Developmental Stages

How is my child doing?       

Parent's often ask "How do I know that my child is developing at an average level?" 

This page is designed to help you understand the stages of development for a typical 2nd grader in the areas of reading and writing as well as socially, emotionally, and intellectually.

Developmental Stages:

AGES & STAGES - SIX- THROUGH EIGHT-YEAR-OLDS

Lesia Oesterreich, M.S.
Family Life Extension Specialist
Human Development and Family Studies
Iowa State University


Six, seven, and eight-year-olds build on the important developments of the first 6 years of life and seem to settle down to a steadier pace of growing and learning. Young school-age children are interested in real life tasks and activities, and pretend and fantasy lessen considerably. School-agers want to make "real" jewelry, take "real" photographs, and create "real" collections.

School-age children have longer attention spans. They are more likely to stick with things until the project is finished, the problem solved, or the argument resolved. Doing things together with friends, teamwork, and following rules become very important. This age group is fascinated by rules and can develop games with extensive rules and rituals.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT being with friends becomes increasingly important interested in rules and rituals girls want to play more with girls; boys with boys may have a best friend and an enemy strong desire to perform well, do things right begins to see things from another child's point of view, but still very self-centered finds criticism or failure difficult to handle views things as black and white, right or wrong, wonderful or terrible, with very little middle ground seeks a sense of security in groups, organized play, and clubs generally enjoys caring for and playing with younger children may become upset when behavior or school-work is ignored

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT skilled at using scissors and small tools development of permanent teeth enjoys testing muscle strength and skills good sense of balance can catch small balls can tie shoelaces enjoys copying designs and shapes, letters and numbers can print name long arms and legs may give gawky awkward appearance

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT may reverse printed letters (b/d) enjoys planning and building doubles speaking and listening vocabularies reading may become a major interest increased problem-solving ability interested in magic and tricks longer attention span enjoys creating elaborate collections able to learn difference between left and right can begin to understand time and the days of the week

Read the following definitions carefully to decide where your child falls.  If you are concerned that your child is falling behind in his/her reading and/or writing, please schedule a conference.  I strive to help every child improve his/her individual reading and writing skills. 

 Writing Developmental Stages 

Early Writer

• uses invented spelling
• uses initial and final consonants
• places vowels correctly in words
• uses many high-frequency words as he/she writes
• creates a title for his/her story has a beginning, middle, and end in his/her story
• begins using dialogue
• uses capitals and periods
• begins using editing and identifies misspelled words
• uses environment as a resource for spelling correctly and writing ideas

Fluent Writer

• develops parts of the story
• understands knowledge about topics
• runs topics throughout entire story      
• adds details to the story
• writes paragraphs
• uses word endings
• uses punctuation such as question mark, comma, exclamation mark, and quotation marks.
• initiates the editing process

Reading Developmental Stages       

Emergent Reader 

• knows that the text goes from left to right

• can distinguish between lower case and upper case letters

• can blend phonemes

• uses picture for clues

• retells a simple story which is read to them

• recalls some details

• knows names of letters

• identifies consonant sounds at beginning and end of words

• understands the difference between letters and words

• notices and reads environmental print

• reads one word at a time-choppy

• selects simple repetitious books

• reads favorite books over and over

• silent sustained reading 5-10 minutes

• has the desire to be a fluent reader

• enjoys retelling stories

• make predictions and tells why

Early Reader           

Mrs. Lunsford's Class
San Diego, CA
Hearst Elementary School
6230 Del Cerro Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92120

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