Child Development Stages: Milestones & Ages - Child Protect Life

Child Stage & Age

Parenting involves being aware of your child's evolving growth and development milestones. Physical and emotional difficulties are common among infants and young children during several phases of development. To help you better understand what your kid is experiencing and identify any problems along the road, the paediatric specialists at CHOC have produced a number of guidelines organised by age and stage.

Child Development Stages

Child Development Stages 

1. Infancy (0-2 years): During this stage, babies learn to control their bodies and their environment, and they develop language, motor, social and emotional skills. 

2. Early Childhood (3-8 years): During this stage, children learn to think abstractly and begin to develop their own identity and sense of self. They also learn to control their impulses, explore their environment and interact with other children. 

Child Development Stages

3. Middle Childhood (9-11 years): During this stage, children refine their skills and abilities, as well as their understanding of the world around them. They also learn to navigate social situations and develop a sense of morality. 

4. Adolescence (12-18 years): During this stage, adolescents learn to think and reason critically, as well as develop their identity and sense of self. They also learn to interact with larger social groups and manage their emotions. 

5. Young Adulthood (19-25 years): During this stage, young adults learn to take responsibility for their own lives and become independent. They also learn how to form relationships and make decisions that will shape their future.

Growth and Development of your Child

Parents should track their child’s growth and development in order to ensure their child is meeting the necessary milestones for their age. This should be done by tracking physical, cognitive, and social/emotional growth. 

Physically, parents should track their child’s height, weight, and head circumference. They should also be aware of any changes in their child’s physical abilities, such as learning to walk, using utensils, and mastering motor skills. 

Child Development Stages

Cognitively, parents should track their child’s language development, including the use of words, sentences, and conversations. They should also be aware of their child’s ability to recognize numbers and shapes, as well as their problem-solving skills.

Social/emotional growth should also be monitored, such as their ability to interact with others and make friends. Parents should also be aware of their child’s emotional regulation, including their ability to express emotions, adjust to new situations, and handle stress.

 Finally, parents should track their child’s overall development, including activities they enjoy and their ability to self-regulate. This may include tracking their child’s bedtime, mealtime, and bathroom routines.

Learning milestones and skills for children

•Birth-3 Months: Develops ability to follow a moving object with eyes, recognizes familiar faces, coos and makes gurgling noises, smiles when happy, holds head up when supported, pushes down with legs when feet are placed on a hard surface, brings hands together. 

•4-6 Months: Makes vowel sounds, laughs out loud, recognizes familiar voices, rolls over in both directions, sits with support, transfers objects from one hand to the other, babbles.

 

•7-9 Months: Crawls, says "mama" and "dada," imitates speech sounds, points to things he or she wants, pulls self up to standing position, bangs objects together. 

Child Development Stages

•10-12 Months: Stands without support, says simple words, points to body parts, throws objects to the ground, looks for objects that have been hidden. 

•13-15 Months: Walks alone, turns pages of a book, imitates simple actions, says several words, follows simple instructions. 

•16-18 Months: Runs, pulls toys while walking, names pictures in a book, follows two-step instructions, speaks in two-word phrases. 

•19-24 Months: Climbs up and down stairs with assistance, names common objects, kicks a ball, throws a ball overhand, has a 50-word vocabulary.

Using growth charts to measure physical development in children

Growth charts are an important tool used in measuring physical child development. They are graphical representations of a child's growth over time. Growth charts typically track a child's height, weight, and head circumference, and are used to identify any possible growth delays or abnormalities.

Child Development Stages

Growth charts are typically constructed using data from large population studies, and are used by healthcare providers to compare a child's growth to that of the general population. This information can then be used to identify potential health problems or monitor a child's progress over time.

Problems Could Be Signed By What?

Possible signs of a problem with baby development could include: delayed milestones, such as not being able to roll over, crawl, or walk by the expected age; physical or behavioral abnormalities; or difficulty with feeding or sleeping.