Children’s Development Stages

The experiences that you have in early childhood will shape you for the rest of your life. When a child is born their brain is just a quarter of the size of an adult brain, and it then grows and develops rapidly with 90% of brain growth taking place before a child is five years old. Starting from birth, children develop brain connections through their everyday experiences. Positive interactions with their parents and other caregivers will ensure that positive and valuable brain connections develop.

Because the experiences that a child will have before they are five years of age will have such a significant impact on their developmental outcomes in later life, it is important that parents, caregivers and anyone working with children as an early years professional understand exactly what happens during these early stages of development and learns how they can best support children’s development at each age and stage.

Between the ages of 0-5, children go from being completely dependent on their caregivers to having increased and growing independence. Here is everything that you need to know about these five stages of child development, and how you can encourage child development in any young people in your care:

Five Stages of Child Development

Child development can be broken down into five distinct stages. These include the newborn stage, the infancy stage, the toddler stage, the preschool stage, and the school-age stage. At each of these stages, you can expect to see children hit unique and specific milestones.

Within each stage of development, children will improve and develop their skills within four core areas. Each of these developmental areas is interlinked, with children unable to progress in just one area without progressing in all areas. The four core areas and the skills that they are comprised of include:

• Speech and Communication. Communication is integral, and as children develop, they will learn the importance of their speech and communication skills. This includes learning their primary language, using language to categorise the world around them, turn-taking in conversations and understanding conversational cues. Learning language and linguistic development can be incredibly complicated. It will take time for children to separate one word from another, and to learn the power of their words.
• Physical Ability. From the moment a child is born, they will begin to develop their gross motor skills. Gross motor development is the ability to use and ultimately control the movement of their large muscles, such as their arms, legs and neck. Gross motor skills tend to develop first, and children will then develop their fine motor skills: these are the muscles that are used to make precise and deliberate movements in the hands and fingers.
• Social and Emotional Development. Social and emotional skills don’t trouble children during the newborn and infancy stage, developing and evolving as they grow. These skills are integral in helping children to develop their emerging identities and ensuring they have a strong self-image. A core element of social and emotional development is learning to interact with others, building relationships with both peers and adults, and following and understanding social rules.
• Cognitive Development. The final developmental area is cognitive development, and this focuses on developing the higher-level functions of the brain. Core skills such as remembering, thinking and problem-solving will fall into this category. In this category, children will develop their memory skills, helping them to improve their levels of concentration, and ensure that their thinking skills and capabilities increase as they grow older.

Why is Child Development Important?

The importance of early years child development shouldn’t be underestimated. It is considered absolutely critical because if children are not given a strong foundation before they turn five years old, this can have a negative impact on them for the rest of their lives. This is because the brain is most receptive to new concepts during the first five years: this is when the most significant neurological connections are formed. Not only has this been shown to have a direct correlation to later academic achievement, but it also has an impact on children’s behaviour, social abilities, emotional connections and their ability to form significant relationships.

Children learn from observing the adults around them, so those interacting with young children should encourage and support them to develop in all of the development arenas and lead by example. Children can only learn the names of the different colours if someone has taken the time to tell them what they are in the first place, for example. And there is a direct correlation between the number of words a child can speak and the amount their mother spoke to them during their first year of life. For this reason, interacting with children and promoting and demonstrating positive behaviour is vital for early years development.

If children have unmet developmental needs during the early years stage, then this can lead to mental health issues in later life. One of the key things caregivers can do to avoid this is to ensure that children are provided with adequate mental stimulation, and that access to technology, particularly screen time, is limited. Without regular mental stimulation, children can be prone to behavioural issues, low self-esteem, poor attention and insecurities. What’s more, time spent with technology in lieu of human interaction can also have a negative impact on development.

Newborns

The newborn stage is from birth until approximately three months old. At the newborn stage, some of the best things you can do to promote the development of the child include:

• Providing stimulation for the baby by talking to them, making eye contact whilst interacting with them, showing them toys and reading to them. This will help to develop their senses and grow their mental capacity.
• Give your baby a gentle massage, and place them on their tummy regularly. Both of these actions will help to strengthen their muscles, particularly in their neck and back. Let them be free to kick their arms and legs and enjoy the sensation of this gross motor movement.
• Respond to your baby as soon as they cry, strengthening your bond with them and ensuring that their emotional development and levels of emotional attachment are strong.
• Encourage the baby to form an attachment with you. Some options for this are skin-to-skin contact, making eye contact whilst you talk, bathing them and playing with them. This will ensure the baby feels safe and cared for in your presence.
• If the child makes noise, you should always respond with words or noises. This teaches the fundamentals of reciprocal communication. Ensure the baby can see your mouth moving as you talk so that they might mimic your actions by moving their own mouth. Experimenting with singing and whispering may also influence their responses
• Babies most value consistency, so set a routine for the newborn and try to stick to it where you can.

Infancy

The infancy stage is from 3 months until 12 months old. At the infancy stage, some of the best things you can do to promote the development of the child include:

• Give infants time outside of their cot or bouncer to focus on their physical development. This includes helping them to sit up, bouncing them on your knee, or placing their toys slightly out of reach so that they have to use their physical skills to work out how to reach them.
• Invest in toys that make different sounds to help your child develop their listening skills. Infants should react in different ways to different sounds: the most important sound of all is the sound of your voice. Infants will listen to and follow the rhythm of their language. They will recognise when you say their names and begin to understand simple words and sentences. Narrating your day is a great way to surround your infant with language: ‘mama is choosing a dress’ or ‘yum yum there is food on the spoon’ are great examples.
• Modelling behaviour remains important at this stage, and you should model the behaviours that you want your child to learn. They may clap when you clap for example or express a desire to turn the pages of a book once they have seen you doing it. Infants learn by copying behaviours.
• Provide plenty of opportunities for your child to play: play is one of the best ways in which children learn and develop. You should offer a mixture of play opportunities, including opportunities to play independently as well as to play both with you and with their peers. This will help them to use learning to explore and experiment, and to build relationships. Peek-a-boo is a great game, as are stacking rings and exploring building blocks, which are ideal for encouraging infants to develop their hand-eye coordination.
• As part of the process of building bonds with your infant, you should reward and reassure your baby as much as possible. Praise them with words and cuddles when they play or exhibit good developmental behaviours. Reassure them when they are introduced to strangers and new people, ensuring that they are comfortable with others because they feel safe in your presence.
• Finally, encourage your infant to spend time working on tasks that they might find difficult. This will help them to build their concentration – this will help them in the future.

Toddler

The toddler stage is from 1-3 years old. At the toddler stage, some of the best things you can do to promote the development of the child include:

• Ensure that you maintain the same focus on sticking to routines as you did during the infant years. Routines make children feel safe and secure because they always know what is going to happen next.
• Read to your child every night. Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, and this is something that should be developed from a very early age. Reading also enhances creativity, develops imagination, and improves cognitive development.
• Toddlers are famous for their strong emotions and their ‘toddler tantrums’. It is important to respond to this with calm and understanding. You are modelling the behaviour you want your child to replicate, so if you lose control, they will think that it’s OK for them to lose control. Explain why their negative behaviours are unacceptable and praise any future good behaviours.
• Give them opportunities to be independent. Toddlers like to do things for themselves, even if this takes a long time. Encourage them to dress themselves, choose their own clothes, and set up their own games and play opportunities. Join in if they ask you to but let them play independently when they are happy to do so too.

Preschool

The preschool stage is from 3-4 years old. At the preschool stage, some of the best things you can do to promote the development of the child include:

• Allowing your children to express their feelings, even when they don’t seem necessary. Allow children to cry or be scared, and support and comfort them when they need you to.
• Preschool children often need support in practising and demonstrating social skills. This is something you can do at home so that they feel more confident in going out and making new friends. Encourage this with regular play dates or group outings.
• Continue to read to your child every day, and encourage them to re-tell their favourite stories to you as well.
• Encouraging mark-making with paper and pens or crayons. Mark-making is a key step in the development of writing.
• Boost their self-confidence by asking them to help with simple chores around the house. This could be tidying away their toys or pairing socks but should be age appropriate and achievable.
• Ensure your child is exposed to the wider world so they learn more about the world around them. Walks to the park, library or local fire station can all be beneficial.

School-Age

The school-age stage is from 4-5 years old. At the school-age stage, some of the best things you can do to promote the development of the child include:

• Ensure they have access to learning materials such as paper and pencils, but don’t put pressure on them to write or draw until they want to and are ready to.
• Encourage your child to find physical activities they enjoy. Swimming, football, dancing, and trips to the park are all good examples.
• Help your child to feel relaxed and positive about starting school.
• Play rhyming games that will help your child to understand how language works. Other fun language games include playing ‘i spy’ or the ‘animal game’: your child may enjoy them so much they won’t even realise they’re learning.
• Learning through play will remain important, so your child should be given plenty of opportunities to play when they aren’t in school.
• If your child begins to exhibit negative behaviours at home, then you should remember that children behave differently at school or in playgroup than they do at home. It could be that your child uses the home as an outlet for their negative behaviours. Conversely, they may not feel comfortable enough at school to show the developmental milestones that they have achieved at home.

Tips on Encouraging Child Development

Research by the NSPCC has found that the British public do not have a strong understanding of the importance of child development and how this can be nurtured. Encouraging early years child development is essential, but the good news is that it is relatively easy for parents, caregivers, and early years educational professionals to ensure that the developmental needs of their wards are met. You should ensure that you:

• Create strong bonds with the child
• Provide good nutrition, enough sleep, and stick to regular routines
• The child is comfortable at home in a strong and nurturing environment

The brain is developing in all areas during the early development stages of a child’s life, so a child’s experiences impact how the brain grows. For this reason, parents and early years educators should engage with young people as much as possible, giving them opportunities to learn through play and develop their social and cognitive skills as regularly as possible.