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Alisha McCurry
Mrs. Hefner
Graduation Project
April 7, 2015
Early Childhood Development
Infancy to Childhood
Isnt it amazing that one moment a baby is a tiny, totally dependent being that relies
solely on his/her caregiver? Then in a few short months, the baby is exhibiting less dependence
on his/her caregiver by exploring his/her surroundings, allowing others to hold him/her, being
able to mimic sounds from others. A child goes through many stages throughout his/her life, and
in each stage, he/she learns the information that takes him/her to the next level. Infancy, and
childhood are important stages throughout a child's life. Most of the physical, emotional, and
cognitive growth occurs during infancy to childhood. Determining a childs future lies in the
solid foundation given to him/her during the early years.
Infancy ranges from one month to three years of age. One might ask what is an infant
from birth to one month old referred to as? The term used is newborn. Childhood ranges from
three years old to eight years old. During the first eight years of life, a childs foundation for
learning is built. From birth to eight years old, first words, reading, smiles, steps, and sentences
all take place. These moments are different for each child and each family but it is the
cornerstone of the childs experience and how he/she learns in the future.
During infancy, ages one month to three years of age, quite a bit can happen. The baby
that seemed so dependent on his/her caregiver during infancy can seem so independent by the
time he/she turns three years old. Infants develop within the blink of an eye it seems. Not only do

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they grow physically, but they also are growing emotionally and mentally. During the first few
years of life, an infant will make his/her first sound, share his/her first smile, say his/her first
word, and become much more alert within his/her surroundings. According to the National
Research Council Institute of Medicine, Six-month-old infants can distinguish the full range of
sounds used in the worlds languages (National 127). This means that when a child is six-months
old, he/she begins to start listening more to what is going on around him/her, he/she starts to
remember and hold onto the knowledge of the sounds that he/she hears during this time in his/her
life. According to T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., in Touchpoints The Essential Reference, Your
Childs Emotional and Behavioral Development, at three months, an infant should be making
vowel sounds, at six to eight months, speech rhythms occur, at one year a child will start
speaking gibberish, but a few words will start to become available in their vocabulary, like
mama and dada, at fifteen months, a baby should know close to ten words, not necessarily in
a full sentence, but he/she should know a few simple words. At eighteen months, a child will
begin to learn nouns and verbs along with peoples names that he/she normally associates with .
At two years old, a child puts sentences together, they might not make too much sense, but it is
good that he/she is trying to put sentences together (Brazelton 401-402). Along with an infant
learning sounds, his/her nervous system starts to develop during this time (National 185). When
an infant's nervous system develops, he/she will experience a rush of emotions. A lot of infants
may experience what is called colic, where a baby will cry for what seems like no reason at all,
and nothing seems to help his/her crying, he/she experience colic because of the rush of emotions
that the baby is experiencing while his/her nervous system develops (Belsky 85). When an infant
is one month to six months, he/she is still in his/her own world but becomes more observant of
what goes on around him/her. During the next two and a half years in an infants life, he/she

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develop socially. Most of the time, infants will respond to people he/she is around the most.
Even infants, we now know, are not socially isolated; they participate in social networks that
include most or all of the people who nurture and respond to them (Edwards 3). An infant is
most comfortable around the people he/she is always around, therefore, he/she will respond to
these people most. Infants also respond to his/her caregivers because he/she knows and
remembers that his/her caregivers feed him/her, put him/her to sleep, or clean up after him/her so
infants are most comfortable around his/her caregivers because of the trust that has been built.
Young children use interaction to comprehend peoples identities, predict behavior, and gain a
sense of competence and control in social interaction (Edwards 3). Infants pick up on
interaction and actions between other people which makes him/her more aware of his/her
surroundings. An infant between the ages of one month to three years of age starts to learn
language, develop speech, feel emotions. An infants nervous system continues to develop daily
and his/her ability to develop socially.
A child is between the ages of three and eight years old. During these ages, a child starts
to develop his/her speech and language, and in no time, the child is starting to speak in full
sentences. By the time a child is three years old, full sentences are the norm (National 127).
Children pick up on what is said around them, and store this information for later use. Most
people arent aware that children are able to filter information and make sense of what it means
to them. Sometimes adults are caught off guard when a child comes out with something that was
said by an adult earlier and uses it in the correct context later.
During the first eight years of life, a child is like a huge sponge soaking up all the
information that he/she collects and then trying to replicate it in his/her own life. Children learn
through playing, researching, observing, asking questions, and using basic materials (Lepper).

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Children observe what is going on around them then put that into action by playing, sometimes
even with other children, usually acting out what they have seen happen. For instance, a child
may see his/her mother and father cooking dinner, then a few days later while playing house
with his/her playmates cook dinner because it is a learned behavior that he/she has seen
somebody he/she looks up to, doing the same thing. According to Stephanie Feeney in Who Am I
in The Lives of Children, soft colors in a room will help make it more feasible for a child to learn
things, rather than bright colors, in a room where a child spends most of his/her time learning
new things (Feeney 233). Boys and girls usually learn differently, boys usually learn gross motor
skills faster than girls do and girls usually pick up on fine motor skills faster than boys do.
Developmentalist divide physical skills into two categories. Gross motor skills refer to large
muscle movements, such as running, climbing, and hopping. Fine motor skills involve small,
coordinated movements, such as drawing faces and writing ones name (Belsky 144). Even
though it may seem like boys usually are better at gross motor skills, and girls are better at fine
motor skills, its almost nearly impossible to tell the difference, only sometimes can somebody
see the difference (Belsky 144). The infant who learns more readily to replace crying with
rudimentary attempts at other forms of communication (e.g., pointing and directing her gaze)
spends more time in happier states and is an easier baby for parents to manage during the early
months of life (Crockenberg, 1981) (National 124). According to the National Research Council
Institute of Medicine, One of the most significant insights about educational attainment in
recent years is that educational outcomes in adolescence and even beyond can be traced back to
academic skills at school entry (Chen et al., 1996; al., 1992) (National 125).
While a person is an infant, they are between the ages of one month and three years old.
While they are in the infant stage of life, they are always observing and developing. It is normal

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for an infant to develop a few words, and start putting together tiny sentences by the end of
his/her infancy stage. The childhood stage is between the ages of three years to eight years. Most
of the learned behaviors take place in this stage because they are so aware of everything around
them. During this time in a child's life, they develop very much physically and cognitively.
Children learn mostly through what they see happening around them. Infancy and childhood are
the two most important stages in a persons life because that is where most of the growth occurs.
The graphic below puts a few key events into a way to better understand what part of life
that they take place in for newborns, infants and children.

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Works Cited
Belsky, Janet. Experiencing the Lifespan. New York: Worth Publishers, 2013. Print.

Brazelton, T. Berry. Touchpoints the Essential Reference Your Childs Emotional and
Behavioral Development. Addison-Wesley, 1992. Print.

Edwards, Carolyn Pope. Social and Moral Development in Young Children. New York:

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Teachers College Press, 1986. Print.

Feeney, Stephanie. Who Am I in the Lives of Children? Columbus, Merrill Prentice Hall, 2001.

Lepper, Jeanne W. "Educational Philosophy." Stanford University : Bing Nursery School: Web. 4
Apr. 2015.

National Research Council Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhoods. Washington:

National Academy, 2000. Print.