- Shows emerging right- or left-handedness 鈥 uses the same hand more often for drawing, writing and eating聽
- Shows increasing hand and finger control 鈥 controls a crayon better than when younger聽
- Draws some recognizable shapes 鈥 draws a circle or straight lines, or can copy a square聽
- Can copy letters in her name 鈥 should be recognizable, but some errors are okay聽
- Can write some letters in her name from memory 鈥 should be recognizable, but some errors are okay. May need to copy her name initially, gradually remembering all the letters without assistance聽
Reading Readiness Milestones for 4-Year-Olds
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- Recognizes a few familiar words in print聽
- Recognizes words that rhyme, such as mat, bat聽
- Recognizes her name in print 鈥 uses her name to find belongings or 鈥渃ubby鈥 at school聽
- Can point to and name several letters聽
- Begins learning letter sounds 鈥 starts to learn the difference between a letter name and its sound聽
- Claps syllables in words 鈥 claps once for each syllable.聽
- (Clap two times for Jamie, which has two syllables:聽 Ja 鈥 mie)聽
- Can retell a simple story plot or sequence 鈥 tells what came first, next, etc. for a familiar story聽
- Read books with more plot and character complexity 鈥 choose longer stories.聽
- Encourage your child to use more precise descriptive words and sentences 鈥 speak to your child with varied vocabulary and in longer sentences. For example, you might say, 鈥淭his lion has huge paws, but this kitten has tiny paws. What do you notice about this zebra and this horse?鈥澛
- Provide frequent drawing and writing opportunities 鈥 use unlined paper, encourage creativity and make a connection between your child鈥檚 idea and how to draw or write it on paper.聽
- Provide activities to build phonological awareness skills 鈥 play games with words that rhyme or start with the same sound, mixing in made-up or silly words, too.聽
- Provide activities to build letter knowledge skills 鈥 point out letters in the environment or ask your child to find words on food packages that start with a specific letter.聽
- Does not read and write her name 鈥 only if she has had opportunities to learn this聽
- Does not know any letters 鈥 only if she has had opportunities to learn about letters聽
- Has trouble understanding spoken language 鈥 needs frequent repetition of simple requests; does not follow spoken directions well; needs you to show her things to help her understand聽
- Has trouble having a conversation 鈥 does not answer well when an adult asks simple questions like, 鈥淗ow old are you?鈥 or 鈥淭ell me about your dog.鈥澛
- Does not understand rhyming 鈥 does not appreciate and enjoy stories with words that rhyme, such as Dr. Suess; cannot say accurately whether two words rhyme, such as big, wig聽
- Does not draw a circle and straight lines 鈥 cannot draw a circle from memory or start and stop a line with good pencil control.聽