Child Development Stages

Hello again, 

From the moment a child is born, parents are introduced to different development stages. One minute, a child is 'cooing', the next s(he) is talking. Children are usually able to perform a wide range of complex functions over periods of time. This is known as Child Development. 

Development milestones are a set of functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children can do at a certain age range. It is important to know that children develop at their own pace. If your child reaches one milestone sooner, he(she) could reach another much later. 

Development is different from Growth as the latter refers to children getting bigger in size. 

Below is a table of five different child development groups and their corresponding ages. 

Age	Motor	Social	Speech	Physical	Vision and hearing
1-4months	Grasps with entire hand, strength insufficient Movements are large and jerky Rooting and sucking reflexes are well developed	More expressive with face and body . Begins to develop a social smile.  Discriminates smile. Enjoys playing with other people.  Squeals with delight appropriately.	Cooes(makes vowel-like noises) and babbles at parents or people they know. Verbalises to engage someone in interaction. Blow bubbles, plays with tongue. Deep belly laughs.(Spot the ticklish part)	Responds to and thrives on warm, sensitive physical contact and care. Expresses discomfort, hunger or thirst Continues to breathe using abdominal muscles.	Follows moving objects. Recognises familiar objects and people at a distance. Follows the hand with the eyes. Adult-like Colour vision. Follows dangling toy from side to side. Turns head round to sound. Follows adults’ gaze(joint attention).
4-8months	Able to hold bottle. Sits alone with or without support, holding head erect, back straightened, and arms propped forward for support, reaches with one hand, transfers object from hand to hand	Enjoys social play. Interested in mirror images. Responds to expressions of emotion. Appears joyful often. May show stranger anxiety.	Makes vowel noises, enjoys vocal play, double syllable sounds such as 'mumum' and 'dada'. Babbles consonant-vowel sounds	Teeth may begin to appear. Accompanied by increased drooling, chewing, biting and mouthing of objects Fat rolls appear on thighs, upper arms and neck. True eye color is established	Sensitivity to pictoral depth cues (those used by artists to indicate depth) emerges. Localises sound 45cm lateral to either ear.Visua acuity adult-like (20/20)
8-12months	Has good balance when sitting; can shift positions without falling Creeps on hands and knees; crawls up and down stairs	Begins to develop expressive rather than receptive language- child actually responding to what is said to him instead of only receiving and watching interaction Apprehensive or shy about strangers, tests parental response, cries when parents leave, enjoys imitating people in play	Babbles tunefully.	Legs may continue to appear bowed. Arm and hands are more developed than feet and legs; hands appear large in proportion to to other body parts. More teeth appear but some babies may still be waiting for their first.	Drops thing intentionally and repeats and watches objects Watches people, objects and activities in the immediate environment. Both eyes work in unison(true binocular coordination) Can see distant objects and points at them Responds to hearing Looks for toys for dropped, looks at correct picture when the image is named
12-36months	Crawls skillfully and quickly Gets to feet unaided Most children walk unassisted near the end of this period; falls often; not always able to maneuver around obstacles, such as furniture or toys Attempts to run; has difficulty stopping and usually just drops to the floor. Sits in a small chair Helps feed self; enjoys holding spoon(often upside down) and drinking from a glass or cup; not always accurate in getting utensils into mouth; frequent spills should be expected. Helps turn pages in book. Stands on tiptoe	Less wary of strangers. Waves goodbye. Understands simple commands. Self-awareness as separate from others. Enthusiastic about company of other children Helps pick up and put away toys Plays alone. Demands constant mothering Often imitates adult actions in play	Babbles 2/3 words repeatedly. By two years is able to join 2-3 words in sentences	By 24months,(2 years) 16 baby teeth almost finishef growing out. By 36 months(3 years), baby teeth stage over. Also, legs grow faster than arms. Posture is more erect, abdomen no longer protrudes.	Passes toy to other hand when offered a second object (referred to as”crossing the midline” – an important neurological development. Enjoys object -hiding activities. Places several small items (blocks, clothespins, cereal pieces) in a container or bottle and then dumps them out. Tries to make mechanical objects work after watching someone else do so. Names many everyday objects. Enjoys looking at picture books. Drops toys, and watches where they go. By 18months, is able to recognize their favourite songs and will try to join in.

Note, the table above is not exhaustive as children can perform a wide range of functions.

In the next post, we will look at child development for ages 4-10 years.

Have a Happy week!

Team KidzAvenue.





References:
Your Child Development&Behaviour Resources - www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics
Child Development - Medline Plus
How your Newborn Grows-Baby Development Stages: The First Year. How infants develop by Gina Shaw Web MD.
Healthychildren.org
Wikipedia

Images from Google.