3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

Your 3-year-old Development Checklist

A 3-year-old child’s developmental milestones are essential for providing the right support and engagement. At this age, children are rapidly growing and learning. Each developmental milestone is a significant mark. This milestone is their journey toward independence and self-discovery. In this blog post, we will explore a detailed developmental checklist covering various aspects of social, emotional, physical, and self-care development in a 3-year-old.

3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist​

1. Physical development

Children at this age are walking, running, kicking and throwing. They are exploring their world and picking up new skills. Physical development is one of the foremost developmental milestone. In this era children are very active, actively participate and all learning in physical way. We will Explore a Detailed Physical Development Milestone by covering gross motor skill, fine motor skill, and hand eye coordination. 

  • My kid’s some Physical Activity with me here 
  • Also take some art and craft activities here
  • Check out Price of Art & Supplies for kids here

Gross Motor Skills

During this age at 3-year-old child learns various gross motor skills. Each child is different and learns this at different pace. Following is the general guidelines for your 3-year-old development milestone checklist of gross motor skills:

3 year old development milestone: Gross Motor Skills of 3 year old

    • By the age of 3, children typically exhibit improved coordination and balance, allowing them to run confidently and explore their surroundings with ease.
    • Climbing becomes a favorite activity, whether it’s on playground structures or furniture at home.
    • Many children can pedal a tricycle, showcasing their growing motor skills and coordination.

Types of Gross Motor Skills Activities for 3 year old

  • Outdoor Activity
  • Indoor Activity

Indoor Gross Motor Activities :3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Dancing
  • Jumping
  • Simon Says
  • Hopping
  • Art and Craft Actiity
  • Bouncing Ball
  • Pulling Pushing
  • Balancing
  • Ball games
  • Playing Baloons

Outdoor Gross Motor Activities: 3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Kick a ball
  • Balancing
  • Pedalling Tricycle
  • Trampolines
  • Swimming
  • Playgrounds
  • Stairs up and down
  • Animal Walk 
  • Through and catch ball
  • Skipping
  • Climbing

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills involves the movements and coordination of small muscles of the body like the fingers and the hands. Fine motor skills are important for all age child including 3 year old child for supporting their independence with feeding, eating, dressing and performance in school. The best way to foster fine motor skills is to build practice into your Child’s everyday routine with some activities at home. Following are some fine motor skills activities for 3-year-old development milestone checklist.

3 year old development milestone: Fine Motor Skills of 3 year old

Fine motor skills continue to develop, enabling children to engage in activities that require precision and control.They can draw basic shapes like circles and straight lines, gradually refining their abilities to form more recognisable figures.Building with blocks becomes more intricate as they stack higher and experiment with different structures.With supervision, they can begin to use child-safe scissors, honing their cutting skills.

Fine Motor Skill Activities

  • Colouring
  • Tracing
  • Cooking
  • Lacing and sewing
  • Popping Bubbles
  • Sorting
  • Puzzle
  • Maze
  • Puppet show
  • Sound Play
  • Finger painting
  • plying with clay

Hand and Eye Coordination

Hand-eye coordination is a cognitive ability from writing to driving, and catching a ball to cutting up food, the synchronisation between body and eyes plays its part in everyday life. Although hand-eye coordination is a natural ability, it’s still something that parents can support and aid too. Research shows that children who perform better at eye-to-hand coordination tasks can also be higher achievers in literacy and maths. You can play games with your child to improve Hand eye coordination.

3-year-old development milestone: Hand and eye Coordination of 3 year old

3 Year Old Child learn to judge distances better, enhancing their ability to engage in interactive play and sports activities.

Hand-Eye Coordination Activities

  • Throwing and catching a Ball
  • Painting and colouring
  • gardening
  • Catching with bucket
  • Finger painting
  • Throwing into container
  • Building Blocks
  • Musical toy
  • Popping Bubbles
  • Hitting Ballon
  • Sticker Book

Following are some activities on my Instagram account

2. Cognitive Development

Cognitive development means how children explore, think, and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving, which help children to think about and understand the world around them. Brain development is part of cognitive development. It is important to foster your child’s cognitive development as soon as he/she is born. To promote your child’s cognitive development, it is important that you actively engage in quality interactions on a daily basis. Cognitive Skill includes:

  • Language
  • Memory and Problem Solving
  • Attention and Focus

3-year-old development milestone: Cognitive Development of 3 year old

Language

    • At 3 years old, children typically have a vocabulary of several hundred words, and their language skills continue to blossom.
    • They begin forming more complex sentences and asking questions to satisfy their growing curiosity.
    • Pronouns are used correctly, and they start grasping concepts like size, temperature, and quantity through language.

Language Development Activities

  • Role Play
  • Singing
  • language Games
  • Picture Book Spotter
  • Use Complete Sentences
  • Story Telling
  • Word Chain 
  • Play Telephone
  • Talk your way Through the day
  • Rhymes
  • Building Vocabulary
  • Repetitive Chanting

Memory and Problem Solving

    • Memory capabilities expand as children remember parts of stories and recall past events with increasing clarity.
    • Imaginative play becomes more elaborate as they solve pretend problems and engage in make-believe scenarios.
    • Introduction to basic counting and number concepts lays the foundation for mathematical understanding.

Memory and problem Solving Activities: 3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Reading
  • Memory Game
  • Board Games
  • Card Games
  • Chess
  • Crossword Puzzle
  • Music
  • Puzzle
  • Dance
  • Play
  • Meditate

Attention and Focus

    • While attention spans are still relatively short, children can focus on activities for 5-10 minutes at a time, showing improved concentration.
    • They enjoy listening to short stories or participating in structured activities that capture their interest.

Attention and Focus Activities: 3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Balancing Act
  • Story based games
  • Concentration exercise
  • Memory 
  • Puzzle 
  • Visual thinking Games
  • Mazes
  • Coloring
  • Freeze
  • Statues
  • Simon Says
  • Puzzle

3. Social and Emotional Development

Social development refers to a child’s ability to create and sustain meaningful relationships with adults and other children. Emotional development is a child’s ability to express, and manage his or her emotions, as well as others’ emotions.

3 year old development milestone: Social and Emotional Development of 3 year old

Social Development

    • Three-year-olds are eager to interact with peers and engage in cooperative play, sharing toys and taking turns (though conflicts may still arise).
    • They begin to understand social norms and rules, demonstrating an emerging sense of fairness and empathy.
    • Playing with others fosters important social skills such as communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution.

Emotional Development

    • Expressing a wide range of emotions verbally, children become more adept at articulating their feelings and understanding the emotions of others.
    • Empathy develops as they show concern for friends’ feelings and demonstrate kindness and affection.
    • Tantrums may still occur, but children gradually learn to regulate their emotions and cope with frustration more effectively.

Social and Emotional Development Activities: 3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Stories
  • Puppet Show
  • Read Social Stories
  • Singing
  • Board Games
  • Party Games
  • Role Play 
  • Emotion Masks
  • Play Games
  • Setting up a Calming Corners
  • Readings 
  • Feeling Bingo
  • Emotion Matching Game

4. Self-Care Skills

The important thing is encouragement. Remind your preschooler that you’re proud of him for trying, regardless of the outcome, and encourage him to try the new skill again. Give him time to learn things on his own, at his own pace; don’t be the one to step in and aid all the time. Also, try not to put any pressure on him until he’s ready. Additionally, be adaptable: if letting him make his own breakfast necessitates cleaning up cereal spills, then accept the situation. 

When your youngster starts attempting new activities, closely monitor him and explain that he isn’t capable of doing everything on his own. For instance, explain to him why using the bread knife to cut his own bread or turning on the oven is unsafe. Though he might not be pleased, he will comprehend

  • Toileting:
    • Many 3-year-olds achieve daytime toilet training, indicating when they need to use the bathroom and making strides towards independence in self-care routines.
    • While accidents are still common, they demonstrate a growing awareness of bodily functions and hygiene practices.
  • Dressing:
    • With practice, children can dress and undress themselves with minimal assistance, mastering basic clothing items like shirts, pants, and socks.

Self-Care Skills: 3-year-old Development Milestone Checklist

  • Brushing teeth
  • Dressing and Undressing
  • Helping with Chores
  • Brushing Hairs
  • Using Fork and Spoon
  • Grooming
  • Plays alone for 10 min
  • Toileting
  • Setting themselves to sleep at night
  • Preparing Breakfast

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