Early Childhood Development Stages and Beyond
Early Childhood Development Stages and Beyond
Children develop at different rates, so while one child may be walking at nine months, another may not walk until they are two years old. However, no matter the age at which a child finally gets the hang of it, there’s no disputing that children grow very rapidly. Physical and mental changes occur from birth through late childhood and adolescence.
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Early Childhood Development: Stages and Key Milestones
Traditional Typical Developmental Milestones
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DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT
Physical: The child’s ability to perform tasks requiring large- and small-muscle coordination, strength, stamina, flexibility, and sequential motor skills.
- Physical development is comprised of either gross-motor skills or fine-motor skills.
Adaptive Behavior: The child’s competence in activities of daily living
- This includes the child's ability with tasks such as eating, dressing, self-care, functioning independently, and utilizing modern technology.
Social–Emotional: The child’s interpersonal relationship skills, social and emotional understanding, and functional performance in social situations.
- Specifically, this is the manner in which the child relates to friends, relatives, and nonrelated adults.
Cognitive: The skills necessary for successful academic and intellectual functioning.
- At younger ages, this includes skills that are prerequisites to scholastic functioning in academic areas such as reading, writing, arithmetic, computer use, and logic. At the preschool and older levels, the skills are more directly tied to the actual school curriculum.
Communication: The child’s expressive and receptive communication skills, as indicated through both verbal and nonverbal language.
- The use and understanding of spoken, written, and gestural language are part of communication, as is the ability to use communication devices (e.g., phone, computer) effectively. Skills include those that are either receptive communication and those that are expressive communication.
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ASSESSING CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
The most effective evaluation of children’s development begins with an assessment covering a broad age range, updated norms, growth scores to monitor progress over time, and updated items to reflect changes in society, technology, and culture.
Assessing Childhood Development with the (DP™-4) Development Profile 4
- Identifies areas where a child or young person needs extra support reaching any of these developmental milestones
- Assesses those who show signs of developmental delays and provides interventions
- Addresses needs of clinicians and other professionals to best assess children and young people in their care
- Identifies development traits from ages 0-21 years, 11 months
- Measures developmental domains of
- physical
- social-emotional
- adaptive behavior
- cognitive development
- and communication