The Preschool Years

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Chapter 10 The Preschool Years

Susan Feigelman

The critical milestones for children ages 2 to 5 yr are the emergence of language and exposure of children to an expanding social sphere. As toddlers, children learn to walk away and come back to the secure adult or parent. As preschoolers, they explore emotional separation, alternating between stubborn opposition and cheerful compliance, between bold exploration and clinging dependence. Increasing time spent in classrooms and playgrounds challenges a child’s ability to adapt to new rules and relationships. Preschool children know that they can do more than ever before, but they also are increasingly cognizant of the constraints imposed on them by the adult world and their own limited abilities.

Physical Development

Somatic and brain growth slows by the end of the 2nd yr of life, with corresponding decreases in nutritional requirements and appetite, and the emergence of “picky” eating habits (see Table 13-1). Increases of ~2 kg (4-5 lb) in weight and 7-8 cm (2-3 in) in height per yr are expected. Birthweight quadruples by image yr of age. An average 4 yr old weighs 40 lb and is 40 in tall. The head will grow only an additional 5 cm between ages 3 and 18 yr. Current growth charts, with growth parameters, can be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (www.cdc.gov/nchs) and in Chapter 13. Children with early adiposity rebound (increase in body mass index) are at increased risk for adult obesity.

Growth of sexual organs is commensurate with somatic growth. The preschooler has genu valgum (knock-knees) and mild pes planus (flatfoot). The torso slims as the legs lengthen. Physical energy peaks, and the need for sleep declines to 11-13 hr/24 hr, with the child eventually dropping the nap (see Fig. 8-1). Visual acuity reaches 20/30 by age 3 yr and 20/20 by age 4 yr. All 20 primary teeth have erupted by 3 yr of age (Chapter 299).

Most children walk with a mature gait and run steadily before the end of their 3rd yr (see Table 9-1). Beyond this basic level, there is wide variation in ability as the range of motor activities expands to include throwing, catching, and kicking balls; riding on bicycles; climbing on playground structures; dancing; and other complex pattern behaviors. Stylistic features of gross motor activity, such as tempo, intensity, and cautiousness, also vary significantly. Although toddlers may walk with different styles, toe walking should not persist.

The effects of such individual differences on cognitive and emotional development depend in part on the demands of the social environment. Energetic, coordinated children may thrive emotionally with parents or teachers who encourage physical activity; lower-energy, more cerebral children may thrive with adults who value quiet play.

Handedness is usually established by the 3rd yr. Frustration may result from attempts to change children’s hand preference. Variations in fine motor development reflect both individual proclivities and different opportunities for learning. Children who are seldom allowed to use crayons, for example, develop a mature pencil grasp later.

Bowel and bladder control emerge during this period, with “readiness” for toileting having large individual and cultural variation. Girls tend to train faster and earlier than boys. Bed-wetting is normal up to age 4 yr in girls and age 5 yr in boys (Chapter 21.3). Many children master toileting with ease, particularly once they are able to verbalize their bodily needs. For others, toilet training can involve a protracted power struggle. Refusal to defecate in the toilet or potty is relatively common and can lead to constipation and parental frustration. Defusing the issue with a temporary cessation of training (and a return to diapers) often allows toilet mastery to proceed.

Implications for Parents and Pediatricians

The normal decrease in appetite at this age may cause parental concern about nutrition; growth charts should reassure parents that the child’s intake is adequate. Children normally modulate their food intake to match their somatic needs according to feelings of hunger and satiety. Daily intake fluctuates, at times widely, but intake during the period of a week is relatively stable. Parents should provide a predictable eating schedule, with 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, allowing the child to choose how much to eat.

Highly active children face increased risks of injury, and parents should be counseled about safety precautions. Parental concerns about possible hyperactivity may reflect inappropriate expectations, heightened fears, or true overactivity. Children who engage in impulsive activity with no apparent regard for personal safety should be evaluated further.

Language, Cognition, and Play

These three domains all involve symbolic function, a mode of dealing with the world that emerges during the preschool period.

Language

Language development occurs most rapidly between 2 and 5 yr of age. Vocabulary increases from 50-100 words to more than 2,000. Sentence structure advances from telegraphic phrases (“Baby cry”) to sentences incorporating all of the major grammatical components. As a rule of thumb, between the ages of 2 and 5 yr, the number of words in a typical sentence equals the child’s age (2 by age 2 yr, 3 by age 3 yr, and so on). By 21 mo to 2 yr, most children are using possessives (“My ball”), progressives (the “-ing” construction, as in “I playing”), questions, and negatives. By age 4 yr, most children can count to 4 and use the past tense; by age 5 yr, they can use the future tense. Children do not use figurative speech; they will only comprehend the literal meaning of words. Referring to an object as “light as a feather” may produce a quizzical look on a child.

It is important to distinguish between speech (the production of intelligible sounds) and language, which refers to the underlying mental act. Language includes both expressive and receptive functions. Receptive language (understanding) varies less in its rate of acquisition than does expressive language; therefore, it has greater prognostic importance (Chapters 14 and 32).

Language acquisition depends critically on environmental input. Key determinants include the amount and variety of speech directed toward children and the frequency with which adults ask questions and encourage verbalization. Children raised in poverty typically perform lower on measures of language development compared to children from economically advantaged families.

Although experience influences the rate of language development, many linguists believe that the basic mechanism for language learning is “hard-wired” in the brain. Children do not simply imitate adult speech; they abstract the complex rules of grammar from the ambient language, generating implicit hypotheses. Evidence for the existence of such implicit rules comes from analysis of grammatical errors, such as the overgeneralized use of “-s” to signify the plural and “-ed” to signify the past (“We seed lots of mouses.”).

Language is linked to both cognitive and emotional development. Language delays may be the first indication that a child has mental retardation, has an autism spectrum disorder, or has been maltreated. Language plays a critical part in the regulation of behavior through internalized “private speech” in which a child repeats adult prohibitions, first audibly and then mentally. Language also allows children to express feelings, such as anger or frustration, without acting them out; consequently, language-delayed children show higher rates of tantrums and other externalizing behaviors.

Preschool language development lays the foundation for later success in school. Approximately 35% of children in the USA may enter school lacking the language skills that are the prerequisites for acquiring literacy. Children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds have an increased risk of school problems, making early detection, along with referral and enrichment, important. Although children typically learn to read and write in elementary school, critical foundations for literacy are established during the preschool years. Through repeated early exposure to written words, children learn about the uses of writing (telling stories or sending messages) and about its form (left to right, top to bottom). Early errors in writing, like errors in speaking, reveal that literacy acquisition is an active process involving the generation and revision of hypotheses. Programs such as Head Start are especially important for improving language skills for children from bilingual homes. (Such parents should be reassured that although bilingual children do initially lag behind their monolingual peers in acquiring language over time, they learn the differing rules governing both languages. Bilingual children do not follow the same course of language development as monolingual children, but create a different system of language cues. Several cognitive advantages have been repeatedly demonstrated among bilingual compared to monolingual children.)

Picture books have a special role not only in familiarizing young children with the printed word but also in the development of verbal language. Children’s vocabulary and receptive language improve when their parents consistently read to them. Reading aloud with a young child is an interactive process in which a parent repeatedly focuses the child’s attention on a particular picture, asks questions, and then gives the child feedback. The elements of shared attention, active participation, immediate feedback, repetition, and graduated difficulty make such routines ideal for language learning. Programs in which physicians provide books to preschool children have shown improvement in language skills among the children.

The period of rapid language acquisition is also when developmental dysfluency and stuttering are most likely to emerge; these can be traced to activation of the cortical motor, sensory, and cerebellar areas. Common difficulties include pauses and repetitions of initial sounds. Stress or excitement exacerbates these difficulties, which generally resolve on their own. Although 5% of preschool children will stutter, it will resolve in 80% by age 8 yr. Children with stuttering should be referred for evaluation if it is severe, persistent, or associated with anxiety, or if parental concern is elicited. Treatment includes guidance to parents to reduce pressures associated with speaking.

Cognition

The preschool period corresponds to Piaget’s preoperational (prelogical) stage, characterized by magical thinking, egocentrism, and thinking that is dominated by perception, not abstraction (see Table 6-2). Magical thinking includes confusing coincidence with causality, animism (attributing motivations to inanimate objects and events), and unrealistic beliefs about the power of wishes. A child might believe that people cause it to rain by carrying umbrellas, that the sun goes down because it is tired, or that feeling resentment toward a sibling can actually make that sibling sick. Egocentrism refers to a child’s inability to take another’s point of view and does not connote selfishness. A child might try to comfort an adult who is upset by bringing him or her a favorite stuffed animal. After 2 yr of age, the child develops a concept of herself or himself as an individual and senses the need to feel “whole.”

Piaget demonstrated the dominance of perception over logic. In one experiment, water is poured back and forth between a tall, thin vase and a low, wide dish, and children are asked which container has more water. Invariably, they choose the one that looks larger (usually the tall vase), even when the examiner points out that no water has been added or taken away. Such misunderstandings reflect young children’s developing hypotheses about the nature of the world as well as their difficulty in attending simultaneously to multiple aspects of a situation.

Recent work indicating that preschool children do have the ability to understand some causal relationships has modified our understanding of the ability of preschool children to engage in some abstract thinking.

Play

Maria Montessori considered play to be the work of childhood, but she did not lend credence to the importance of fantasy and imagination (symbolic play). Play involves learning, physical activity, socialization with peers, and practicing adult roles. Play increases in complexity and imagination, from simple imitation of common experiences, such as shopping and putting baby to bed (2 or 3 yr of age), to more extended scenarios involving singular events, such as going to the zoo or going on a trip (3 or 4 yr of age), to the creation of scenarios that have only been imagined, such as flying to the moon (4 or 5 yr of age). By age 3 yr, cooperative play is seen in activities such as building a tower of blocks together; later, more structured role-play activity, as in playing house, is seen. Play also becomes increasingly governed by rules, from early rules about asking (rather than taking) and sharing (2 or 3 yr of age), to rules that change from moment to moment, according to the desires of the players (4 and 5 yr of age), to the beginning of the recognition of rules as relatively immutable (5 yr of age and beyond).

Play also allows for resolution of conflicts and anxiety and for creative outlets. Children can vent anger safely (spanking a doll), take on superpowers (dinosaur and superhero play), and obtain things that are denied in real life (a make-believe friend or stuffed animal). Creativity is particularly apparent in drawing, painting, and other artistic activities. Themes and emotions that emerge in a child’s drawings often reflect the emotional issues of greatest importance for the child.

Difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality colors a child’s perception of what he or she views in the media, through programming and advertising. One fourth of young children have a television set in their bedroom and watch many hours of television per week, and much of what they view is violent. Attitudes about violence are formed early, and early exposure has been associated with later behavior problems.

Implications for Parents and Pediatricians

The significance of language as a target for assessment and intervention cannot be overestimated because of its central role as an indicator of cognitive and emotional development and a key factor in behavioral regulation and later school success. As language emerges, parents can support emotional development by using words that describe the child’s feeling states (“You sound angry right now.”) and urging the child to use words to express, rather than act out, feelings. Active imaginations will come into play when children offer explanations for misbehavior. A parent’s best way of dealing with untruths is to address the event, not the child, and have the child participate in making things right.

Parents should have a regular time each day for reading or looking at books with their children. Programs such as Reach Out and Read, in which pediatricians give out picture books along with appropriate guidance during primary care visits, have been effective in increasing reading aloud and thereby promoting language development, particularly in lower-income families. Television and similar media should be limited to 2 hr/day of quality programming, and parents should be watching the programs with their children and debriefing their young children afterward. At-risk children, particularly those living in poverty, can better meet future school challenges if they have early high-quality experiences, such as Head Start.

Preoperational thinking constrains how children understand experiences of illness and treatment. Children begin to understand that bodies have “insides” and “outsides.” Children should be given simple, concrete explanations for medical procedures and given some control over procedures if possible. Children should be reassured that they are not to blame when receiving a vaccine or venipuncture. An adhesive bandage will help to make the body whole again in a child’s mind.

The active imagination that fuels play and the magical, animist thinking characteristic of preoperational cognition can also generate intense fears. More than 80% of parents report at least 1 fear in their preschool children. Refusal to take baths or to sit on the toilet may arise from the fear of being washed or flushed away, reflecting a child’s immature appreciation of relative size. Attempts to demonstrate rationally that there are no monsters in the closet often fail, inasmuch as the fear arises from prerational thinking. However, this same thinking allows parents to be endowed with magical powers that can banish the monsters with “monster spray” or a night light. Parents should acknowledge the fears, offer reassurance and a sense of security, and give the child some sense of control over the situation. Use of the Draw-a-Person, in which a child is asked to draw the best person he or she can, may help elucidate a child’s viewpoint.

Emotional and Moral Development

Emotional challenges facing preschool children include accepting limits while maintaining a sense of self-direction, reining in aggressive and sexual impulses, and interacting with a widening circle of adults and peers. At 2 yr of age, behavioral limits are predominantly external; by 5 yr of age, these controls need to be internalized if a child is to function in a typical classroom. Success in achieving this goal relies on prior emotional development, particularly the ability to use internalized images of trusted adults to provide a secure environment in times of stress. The love a child feels for important adults is the main incentive for the development of self-control.

Children learn what behaviors are acceptable and how much power they wield vis-à-vis important adults by testing limits. Testing increases when it elicits attention, even though that attention is often negative, and when limits are inconsistent. Testing often arouses parental anger or inappropriate solicitude as a child struggles to separate, and it gives rise to a corresponding parental challenge: letting go. Excessively tight limits can undermine a child’s sense of initiative, whereas overly loose limits can provoke anxiety in a child who feels that no one is in control.

Control is a central issue. Young children cannot control many aspects of their lives, including where they go, how long they stay, and what they take home from the store. They are also prone to lose internal control, that is, to have temper tantrums. Fear, overtiredness, inconsistent expectations, or physical discomfort can also evoke tantrums. Tantrums normally appear toward the end of the 1st yr of life and peak in prevalence between 2 and 4 yr of age. Tantrums lasting more than 15 min or regularly occurring more than 3 times/day may reflect underlying medical, emotional, or social problems.

Preschool children normally experience complicated feelings toward their parents that can include strong attachment and possessiveness toward the parent of the opposite sex, jealousy and resentment of the other parent, and fear that these negative feelings might lead to abandonment. These emotions, most of which are beyond a child’s ability to comprehend or verbalize, often find expression in highly labile moods. The resolution of this crisis (a process extending over years) involves a child’s unspoken decision to identify with the parents rather than compete with them. Play and language foster the development of emotional controls by allowing children to express emotions and role-play.

Curiosity about genitals and adult sexual organs is normal, as is masturbation. Excessive masturbation interfering with normal activity, acting out sexual intercourse, extreme modesty, or mimicry of adult seductive behavior all suggests the possibility of sexual abuse or inappropriate exposure (Chapter 37.1). Modesty appears gradually between 4 and 6 yr of age, with wide variations among cultures and families. Parents should begin to teach children about “private” areas before school entry.

Moral thinking is constrained by a child’s cognitive level and language abilities, but develops as the child continues her or his identity with the parents. Beginning before the 2nd birthday, the child’s sense of right and wrong stems from the desire to earn approval from the parents and avoid negative consequences. The child’s impulses are tempered by external forces; she or he has not yet internalized societal rules or a sense of justice and fairness. Over time, as the child internalizes parental admonitions, words are substituted for aggressive behaviors. Finally, the child accepts personal responsibility. Actions will be viewed by damage caused, not by intent. Empathic responses to others’ distress arise during the 2nd yr of life, but the ability to consider another child’s point of view remains limited throughout this period. In keeping with a child’s inability to focus on more than 1 aspect of a situation at a time, fairness is taken to mean equal treatment, regardless of circumstance. A 4 yr old will acknowledge the importance of taking turns, but will complain if he didn’t get enough time. Rules tend to be absolute, with guilt assigned for bad outcomes, regardless of intentions.

Implications for Parents and Pediatricians

The importance of the preschooler’s sense of control over his or her body and surroundings has implications for practice. Preparing the patient by letting the child know how the visit will proceed is reassuring. Tell the child what will happen, but don’t ask permission unless you are willing to deal with a “no” answer. A brief introduction to “private parts” is warranted before the genital examination.

The visit of the 4 or 5 yr old should be entertaining, because of the child’s ability to communicate, as well as his or her natural curiosity. Physicians should realize that all children are occasionally difficult. Guidance emphasizing appropriate expectations for behavioral and emotional development and acknowledging normal parental feelings of anger, guilt, and confusion should be part of all visits at this time. Parents should be queried about daily routines and their expectations of child behavior. Providing children with choices (all options being acceptable to the parent) and encouraging independence in self-care activities (feeding, dressing, and bathing) will reduce conflicts.

Although some cultures condone the use of corporal punishment for disciplining of young children, it is not an effective means of behavioral control. As children habituate to repeated spanking, parents have to spank ever harder to get the desired response, increasing the risk of serious injury. Sufficiently harsh punishment may inhibit undesired behaviors, but at great psychologic cost. Children mimic the corporal punishment that they receive, and it is common for preschool children to strike their parents or other children. Whereas spanking is the use of force, externally applied, to produce behavior change, discipline is the process that allows the child to internalize controls on behavior. Alternative discipline strategies should be offered, such as the “countdown,” along with consistent limit setting, clear communication of rules, and frequent approval. Discipline should be immediate, specific to the behavior, and time-limited. Time-out for approximately 1 min/yr of age is very effective. A kitchen timer allows the parent to step back from the situation; the child is free when the timer rings.

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