Astonishing truth: some parents with children under the age of 5 don’t know this…

Do you know how your child develops from ages 0-5? Do you know what you can do to enhance their development and give them the best start at life? 

We’ve heard the saying, ‘a child’s brain is like a sponge’ - they absorb everything! That’s because it’s true. A child’s brain develops the most when they are under five years of age than at any other time in their life. Isn’t that amazing? That’s why these formative years are so important for our child’s development.

We want what is best for our children. We read endless books and blog posts, ask for advice from those who have experience and watch any documentary or YouTube video we can find, but sometimes it can be overwhelming and quite frankly, confusing.

So to keep it simple, here are 5 key stages that are integral to our child’s physical, intellectual and social development.

Firstly, Cognitive development. Children under five are learning about their world and how it works - the what, when, how and why. During this time they develop the skills and knowledge to understand their environment through their thought processes. These thought processes are critical as they form the way a child uses problem solving skills, learns right from wrong, uses memory, how they think and feel and how they learn new things.

In a nutshell, cognitive development can be broken into 3 main parts: intellect, memory and reasoning. To assist your child in these areas, Universal has created their Petites classes with intellect, memory and reasoning as part of the program. It is built in so that every student has the best opportunity to reach their cognitive development milestones.

Social and Emotional skills are next. This develpmental stage looks at how our children interact with others and how they mange their emotions. The Petites program is exceptional at developing these skills, as students work with their peers throughout the classes and our educators are wonderful at demonstrating and explicitly teaching different emotions through storytelling. Students are able to learn the skills of sympathy, empathy, recognising and expressing their feelings, relating to each other and making friends.

Developing our child’s speech and language skills can often be a big one for us as parents. Sometimes children communicate without the use of direct speech and this can be for a variety of reasons. At Universal, we work with students and parents to foster a relationship of trust whereby students become confident to join in classroom activities - as they appeal to all types of learners; kinesthetic, auditory and visual. Students are consistently being challenged to use their voice through questioning, singing and recall. Over time we have seen remarkable improvements with our student’s ability to communicate using their voice and the formulation of sentence structures that weren’t there before.

Fine motor skills are crucial to our child’s development and are more important than you may realise. Having the ability to use a pincer grip for example is the precursor for learning how to write. Children need fine motor skills to be able to colour, cut, tie their shoelaces, turn a door handle, play a musical instrument and use their knife and fork. In the Petites program, we incorporate fine motor skill manipulation multiple times in class. From picking up a feather, to doing up their tap shoe buckle and even placing their sticker on their chart - our students are strengthening their fine motor skills in every single class.

The final key development skill for children under the age of five years old is gross motor skills; the physical ability to make large body movements. By developing larger muscles, the body is able to use the arms, legs and torso to move in a coordinated and controlled manner. Balance, body strength and body awareness are all part of gross motor skills which lead our children to be able to do simple things like stand up and sit down but also eventually ride a bike, rollerskate, play sports and even make their bed. It’s a no brainer that dance is a perfect match for the development of this skill. By using balance work throughout the classes, building strength in their muscles as they learn and teaching coordination through their movements - gross motor skills get a huge tick of approval in our Petites program.

We understand that these developmental stages are crucial for your child, which is why we have incorporated them seamlessly into our Petities program. You want the best start for your child and we want to best outcomes for our students - it’s a win win. Giving them a platform to develop these fundamental skills in a way that is engaging and educational is what you need. Contact Universal today and invest in your child’s future.