be the man who delivers the pizza
• sort out the blocks into two piles because "You can't use my blocks. Now you have your own!"

Needing development, they might:

• continue to tug and cry when they can't have the fire truck that Jose is playing with
• take out their lunchbox and start to eat their sandwich even though it is only 9:30
• knock down the block fort when Anselmo says, "No more soldiers can come in here!"
• throw the play dough on the floor in frustration when it keeps getting stuck on the rolling pin when they try to roll it out