Child Development at Three Years

 

Posture & Large Movements

• Walks alone upstairs with alternating feet and downstairs with two feet to step.
• Usually jumps from bottom step.
• Climbs nursery apparatus with agility.
• Can turn round obstacles and corners while running and also while pushing and pulling large toys.
• Rides tricycle and can turn wide corners on it.
• Can walk on tiptoe.
• Stands momentarily on one foot when shown.
• Sits with feet crossed at ankles.

Vision & Fine Movements

• Picks up pins, threads, etc., with each eye covered separately.
• Builds tower of nine cubes, also (31/2 ) bridge of three from model.
• Can close fist and wiggle thumb in imitation.
• R and L.
• Copies circle (also V, H, T). Imitates cross.
• Draws man with head and usually indication of features or one other part.
• Matches two or three primary colours (usually red and yellow correct, but may confuse blue and green).
• Paints ‘pictures’ with large brush on easel.
• Cuts with scissors.
• Recognises special miniature toys at 10 feet. Performs single-letter vision test at 10 feet. Five letters.

Hearing & Speach

• Large intelligible vocabulary but speech still shows many infantile phonetic substitutions.
• Gives full name and sex, and (sometimes) age.
• Uses plurals and pronouns.
• Still talks to himself in long monologues mostly concerned with the immediate present, including make-believe activities.
• Carries on simple conversations, and verbalises past experiences.
• Asks many questions beginning ‘What?’, ‘Where?’, ‘Who?’.
• Listens eagerly to stories and demands favourites over and over again.
• Knows several nursery rhymes.
• 7 toy test, 4 animals picture test. 1st or 2nd cube test, 6 ‘high frequency’ word pictures.

Social Behaviour & Play

• Eats with fork and spoon.
• Washes hands, but needs supervision in drying.
• Can pull pants and knickers down and up, but needs help with buttons. Dry through night. General behaviour more amenable.
• Affectionate and confiding.
• Likes to help with adult’s activities in house and garden.
• Makes effort to keep his surroundings tidy.
• Vividly realised make-believe play including invented people and objects.
• Enjoys floor play with bricks, boxes, toy trains and cars, alone or with siblings.
• Joins in play with other children in and outdoors.
• Understands sharing playthings, sweets, etc.
• Shows affection for younger siblings.
• Shows some appreciation of past and present.

Source: Reports on Public Health and Medical Subjects No 102. HMSO 1960, revised 1975.