• Preschoolers are children between the ages of three and five.
• Their physical development includes the acquisition of gross and fine motor skills.
• Many developmental milestones are reached by the end of the preschool years.
• Good nutrition and the proper amount of sleep are crucial to a preschooler’s development.
• Though preschoolers will grow and develop no matter what, there are things that caregivers can do to
foster this development.
• When a child interacts with her environment, her brain makes connections that aid in future learning
experiences.
• There are many concepts that preschoolers struggle with on a cognitive level.
• Preschoolers begin to develop symbolic thinking which aids in literacy and language skills.
• They develop a social an emotional skill set that allows them to develop a self concept and learn how to
interact with others.
• Culture and gender affect their social and emotional development.
• Children learn and progress through various stages of play.
• Some preschoolers have challenging conditions that can affect their development.
• Children with special needs are often included with typically developing children in classroom environments.

Physical Development
A preschooler’s physical development includes the acquisition of gross and fine motor abilities. By the end of the
preschool years, most children will reach several gross and fine motor milestones. Gross motor abilities involve large
muscle groups and fall under the categories of running and walking; throwing and catching; climbing and jumping; and
balancing. Fine motor skills involve the small muscle groups of the hands and fingers and include skills like drawing,
snipping, zipping, and molding with clay. Good nutrition and the proper amount of sleep are crucial to a preschooler’s
physical development.

Cognitive Development
Inside a preschooler’s brain, cells called neurons make connections with each other while he learns. These
connections are called synapses which also connect to each other to form neural bridges. The more neural
bridges are formed, the stronger the child’s intellect becomes. If a child has a wide base of knowledge, then he
has an increased ability to make sense of new experiences.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are widely cited developmental theorists. Piaget believed that preschool-aged
children are in a stage of development called preoperational thought. He described how children in this stage,
exhibit five characteristics that limit their ability to fully understand and correctly interpret certain kinds of
information. These characteristics are: perception-based thinking, unidimensional thought, irreversibility,
transductive reasoning, and egocentrism. Vygotsky stressed the importance of language and interaction with
caregivers to a preschooler’s cognitive development. He suggested that a child is unable to achieve his highest
level of thinking on his own- that children can improve their cognitive development through the guidance and
supervision of adults.