Learning is a predictable sequence from one academic and developmental milestone to the next, building on the former skills to achieve the latter. That’s why psychologists and educators have set up a series of cognitive milestones by which to measure a child’s growth. Although every kid learns at a different rate, these guidelines can help determine whether your child is developing at a good pace or may be struggling with some as-of-yet undiagnosed learning or processing disability.
Check out these cognitive milestones:
Cognitive Milestones For 4-Year-Olds
- Can sing a nursery rhyme or other rhyming ditty
- Uses pronouns correctly, ‘I,’ ‘you,’ ‘he,’ and ‘she’
- Knows his or her name
- Listens to stories, tells stories, and remembers parts of stories
- Knows some colors, numbers, and letters
- Can draw stick people and other recognizable simple shapes
- Has a basic understanding of time, such as morning, afternoon, night
Cognitive Milestones for 5-Year-Olds
- Can count above the number ten
- Can speak clearly in full sentences, and use future tense
- Can draw more detailed figures than stick figures
- Can understand position words like “above,” “below,” “before,” and “after”
- Can recognize all letters in the alphabet, and print both letters and numbers
- Knows his or her full name, address, and phone number
- Has an basic if unspecific understanding of time and money
- Has increased sorting skills, matching skills, memory skills
Cognitive Milestones for 6-Year-Olds
- Can write their name
- Can describe a favorite cartoon, movie, TV show, or book
- Can read some simple sight words
- Knows their age
- Begins to understand cause-and-effect
- Begins to understand simple punctuation and capitalization rules
- Begins to use math skills such as counting coins, simple addition and subtraction, reading an analog clock, etc.
Cognitive Milestones for 7-Year-Olds
- Knows the month and season
- Starts sounding out words
- Can compare and contrast, finding similarities and differences between two objects
- Has a vocabulary of thousands of words and speaks fluently
- Can follow multi-step instructions
- Can read simple sentences
- Can reason well, has less “magical thinking”
- Can mentally add and subtract small amounts
Cognitive Milestones For 8-Year-Olds
- Can count backwards as well as by intervals (such as by 5s or 10s)
- Can tell the difference between right and left
- Can speak in correct grammar but still may struggle with spelling and written grammar
- Can grasp the concept of fractions
- Can dream up simple stories and write short-short compositions
- Can discuss his favorite subjects
Learning milestones for children of all ages are not cemented in place. If you have any concerns about whether your child is progressing well, never hesitate to discuss them with their teacher and your pediatrician.
