Five to eight

While books on babies and toddlers abound, playworkers have few books on the development of older children from which they can draw information. So this is the first of two features focusing on the first half of middle childhood -children from about five or six to eight years of age. The second feature, in the next issue of Out of School on 11 July, will focus on children from nine years to 11 or 12. In them, I will consider some highlights of what happens in children's all-round development and how adults need to adjust.

Talking and learning

Children of four and five years of age - the very youngest in out-of-school care -have impressive communication skills. They can have a substantial vocabulary, and during this period some will develop absorbing interests, such as sharks, dinosaurs or motorbikes, that mean they learn a specialist vocabulary. Children in the first half of middle childhood use their language in different ways - to express views, ask questions, consider what might happen if... or why some people act the way they do.