How do three- and four-year-old children learn and develop?

What the research tells us. Three- and four-year-old children are explorers, constantly on the move, with little time or inclination to learn by sitting and passively listening. To effectively support the social, intellectual, emotional, and physical growth of three- and four-year-olds, adults must enter into their world. Although there are no hard and fast rules, research offers helpful guidelines about child development. Development occurs over time, stages overlap, and no two children are exactly alike. Both development and learning are shaped by the cultural practices of one's family and community (Morrow, 1993).

Understanding how children "catch sense" of their world enables tutors to plan and create exciting learning environments. This understanding can be gained by observing, listening, and talking with each child as a unique individual. Observations of young children reveal that preschoolers:

• Learn through their senses. They are active learners who experience the world around them through touch, taste, sound, smell, and sight.
• Have limited attention spans and low tolerance for sitting.
• Learn best from first-hand discovery and not by being told.
• Learn through their interactions with the adults and other children at home and school and through the materials in their environment.
• Learn through dramatic play.
• Have vivid imaginations. They are magical thinkers who, at times, genuinely confuse fantasy and reality.

Apply the research. Young children have a wide variety of experiences and knowledge about themselves and the world around them. As you tutor a child, the work will be most rewarding when you discover who the child is and what competencies the child already demonstrates.

One important way children grow as learners is through play itself. For preschool children, dramatic play has a number of benefits directly tied to learning literacy skills.

• Dramatic play helps children try out different ways of being. Watch them as they take on the roles of mother, father, teacher, firefighter, baby, and grandparent. In trying out these roles, children are working to understand the adult world around them.
• Dramatic play gives children a way to resolve feelings they may not be able to articulate. In dramatic play, the children are in charge. Listen as they negotiate who is going to be the mother or the baby. Consider how much language development is happening as children respond to each other and work out the details of the play. Hear them mimic the actual voices of adults in their lives!
• Dramatic play stimulates intellectual growth. For instance, children are using symbols as they declare that this block will be the baby's bottle or this piece of rug can be a blanket. This process of symbolization-allowing one thing to stand for another-lays the foundation for mastery of written and numeric symbols.