Development at 39 Months
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Activity 1
Age Appropriate Social Development
Interacts With Others
 Saying and responding to hi's and bye's are important skills in social situations. I will learn that 'hellos' make people feel welcome and 'goodbyes' make people know that I like them or enjoy the time with them. Such skills help me grow up to be a more socially intelligent boy. Help me practice from young by watching you model these greetings with your words and your body language. I will be able to respond and make verbal greetings to most people I meet between 36 and 42 months (3 years and 3 year 6 months). |
Steps
Feedback
It is great when your child is greeting people appropriately. Sometimes he does it even without your reminders. Continue to encourage him to greet. Remember manners are caught more than they are taught. As he wants to be just like you, he will naturally want to do what you do.
Try to fade off your reminders as soon as you can. Use a strategy of stating the consequence and effect on others to help your child understand why greetings are important. E.g. "You forgot to say goodbye to grandpa when we left his house. I think he feels sad when you did not say goodbye to him. Maybe he thinks you did not like coming to his house. When you say bye-bye to grandpa, it makes him happy".
If your child generally finds it difficult to look into people's eyes when he greets or talks to them, he may feel very threatened by social interactions. Then do not make greetings an issue. Accept when he says his hellos and goodbyes appropriately with some fleeting eye contact.
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1. List out the social manners you want your child to learn. E.g.
- Say his hellos and goodbyes
- Say please when he ask for something
- say thank you when he is given something
- to give up seats for older people
- to not interrupt when adults are talking
- say "excuse me" if he really needs to interrupt, etc.
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Explain each of these social manners to your child. Demonstrate what you mean. Create a scene and role play each of them with him. Have fun dramatizing each rule. You can even let him play "charades" when you and your spouse act out a scene. He has to guess which social rule you are acting out.
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Discuss, show and tell your child the different fun ways of saying hello and goodbye. E.g. saying hi by giving a "hi five", a hug, a kiss on the cheek, by shaking hands, bowing (like the Japanese), etc. You can buy books to investigate how different people from different cultures say hellos and goodbyes.
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 Continue to provide social models for all the manners you want your child to display. It is not realistic to expect more from your child than what you can expect for yourself.
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Activity 2
Age Appropriate Cognitive Development
Understands Verbs In Stories
 I can use some action verbs to describe what happens in a picture. Some common action verbs I know are "eating, clapping, running, jumping, crying and swimming". Picture books that have the action verbs as the main theme are most helpful for me to name the action. I can name common actions between 36 and 42 months (3 years and 3 year 6 months). |
Steps
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Look at a new picture book with your child.
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Ask your child, "Look, what is this person doing?"? or "What is happening in this picture?" or "What do you see?"
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Take note of your child's ability to name the actions when looking at the picture book (either by using verbs or by gestures).
Feedback
Your child is progressing in the area of reading readiness at this stage. He is able to use actions and labels of things to describe pictures he sees. The ability to name familiar actions in a picture book or in natural settings usually develops between 3 years and 3 year 6 months old. Celebrate that your child has already achieved this milestone. From here, you can just expand his vocabulary of verbs to describe situations around him. Look at the suggested activities for ideas to play and develop this skill.
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Use pictures with several people doing several actions. Describe an action and ask him to locate the person doing it. You can take turns to do the asking and answering in this game.
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 Have your child describe a scene as he looks at the pictures. Fill in his story with action verbs whenever he is stuck.
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Use everyday sequences like "brushing teeth", "wearing socks", "bathing" as opportunities to introduce more action verbs. Do a show and tell for the steps needed in each routine. E.g. first, we SQUEEZE the toothpaste. Then we PUT the toothpaste on the toothbrush. Then we BRUSH our teeth. Then we RINSE our mouth.
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Play simple children charades, letting each other guess the action verb one is acting out.
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Play "Simon Says" with actions, i.e. JUMP, TURN around, LIE down on the floor, etc.
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Sing songs with actions. E.g. if you're happy and you know it, CLAP your hands, JUMP up high; SQUEEZE your nose, WALK around.
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