Four year olds come to pre-school in many different sizes, shapes and with many different learning styles. One four year old is so excited to start school, that he leaps through the classroom door, eager to meet everyone and do everything the first day. Another is shy and reluctant to leave the side of his or her parent. Still another child is a mix of tentative and talkative, curious and inquisitive. Welcome to the world of fours!
Unlike their three-year old former selves, fours are more ready to seek out other children to play with. They are more willing to work in small groups and have a growing attention span that enables them to actually work for extended periods of time.
Physical Development
Physically, many fours are outgoing and energetic. With a growing command of their large muscles, they are curious to climb, run, balance and twirl. Others may use their growing small motor control to work towards competence and mastery at such diverse activities as pouring, painting, writing, cutting with scissors or manipulating small objects like puzzle pieces. They are increasingly demonstrating their independence and ability to do complete tasks by themselves.
Socio-emotional Development
In the area of socio-emotional development, fours again are a bundle of contradictions. While some fours present as confident, curious explorers, others are more tentative, need encouragement to venture out into the world and may need on-going support. When conflicts arise, some fours are quick to express anger, while others may need to work all year long with a responsive teacher to find their own voice. Many fours have a lively sense of humor and love to giggle. Others may have a strong sense of fantasy and express lively interest in super-heroes, monsters, dinosaurs and dramatic play. As fours become more self-aware in the classroom, they increasingly are able to engage in problem-solving and understanding another child's point of view.
Cognitive Development
Fours are curious about their world. The like to learn new information. Some fours are so full of questions that they seem to never stop to breathe. Others may be more observant, but they too are building meaning out of their experiences. As the language skills of fours grow, you can see them integrate new ideas and experiment with ways to express their thoughts and feelings.
Language play is important to many four year olds. From the roaring sounds of a truck in the block area to the cries of a doll in dramatic play, fours extend their exploration of language to match their exploration of the world through play. Fours bring to preschool an equally playful exploration of the world of symbols: they will write waves of script-like eeeeee's and tell you they have written a letter to their Mommy.
While we examine these domains of development individually, it is important to put them all back together, so that we can begin to have an integrated, holistic view of four year olds. It is also important to recognize the impact of multicultural factors such as gender, race, class and family values. Each of these factors will influence they ways that fours interact and build meaning out of their experiences.