Sensory processing is fully mature at this stage. Your child uses their senses with adult-like precision to observe, investigate, and learn. Scientific curiosity — asking what would happen if, then testing it — is sensory development at its most sophisticated.

Your six-year-old will be experimenting with all different kinds of movement. They can change directions while running, jump, roll, and shift weight rapidly from foot to foot. They can even go backward without much difficulty. They learn new ways to move by mimicking you or other children.

What you can do: Teach them to skip, gallop, slide. Enrol in organized sport, dance, or gymnastics. The physical development of six-year-olds benefits enormously from instruction and practice.

Fine motor skills at this stage are approaching adult-level precision. Writing, drawing with detail, using scissors, and working with small materials are all well within reach. The more opportunities your child has to practise these skills in meaningful contexts, the faster they develop.

Your child has all the rough movements for throwing, catching, and kicking. Now it's time to refine hand- and foot-eye coordination. Practice makes perfect! The more time you spend throwing and kicking a ball with your six-year-old, the better their body develops.

What you can do: Practice ball skills regularly. Both sides — throw with your non-dominant hand too. This bilateral stimulation benefits brain development as well as athletics.

Watch your six-year-old use a child's version of the scientific method to explore the world. At six, curiosity takes on more structure, prompting questions ("What would happen if...?") and controlled experiments to find answers. They collect data from books, images, and by asking experts — including you. Six-year-olds are much more aware of the world around them.

What you can do: Do simple experiments together. Ask "What do you think will happen?" before you start. Then "What did happen? Why?" This hypothesis-test-observe cycle is scientific thinking.

Six-year-olds love to tell stories — true stories about their day, and made-up ones. You can encourage this and help them learn to write by having them keep a story journal — one story a day, with pictures. Their musical and dramatic abilities are growing too — they can be taught to read music, and this is a good age for practical instruction in art materials.

What you can do: Start a story journal. Provide better quality art materials — coloured pencils, watercolours, fine markers. Begin music lessons if there's interest and opportunity.

Strategic thinking and independent problem solving are well established at this stage. Your child can plan multi-step approaches, learn from failure, and try again with a modified strategy. Complex puzzles, strategy games, and real-world challenges are ideal for developing this capacity further.

Starting Grade 1 is significant. Your child will read independently, for both pleasure and learning. They can acquire up to 20 new words per day. They often become obsessively interested in one subject for a short time, absorbing knowledge, before moving to the next subject. They recognize most common words automatically now. Before the end of the year, they'll write and punctuate sentences properly, know odd and even numbers, count sides to identify shapes, and understand the beginning of multiplication as adding groups.

What you can do: Keep the house full of books — fiction and non-fiction. Let them lead subject-specific deep dives. Take them to the library. The habit of independent reading formed now is one of the most powerful educational gifts you can give.

Social interaction has become fun. Your six-year-old enjoys sharing with friends when things are going smoothly, but conflicts still arise and can cause temporary breakdowns. With adult guidance, your child should be capable of addressing conflicts appropriately through discussion. Six-year-olds are very aware of others' feelings and can often guess what's causing an emotion.

What you can do: When social conflicts arise, help them talk through it rather than solving it for them. "What do you think she was feeling? What could you say to her?" The facilitated conversation is the learning.

At six, children can hold stimulating conversations with other children and even adults. They're much better at telling stories including detailed accounts of events in logical sequence. Your child readily asks and answers questions to keep a conversation going and will frequently initiate conversations when excited about something.

What you can do: Have real conversations about real things. News, nature, books, current events appropriate to their age. Children who discuss ideas with adults early develop vocabulary and critical thinking faster.

Six-year-olds get a thrill from new roles and responsibilities. Recruit your child to help with household tasks, cooking, or looking after younger siblings. While eager to help, they'll still need plenty of direction. Be prepared for over-confidence — children this age tend to over-estimate their abilities and do not respond well to failure or criticism.

What you can do: Assign real responsibilities. A regular chore they own completely. This sense of contribution to the household is enormously important for self-concept at six.

Your little one is most comfortable when there's a stable routine. They prefer gradual change. If change is on the horizon, make sure you're there as a source of emotional stability and support. Negative emotions may arise in all sorts of ways and your child may need help managing them.

What you can do: Preview changes well in advance. "Next week, we're going to do something new." Walk through what will happen step by step. Predictability is emotional safety for six-year-olds.