The characteristics of a 5-year-old child are:
- They acquire significant maturity in basic functions and personal security.
- They advance in experiencing and representing their own body.
- There is substantial perceptual development: they differentiate, identify, and associate much more information from the external world received through various senses.
- Their ability to focus attention and memorize what they learn increases.
- They make progress in reasoning, finding different relationships between objects and phenomena, as well as between their current experiences and past experiences.
- Perceptual maturation helps them begin to structure space and time.
- Their fine motor skills become more refined and precise. Laterality and the internalization of right and left become clearer.
- Their verbal communication improves significantly: they understand any oral message with simple structure and vocabulary. They can express themselves with a rich and precise vocabulary, using increasingly complex forms and structures with a correct organization of ideas and events.
- Their relationships with other children become stronger: their play becomes more structured, they seek playmates, and they begin to take an interest in the desires of others. This helps them develop self-assertion.
- They show great interest in objective reality. This interest, along with their advances in reasoning and work habits, makes this an ideal time to introduce greater systematization in different learning areas and in basic instrumental techniques.