Intellectual+Development

Preschool children want to be involved in their learning. They always want to touch, taste, smell, hear, and test things for themselves. They learn through their play and experiences.

Characteristics of Three Year Olds

 * Learn best by doing
 * Can speak in 3-5 word sentences

Characteristics of Four Year Olds

 * Ask lots of questions - "how" and "why"
 * Understands the order of daily routines
 * Classifications skills are present
 * Ability to reason


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 * Can recognize familiar words including their own name
 * Understands concepts of "tallest, biggest, and under, above"


 * Can speak in complex sentences~10 + words.
 * Enjoys singing simple songs and rhymes

Classification

 * The children are able to mentally grouping objects into categories according to similarities.



Centration

 * The children are able to focus on one characteristic at a time. Ex. Finding things that are red.

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Seriation

 * The children are able to organize objects according to increasing or decreasing size.



Rote Counting

 * The children are able to recite numbers in order without understanding that each number represents a specific amount.

Rational Counting

 * The understanding that the last number counted in a group represents the entire number of objects.



One-To-One Correspondence

 * The children understand that when counting objects in a group, each item is counted once and only once.



Conservation

 * The understanding that an objects physical dimensions remain the same even when its appearance changes.

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Language Development

 * 3 year olds know about 300 words
 * 4 year olds know about 1500 words
 * Ask children questions to help develop language
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 * Read to children to help develop language
 * Encourage children to tell you stories

Cognitive Development

 * Preschoolers are able to comprehend 2-3 instructions at a time.
 * Preschoolers will make mistakes and that is ok. This is how children learn.