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5 – 7

Useful information for 5 – 7 year olds. Click here

Building it into your day

Your home is a place where lots of learning is happening every day. Your child will improve their vocabulary and speech by hearing how words are used in everyday life. Chatting to your child, asking them questions and encouraging them to ask you questions will help build these essential skills.

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Ages and stages

School now becomes an important part of your child’s life. They are learning to be with other children more and they use talking to build new relationships. Other people can usually understand them clearly, though they still may have difficulty putting some sounds together. 

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Top Tips

  1. Encourage your child to retell a story they have heard. This will help your child to put ideas in the right order.
  2. Ask questions which encourage your child to give more than a yes or no answer “What do you feel about that?”
  3. Talk about the time for different things your child does every day - “It’s half past eight, time for school”. Use time words: early, late, weekend, second and minute.
  4. Talk together about numbers - “How many have we for dinner?” (How many legs on chairs? Dogs have 4 legs. How many legs are there with 2, or 3 dogs? 7 days in a week, 14 days is 2 weeks).
  5. Count with your child and involve them in home activities that involve measuring, weighing and counting.
  6. Encourage your child to read things around them – cereal packets, notices and signs in shops. Discuss words. Read with your child – 5 minutes a day can help.
  7. Give your child puzzles to do like mazes and dot-to-dots - write out their name in dots and get them to trace over dots. Look for opportunities to do real writing – cards for birthdays, titles for drawings they have made.

Click here for tips on play for 3-6 year olds from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.