Primary Grades (Pre-K–3) Students in this age range show a wide variation in physical development, even within the same grade. They are rapidly refining gross motor skills and more slowly refining their fine motor skills. (In younger grades, girls are often ahead of boys in fine motor skills and language.) Children between the ages of 4-9 may have high amounts of energy (relative to most of the rest of us) and have difficulty concentrating on things that do not interest or make sense to them (again, even more than us, because they haven’t developed self-regulation), which may translate into a short attention span.
Developmental Milestones: Motor Skills • ties shoes • learns to print all letters, uppercase and lower case • writes more legibly and smaller as time goes on • begins to use table knife • learns to ride a bike without training wheels
Upper Elementary (Grades 3–5) Upper elementary students experience slow and steady physical growth and become increasingly concerned with physical looks, coinciding with their social inclinations to start looking to peers as the key locus of influence instead of adults. Sometime toward the end of intermediate grades, some students (more often girls at this age) experience “growth spurts” with the onset of puberty. Female students may begin to menstruate, a concept that some may not understand (or have heard of) until they actually experience it. Physical fitness is also a key issue at this age.
Developmental Milestones: Motor Skills • becomes almost as coordinated as adults • can play musical instruments and build more complex structures because of development of small muscles