Vocabulary
Beginning School
Children Ages 5 to 7
Children Ages 8 to 9
Children Ages 10 to12
100

The skillful use of the hands and figures.

What is Dexterity?

100

This age is when most children start formal schooling in the United States.

What is five years old?

100

Children between the ages of five and seven typically grow this many inches per year.

What is two to three inches?

100

Children aged eight and nine become better at activities like shooting basketballs and playing musical instruments due to improvements in this skill.

What is hand-eye coordination?

100

Muscle strength and reaction time continue to improve during this stage, and children enjoy activities like these, often trying out various sports to find what suits them.

What are organized sports?

200

The ability to to sort items by one or more characteristics they have in common.

What is Classification?

200

This can be up to 12 months apart within a single grade, potentially affecting the developmental differences in young students.

What is the age difference?

200

The development of these skills is more advanced in children aged five to seven, including activities like swinging across the bars and running fast.

What are gross-motor skills?

200

At this stage, children develop the ability to order objects by a characteristic, such as arranging them from smallest to largest.

What is seriation?

200

By the time children reach fifth or sixth grade, they are learning about 20 of these per day and can understand their multiple meanings.

What are new words?

300

Skills individuals use to solve problems.

What is Executive Strategies?

300

About half of a child's critical brain development occurs before this milestone.

What is kindergarten?

300

This skill improves in children during the ages of five to seven and is needed for tasks like writing and using scissors.

What are fine-motor skills?

300

In third and fourth grade, children focus more on understanding what they read, using skills like identifying main points, summarizing, and making predictions. This shift happens after mastering this earlier skill.

What is learning to read?

300

Although preteens generally respect their parents, they may sometimes act in this way by talking back or doing things their parents disapprove of.

What is defying authority?

400

Movement the involves matching body movements to coordinate with what the child sees.

What is Visual-Motor Coordination?

400

This is the key factor in helping children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, often emphasized for parents and educators.

What is brain development?

400

This part of the brain grows significantly during ages five to seven, aiding in increasingly complex cognitive tasks.

What is the frontal lobe?

400

At this stage, eight- and nine-year-olds are especially eager to be part of this, forming deep connections with one or more peers and seeking acceptance and loyalty.

What is a group of friends?

400

While preteens at this stage seek more independence, a lack of supervision or too much independence can lead to this type of risky behavior, such as crimes or poor decision-making.

What is serious trouble or risky behavior?

500

The ability to understand that relationships between two objects can extend to a third object.

What is Transitivity?

500

This factor can influence a child's academic and cognitive abilities, making it an important aspect of early childhood education.

What is the importance of early childhood brain development?

500

This aspect of moral development, which begins around ages five to seven, involves children making decisions based on rewards, punishments, and understanding rules.

What is moral reasoning?

500

Children aged eight to nine become more responsible and eager to complete tasks, such as organizing their clothes. At the same time, they can also display these negative emotional traits.

What are irritability, criticism, and carelessness?

500

When preteens begin to question parental values and are exposed to negative peer pressure, this type of experimentation may occur, involving substances or risky behaviors.

What is experimentation with alcohol, drugs, smoking, or sexual behavior?