1. Primary Age Children-1st
Grade
By: Kelsey Arlt & Nohemi Calderon

2. Introduction 1st Grade
1st grade is the next grade level after kindergarten. The ages
are between 6-7 years of age. The following developmental
milestones apply to most children in this age group. However,
a child might reach these stages earlier or later than other
children the same age.

3. Emotional and Social Development
• For the first grader, oneself is extremely important. Students are
competitive and self-centered. First graders love having a “best friend”
even though they may decide to “tattle tell” on their friend at any given
moment.
• First graders may have some extreme behaviors that need to be understood, but not always
tolerated: tantrums, teasing, bossing, complaining, and tattling.
• Extremely sensitive, a warm encouraging comment from a peer or more importantly a teacher can
go a long way
• Criticism and/or failure is hard for child to handle
• School replaces the students' home as most significant environmental influence.
• Like to work with and look after younger children
• Very interested in rules and rituals
• Spending time with friends becomes increasingly important; enjoy working/playing with same sex
friends
• First graders love to be first and are often loud, rash, active and verbal.
• By the end of first grade, students should become better able to work with peers and function
better as a “social unit.”

4. Abnormal Emotional Signs
• Relationships
• Separations
• Involvement
• Focusing
• Affect (mood)
• Self-image
• Anxiety level
• Impulse control
• Transitions

5. Activities to support emotional
development
• Play dates- give children of the same age a chance to practice social
interaction.
• Role playing activities- simulate real-life situations that involve emotional
or social development. Children are able to practice handling situations
they might encounter, such as a peer who won't share a toy or a child who
is bullying.
• Creative time play- Creative activities let young children express emotions
they may have difficulty verbalizing. Painting a picture or playing with clay
are two examples of art projects to facilitate social and emotional
development.

6. Language Development
o Follow directions, retell stories, and explain visual information.
o Describe people, places, things and events using complete sentences.
o Start a conversation about a topic of interest and take turns in conversation.
o Express ideas with a variety of complete sentences
o Use most parts of speech (grammar) correctly
o Ask and respond to basic questions (who, what, where, when, why)
o Give directions
o Create rhyming words
o Identify all sounds in short words
o Have a sight vocabulary of 100 common words
o Express ideas through writing
o Begin each sentence with capital letters and use ending punctuation

7. Abnormal Signs
o Rate of speech is extremely fast or slow
o Cannot retell stories using specific details
o Has a small vocabulary for her/his age
o Speech is difficult to understand compared with peers
o Whole or part word repetitions (“I need to…to…to...to go the
bathroom”) (“D…d…d…do I need my p…p…p…pencil”)
o Prolongations of sounds (“Mmmmmmmy mommy’s at home”)
o Physical signs of struggle while speaking (hand clenching, face
squishing, frustration)

8. Activities to support language development
o Acknowledge and encourage all attempts to speak. Show that you understand the
word or phrase by fulfilling the request, if appropriate.
o Pause after speaking. This gives the child a chance to continue the conversation.
o Continue to build vocabulary. Introduce a new word and offer its definition, or
use it in a context that is easily understood
o Encourage group conversations to take turns speaking, listening and responding
to others.
o Play games with the child such as "house." Exchange roles in the family, with your
pretending to be the child.
o Encourage the child to read books to you, both fiction and non-fiction. Help
sound out difficult words.
o Read aloud to the child, choosing books that are above his/her own reading level.
o Read a story together then ask the child what happened first, next, and last.

9. Physical Development
• First graders are alive with energy and with growing! The average
first grader grows rapidly with as much speed as their physical
activity!
• Good visual pursuit for reading
• More aware of fingers as tools; fine motor skills still developing
• Sloppy; in a hurry; speed is a benchmark of first graders
• Noisy in the classroom
• Learning to distinguish left from right
• Oral activity (teething)- chews pencils, fingernails and hair
• Easily tires; frequent illnesses
• Child “play” is ending and the role of reality is moving to the forefront both
physically and mentally.
• Proportionately longer arms and legs give them an awkward appearance
• Like to test muscle strength and skills
• Have a good sense of balance

10. Abnormal Signs
• Does not seem to recognize self as a separate person, or does not
refer to self as “I”
• Has great difficulty separating from parent or separates too easily
• Is anxious, tense, restless, compulsive, cannot get dirty or messy,
has many fears, engages in excessive self-stimulation
• Seems preoccupied with own inner world; conversations do not
make sense
• Shows little or no impulse control; hits or bites as first response;
cannot follow a classroom routine
• Expresses emotions inappropriately (laughs when sad, denies
feelings); facial expressions do not match emotions
• Cannot focus on activities (short attention span, cannot complete
anything, flits from toy to toy)

11. Activities to support physical
development
• First graders are beginning to really develop their ability to move.
Your child should be able to:
• demonstrate loco-motor skills including: run, hop, jump, leap, slide,
gallop, and skip
• combine two loco-motor movements to form a pattern (skip, skip,
jump, jump, repeat)
• perform kicking, striking, throwing and catching patterns in a simple
fluid environment (a throwing and catching game or a kicking game)
• put together simple tumbling patterns that involve weight shift,
rolling, and flight (hop, hop, hop, somersault, run and leap)
• move to a simple rhythmic beat while recognizing the pattern

12. Cognitive Development
o Enjoy learning through discovery.
o Ask many questions.
o Organizes physical objects as a way to remember them.
o Count, read and write to 120.
o Add and subtract numbers up to 20.
o Understand place value in two-digit numbers.
o Measure lengths of objects by using a shorter object.
o Develop skills with sorting, describing, comparing and recording
observations.
o Find patterns in his/her observations and start to think about what
they mean.
o Identify which animals belong in which habitats, and match
characteristics of animals with their physical environment.

13. Abnormal Signs
• Difficulty retaining information and
learning simple routines
• Confusion and behavior problems in new
situations or places
• Short attention span
• Difficulties in concentration or attention
might be cause by learning disabilities
• Some disabilities affect the child’s ability
to understand and communicate

14. Activities and materials to support cognitive
development
o Take children on “field trips” and talk about what you
saw and learned.
o Gently encourage creativity and independent thought
o Materials such as maps of the local area
o Board games
o Puzzles of 100 to 500 pieces
o Books about topics of interest to the child (fiction
and nonfiction)

15. Cultural and Ethnic Factors
• Children might… • Adults Role:
• Family and culture • Family and culture
• • Include your child in family and cultural traditions,
• • Tell friends or adults about a family or cultural rituals, routines
tradition. • and activities.
• • Bond with family and friends who share their • • Involve your child in preparing meals, household
time and talents with chores, gardening,
• the child. • shopping and other daily tasks.
• Self management • • Build community with other families through activities
such as coffees,
• • Calm down own strong emotions and avoid • celebrations, fi eld trips, etc.
acting on impulse.
• Self management
• • Understand how the body and face show • • Teach your child calming techniques: such as counting
different emotions. to 10, taking
• • Describe ways to cope with and manage • a walk or singing a favorite song. Remind your child of
stress. For example, if a these skills
• friend doesn’t want to play any more (stress), • when he or she is upset.
invite someone else to • Learning to learn
• play with you (cope). • • Together with your child, explore Web sites or books
with pictures
• Learning to learn • of animals, foods or things that interest the child. Talk
• • Focus attention on a task/topic and ignore about what
distractions. • you see.
• • Start to be able to stay focused on tasks • • Turn off television and video games while doing
assigned by others. homework or
• chores to help the child stay focused.
• • Listen with attention.

16. Socio-economic and Environmental Factors
o Children’s cognitive, social, o Children need a supportive
emotional, and physical and positive environment
development can be o Relationships with parents,
considerably impacted by siblings and caregivers can
their environment also affect the
development of cognitive
o Some factors affecting the and language skills
child’s development are; o Play is essential for child’s
nutrition, family and play overall development- it
o Children need to eat the allows the child to
right amount of calories and interact with others which
nutrients for proper growth helps the child’s emotional
and social development
and development
o Play also gives the child
o A child’s emotional and social opportunities to increase
development may be physical activity and
affected when he or she develop motor skills
lives in an abusive home

17. Socio-economic and Environmental Factors
• The absence of • They are more likely
resources such as to show antisocial
nutrition, care, behaviors and suffer
education, medical from depression
care and social
services affect • Levels of poverty may
children’s overall also impact children’s
development cognitive skills like
• Children living in low memory, letter
income families may recognition and
have stunted growth reading
and poor motor skills

18. Sources
• http://www.ucsfchildcarehealth.org/pdfs/Curricula/CCHA/15_CCHA_SocialEmotional
_0406_v2.pdf
• http://www.del.wa.gov/publications/development/docs/guidelines.pdf
• http://www.ltl.appstate.edu/436/student/grlevcase/firstgrddevstudy.html
• http://www.education.com/magazine/article/First_Grader_Able_To/
• http://www.livestrong.com/article/268217-activities-for-childrens-emotional-social-
development/
• http://www.siskin.org/downloads/FactsonCognitiveImpairment.pdf

19. http://www.education.com/reference/article/first-grade-milestones-your-child-track/?page=2
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/firstgrade.htm
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/parent-stim-activities.htm
http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/pediatrics/learning_and_developmental_disorders/learni
ng_disabilities.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/159854-sources-of-impact-on-early-childhood-development/
http://www.ehow.com/info_8048090_economic-factors-affecting-children.html
The End