Grammy's Words of Wisdom
(The Four-Year-Old)

 

Dear Parents, 

          The four-year-old child is quite different from a three year old. Some fours are very interested in books, writing and speaking. They can’t seem to get enough. They enjoy listening to books that have a story line. Their attention span has become better. They enjoy coloring or drawing pictures and telling a story about their picture. Then again, some fours aren’t interested in any of these things.

If your four-year-old child isn’t interested, continue doing the activities you did while s/he was three. Gently try to increase the time you may spend on an activity. That will help with the attention span. Remember this is all very developmental. Not all children get their teeth at the same age. They will also not become interested in books, writing and speaking at the same age. However, as a parent, don’t stop modeling the reading, writing, and speaking. They are watching you closely and taking all of your actions in.

As your child becomes interested in stories, encourage them. Let them pick out the stories that they want to hear. Trips to the local library or bookstore should be regular. These trips could be used to reward good behavior. They could also be rewards for doing chores around the house.

If your child has a favorite book, try to see if that author has written any other books. If this is the case, read them and try to compare them. This is a good time to distinguish between things that are the same and things that are different.

If your four year old, likes a certain book, ask them why. It could be the pictures, the story or even the rhythm of the text. You can then try to find similar books to broaden their reading experience.

As you read books that they are familiar with, you may want to hesitate at certain key words to see if your child will complete the word for you. This will help keep their attention as well as give them confidence in knowing the story. It will be those stories that they will go to first, when they start to “pretend to read”.

As they begin to enjoy reading stories, encourage their alphabet skills. Start by pointing out the letters in their name. That is very personal. You can write their name on things in the house. Use magnets on the refrigerator. They will soon learn the first letter of their name and point it out to you everywhere they see it. Now is the time to show them how to write that letter. You can also show them how to write the other letters in their name.

A word of caution, please use lower case letters. Don’t just teach your child to use capital letters. They need to see both kinds of letters.

Provide them with the proper tools. Crayons, pencils, markers, chalk and paper need to be available. This is also when you discourage writing on their skin, your furniture, walls and doors.

They may want to dictate words for you to write for them. This is a great time for you to model your writing. Point out the letters in their name or other letters that you know they can recognize.

They should be using sentences now when they speak. Help them to adjust the volume of their voice to fit the situation. Encourage them to speak to other adults and children that they are familiar with.

This is when you should be working on speaking and listening. They should be learning to do both. When they interrupt a conversation, they should be discouraged. They should, however, be given their turn to speak in the conversation at the appropriate time. This is hard for most children to learn. It is a skill they need to know for the rest of their lives.

The four-year-old child needs to be encouraged to speak, read and write. As that child becomes better at all three things, you as the parent need to begin to expect them to listen to stories. Your child should be able to “read” his scribble writing and pictures. You also need to begin to expect them to take turns in a conversation.

As a parent, remember, they are watching you. They will copy all of your reading, writing, and speech patterns. You are their teacher right now. Set a good example.