11. What Can a Child Do at Five?

A child at five is friendly, competent and obedient, although he may be bossy with other children and is sometimes sufficiently independent to call his mother names. He is still dependent on adult approval and praise, and so orientated to the grown-up that he tells tales without seeing the other child's point of view. There is no real discussion yet—fives talking together indulge in a "collective monologue"; quarrelling with words often begins towards the end of the year. Group play is often disrupted because everyone Wants to be the mother or the bride or the captain of the fire brigade. Each child has an urgent need for constantly recurring contact with an adult in spite of all his efforts to be independent. In his unsureness he may make statements about his own cleverness and beauty, hoping that the adult will praise him: this is not conceit but a cry for reassurance. He loves to say "Watch what I can do". Reality and fantasy are still intermingled and this confusion may lead him to elaborate on facts.

By the time a child is five he is usually able to run lightly on his toes and is skilful at all sorts of stunts and activities which involve swinging, digging and sliding. He can skip on alternate feet and can stand still on one foot for eight or ten seconds, and he can even hop on one foot for two or three yards. When he hears music whose rhythm appeals to him, he may dance in time to the tune. He can grip strongly with either hand and may ride a tricycle so furiously that he terrifies onlookers—needlessly, for he is now such an expert that the procedure is far safer than it looks.

He can count the fingers of one hand with the index finger of the other, and may count ten or more separate objects correctly. His vocabulary now runs to some 2 000 words, so he can communicate quite freely and easily with adults or other children, and he frequently asks the meaning of words which he hears for the first time. He can name coins and usually knows about four colors whose names he can employ in describing pictures.

He may need help and supervision in washing and drying himself although capable of doing both. He can dress and undress himself quite quickly and is able to distinguish the back and front of his garment although he may put them on back-to-front or inside-out occasionally. Many five-year-olds are still unable to tie their shoelaces and have difficulty with their ties or with inaccessible buttons. Children of this age will often play very well together in pairs with real co-operation while previously they tended to play rather independently although in close proximity. The games which they play on the floor are often complicated and imaginative.