How To Encourage Your Child’s Developmental Milestones In Preschool

Remember your child’s baby book? The one you started filling out diligently before likely petering off somewhere around four months or so? (Whoops.) I find it interesting that more often than not, those books tend to stop when your child hits about one year old. By then, they may be walking (or not). They may be talking (or not), and that’s really kind of the last time we think about developmental milestones.

But TikTok creator Emily (@occupationalemily), a pediatric occupational therapist, urges parents to keep up that same excitement as children move from babies to toddlers to preschoolers.

“Developmental milestones are equally as important for kids who are preschool age,” she explains and offers some simple ideas to help your child reach their full potential.

Bonus: They’re actually pretty fun!

Playing with Play-Doh

Emily describes this as “one of the best ways to build fine motor skills in preschoolers.”

“One of the biggest concerns that I see with kids who get to kindergarten and aren’t quite ready is that they just haven’t had enough time to play with their hands and strengthen their fine motor skills,” she continues. “So using play-doh regularly is a great way to address that.”

It’s also a great way to introduce your kid to scissors! Just let them snip into the edges of some Play-Doh with a pair of blunt, plastic scissors. (Some sets actually come with them.) Emily explains that this gives their hands “feedback” to understand how to use real scissors in the future.

Stringing large beads

“The key here is that you want to make sure the beads are really big when you start,” she says. “That makes it a lot easier, and also we want to make sure that we’re not introducing a choking hazard.”

Once they master that, make it a little more challenging: give them a pipe cleaner and Cheerios and see if they can string them. (Bonus: it’s snackable!)

Play catch

Once children hit about 2 and a half, they might really start being able to grasp the idea of catch and return. So, this is a great time to head to the park or your backyard and toss a ball around. Not only is this good for hand-eye coordination, Emily says, but it’s a great way to teach taking turns.

Age-appropriate puzzles

“One topic that a lot of parents are concerned about around [this age] is whining in kids who can’t tolerate small frustration,” she says. “So puzzles are a really great way to practice frustration tolerance. Because they’re frustrating.” (As a full-grown adult who hates puzzles: I get it.)

Emily explains that this is also a great way for little ones to build visual motor skills and visual scanning. While it might be tempting to swoop in and help, she says it’s better to sit back and let them get frustrated for as long as you can before they start to escalate.

Who knew developing vital skills could be so fun?