Three Year Old Development

If you have a three-year-old, you surely know the pleasure of having a non-stop chatterbox at home. During their third years, children turn gregarious, endlessly experiment with words and languages, weave incoherent fairy tales and become extremely active and confident. The world becomes their playground - a place to observe, explore, and discover. More often than not, you will find them jumping all over the place, perfecting their motor movements. Therefore, this period offers excellent opportunity to parents to mould and develop a child’s habits and behaviors. In the following lines, we have provided developmental milestones of a three year old, which will help you to understand your toddler better.

Three Year Old Milestones

During the third year, your child’s verbal range should be a minimum of 300 words, with the ability to frame sentences that are at least six words long.
Your child's speech should be comprehensible and even understandable by strangers. Mispronunciations and incorrect pronoun usage is normal though.
You will see that your child has become more empathic, co-operative, and social during this period. He will easily relate to his peers and readily share his toys and other playthings.
During this period, your child will enjoy playing ‘fantasy’ games. Do not be surprised if he enacts imaginary roles, or engages in games like ‘house-house’ etc.
He will also become highly active and energetic. There is nothing to worry about if he spends most of his waking time ceaselessly running around the house, or climbing the same steps over and over again.
It is also normal for your three-year-old to invent imaginary playmates or develop a strong liking towards a particular stuff toy or animal. Such a behavior will help him to build up various emotions, feelings, activities, etc.
As far as physical development is concerned, you will notice changes like increase in the length of the skull, development of the jaws, precise motor movements, etc. Most preschoolers during this time also look quite gangly, which is absolutely normal.
In case, there are behavioral disturbances like stuttering, make sure that you ignore the problem and do not call his attention towards it while he speaks. In severe cases, it is better to consult a pediatrician.

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