Child Development Stages
A Guide to Child Development Stages
The theoretical milestone through which the physical, emotional, intellectual, cognitive and social development of a child is described is known as the Child Development Stages. Different researchers have proposed their own version of development stages and therefore, even though different kinds of concepts have been used in their models, the overall objective of research remained the same. Therefore, it does not matter which child development stages research has been used as they were created for the sole purpose of ensuring the optimal development of a child. This article has been written based on the most popular and widely accepted child development stages models.
Child development during the first four months of birth includes both physical and motor developments. On this stage, the child’s brain continues to develop as well his other physical parts such as gums and legs. It is during this time that children start to have binocular vision that allows their eyes to move together. Their motor development includes developed reflexes of mouth, tongue, grasp etc. that makes them active and in this stage they are able to move their arm and grasp things. The second development stage is defined during the fifth to eighth month of age. Physical development during this stage includes appearance of baby fat in areas such as neck, arms and thighs, appearance of teeth, increase of the circumference of head etc. It is during this period that babies start to show their true eye color. Motor development during this stage includes development of blinking reflex, swallowing reflex, sucking reflex and grasping reflex and other hand reflexes improve can roll over and crawl a bit, can sit down etc.
During the time of eighth to twelfth month, their binocular eyesight develops properly and therefore the child starts to see objects from afar. Other physical development includes appearance of incisors in some babies, developed arms, slight development in feet and such whereas the motor development includes learning to use finger to poke and point, learning to sit by their own, recognizing objects, observing the surrounding activities, environment and people, learning to walk a bit etc.
It is during the next child development stages that a child starts to develop in cognitive aspect. From the 12th to 24th months of age, children are called toddlers. In this stage, children starts walking which makes them lose their baby fat, adult like appearance start to become more prominent, their skull bone thickens, and their rate of physical growth slows down than before. However, they can crawl swiftly and more skillfully, learn to use objects to stand up, learns to scribble things, can feed themselves a bit etc. As their cognitive ability develops in this stage, they enjoy looking at pictures in books, magazines, papers etc., learns to name objects that are frequently used, enjoys playing hide and seek, learns to imitate facial expressions a bit etc. It is during this stage that autism in a child can be detected.
The language skill also develops in this stage and they start to say simple words and understand and follow simple instructions as they can identify people, body parts and some objects. This is the most important of all the other child development stages as other aspects of development such as the social development and languages also develop in this stage.