How your child develops physically
Considering the rapid physical development that a baby experiences, the physical development of a preschooler is slow and steady. Typically, a baby gains about 14 pounds by her first birthday, while the average preschooler gains about six pounds a year until age six. During the preschool years, weight gain is made up of muscle and fat, since preschoolers actually lose body fat.
A typical preschool-age boy weighs about 32 pounds (about the same as three bags of groceries), and the average preschool-age girl weighs slightly less. When considering a child’s overall physical development, preschool-age boys typically heap girls by about a pound.
When considering the physical development of a child, their growth slows down considerably in both height and weight when comparing the amount of growth they had in childhood. Preschool-age children typically grow two to three inches per year. The average three-year-old is 38 inches tall. When this boy turns six, he will probably be 48 inches tall. When considering a child’s overall physical development, girls are slightly shorter than boys, until they reach age 11, where they tend to be taller than boys.
The physical development of a child in the preschool years allows them to be more mobile than they were in their infancy, because their torso, arms, and legs have grown and are no longer ‘heavy on top’. This lowers the preschooler’s center of gravity and makes it easier for them to balance.
Body fat decreases in the physical development of a child reaching preschool age. And when a child is five and a half years old, his body fat is half as fat as when he was 9 months old. Muscle growth gradually slows down during a child’s physical development and picks up during adolescence. And because of testosterone, boys tend to have more muscles and bones than girls.
As a child’s physical development matures, they develop more bone and less cartilage in their skeletal system, and their muscles and ligaments become more firmly attached to their bones. During the preschool years, a toddler is more susceptible than an older child to bone or muscle damage, due to overuse or injury, because the preschooler’s bones and muscles are still developing.
To promote optimal skeletal and muscle development, it is important to constantly supervise an active preschooler who is often on the go and willing to take dangerous risks. It’s also important at this age to make sure preschoolers wear well-fitting shoes and have good posture while building those bones and muscles.
The physical development of a preschooler also includes their teeth. A preschooler usually has a complete set of baby teeth by the time he is three years old. At this age, children are capable of crushing, biting and chewing any food. During the preschool period, a child’s jaw lengthens and his face lengthens to make room for permanent teeth. Those permanent teeth begin to appear around the age of seven, when the milk teeth begin to fall out.
