10 Developmental Milestones of a 3 Year (36 Month) Old Baby

Three years old begin to undergo a remarkable change. This stage of development is commonly known as the "toddler years." Three years old is a very active age since, in addition to height and weight, children at this age are developing their intellect, society, feelings, and movements.

Children develop physically and mentally at this age, which constantly affects their mood and behaviour. Continue reading the article to explore different developmental milestones of a 3 year old and how to support their growth.

Children aged three years can indicate many images and carry out several actions in a more advanced manner than at an earlier age. Of course, one of them includes the simple ability to speak. It still needs to be developed and consists of simple questions and commands, which also can be understood.

Every child can also fine-tune their physical movements to walk, run, or climb over jungle-like bars. They even venture to play with pretend things with some of their friends and show understanding of feelings.

Physical Milestones for a 3 year old:

• Coordinated Running: For a child who is 3, running becomes more manageable, almost without falling, with the ability to quickly turn.
• Climb Steps Using Alternate Feet: The child adopts the strategy of climbing stairs using alternating feet, a step up from the previous stage.
• Pedalling a Tricycle: They can now paddle a tricycle or other small riding vehicles, demonstrating their strength of legs and coordination.
• Grasping a Ball With Both Hands: Children begin correctly to catch large playing balls with their hands, and eventually, it coordinates their eyes with their hands.
• Moving Backwards and Sidewards: They can skirt, walk back, and move forward without falling.

Visual Milestones:

The visual aspect of a 3 year old improves highly at this stage. Some typical improvements are:

• Recognises Faces and Objects: Quickly remembers and recognises people, toys, and animals.
• Tracks Moving Objects Smoothly: Their eyes do not jerk as they follow moving things and can track them smoothly.
• Matches Colors and Shapes: They start sorting similar objects and matching colours and shapes.
• Increased Focus on Pictures and Books: Pays attention to detail in images, books, or videos and is interested in picture stories.

Hearing Milestones:

With the visual changes, a 3 year old also develops effectively in their hearing. The common changes are:

• Responds to Own Name and Familiar Sounds: Reacts to sounds like their name or a familiar voice calling them from far away.
• Differentiates Between Sounds: They can differentiate a few sounds and their causes (e.g., car horn, animal, etc.).
• Participates in Conversations: Children might listen in the conversations and give appropriate responses.
• Improved Sound Localisation: Has improved in determining the direction of the sound even when the sound is not within view.

Smell Milestones:

3 year olds experience various scents and smells at this age. Some developments regarding smell are:

• Smells and Triggers: They would know that an odour relates to something, for example, cookies and the activity of baking or flowers and being outdoors.
• Recognition of Pleasant and Unpleasant Scents: They can make choices by sorting out those scents that they find appealing from those that are not.
• Games and Smell: 3 year olds often seek things out with their noses, and they may nose around items in the playground or on toys and nature.
• Influence of Scent on the Recall: For instance, a known fragrance may please them or recall memories of a pleasurable engagement.

Touch Milestones:

The sense of touch clears the curiosity of a 3 year old and can engage with the surroundings. Here are a few typical touch milestones:

• Sensory Play Engagement: Children play with materials of different textures like rocks, sand, soil, etc.
• Discrimination of Objects by Touch refers to the skill of recognising objects of different sizes, shapes, and textures without seeing them.
• Increased Awareness of Body Position: They become keen on self-awareness as they can differentiate between hot and cold body parts.
• Learning Through Tactile Experiences: Touch becomes an immediate geographical learning tool for them, especially as they are active and move a lot.

Sleep Milestones for a 3 year old:

• Sleep Duration: Most three year olds still require 10 - 13 hours of sleep, which includes afternoon naps.
• Bedtime Routine: Children should also have structured activities before sleep, such as reading, bathing, and other calmer activities to help them sleep quicker.
• Sleep Independence: At this age, children are growing in the ability to sleep by themselves after some moments of silence or comfort from the caregivers.
• Nightmares and Night Terrors: Common worries that disturb sleep include nightmares or night terrors with fewer incidences.

Feeding Milestones for a 3 year old:

• Self-feeding Independence: By age 3, children can feed themselves, use a spoon or fork, and even eat with their fingers with little or no assistance.
• Increased Use of Utensils: They can usually handle spoons and forks and acquire new skills, like using a butter knife to smear butter or jam.
• Drinking from Open Cups: Most children of 3 years old can drink from a glass without spilling it all out, and those who can do it also use straws for drinks.
• Chewing Skills: Refining the chewing process accompanies increasing the textures they can chew, such as meat and raw vegetables.
• Group Eating Habits: At this age, children begin to eat with others and enjoy it. They can be at the family table for meals, imitating how adults do.
• Communication of Hunger: Three year olds can articulate hunger, which is helpful for caregivers' efforts to ensure children's nutrition adequacy.

Here are key cognitive milestones for a 3 year old:

• Understanding Concepts: Basic concepts such as colour, shape, and size become understandable by children, who can then group objects into appropriate levels.
• Memory Improvement: A three year old demonstrates memories of past and current dates, events, or several days' routines that were previously harder to do.
• Engagement in Concentration Activities: Their concentration level expands; hence, they can actively participate in a specific activity for longer.
• Expressing Thoughts and Feelings: Children tend to be verbally active and advance their thoughts, attitudes, and feelings, enhancing social interaction.

Social and Emotional Milestones for a 3 year old:

• Engagement with Peers: Young children become active with other children and participate in constructive play, developing an interest in play schemes.
• Imitation of Social Behaviours: They copy language and gestures from adults and older children without understanding.
• Emerging Friendships: Many will likely experience friendships by making requests, working in teams with other children, and forming liking relationships.
• Understanding of Sharing: They start to be aware of sharing, although child fulfilment does not make it easy to use.
• Expressing Emotions: A child can show happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. They may even be able to identify these emotions in other people.
• Awareness of Rules: They gradually learn the rules of behaviour in active games and understand simple rules and the idea of waiting for one's turn.

Speech Development Milestones for a 3 year old:

• Language Expansion: Children can often ask or answer in sentences of 3 to 5 words and use and understand the sentence structure.
• Vocabulary Development: Their word count can range from 200 to 1,000 words, depending on their learning curve.
• Pronunciation Improvement: Speech is also developing in a way that pronounces things more clearly, though mistakes in several sounds are still possible.
• Following Directions: They can follow linked 2-3 step directions, such as, “Pick up the toy and put it on the table.”
• Storytelling Ability: 3 year old children begin to narrate very simple stories or events in an orderly manner.

1. Arts and Crafts

2. Storytime

3. Outdoor Play

4. Sensory Play

5. Easy Cooking Activities

6. Music and Movement

Play various songs while letting your child dance to the music however, they feel like it.

Give them some instruments that they can play around with. She teaches how to sing some children's nursery rhymes for language enhancement. If kids become tired of playing games, move out movement games like freeze as extras.

7. Construction Play Using The Blocks

8. Pretend Play

9. Gardening Activities

1. Support Healthy Eating

2. Limit Screen Time

3. Help With Independence

4. Give Love And Encouragement

Limited Vocabulary:

Difficulty Pronouncing Words:

Not Engaging in Conversation:

Aggression:

Difficulty Expressing Emotions:

Health Issues: