Introduction

Children go through the specific course of development as they grow from new born (infants) to
the young adults (adolescent). The early years of childhood are very essential for the child’s
proper health, growth and development (Moore, 2017).  I choosed the topic child development
because the understanding of the needs of the children to devote in very young age is very
important to boost their future wellbeing. And we can learn more about how the child develops,
why they develop and the way they develops as well. The physical, psychological, social,
emotional development of a child has a direct effect on the overall development phase and in the
future as well.

Summary

A proper development of a child involves the biological, psychological, and emotional changes
that occur between the birth period and up to the end of the adolescence period, as the individual
progresses from dependency to the parents to expanding autonomy (Kail, 2011). Here,
development is the word used to describe the physical growth and mental growth, as well as
ability to learn the emotional, behavioral, social, thinking and communication skills by a child
needed in his life. By the first few years of child’s life there occurs a massive change physically,
emotionally, socially and cognitively. The first few years (almost five years) after the child birth
are notably compelling for physical, emotional, social as well as intellectual development. It
directly effects on the overall development and effects the adulthood as well. Proper childhood
care plays the important role in the development of a child physically and mentally. Most of the
children do not develop properly due to the economic status of the family, religion, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, and disabilities. Many children do not get a proper or adequate nutrition,
proper care and other opportunities to learn new things in the environment or in the society (Lye,
et.al., 2017). A child with a proper nutrition, proper love, affection and care, positive
environment and encouragement in learning new things from the environment in the early years
of life helps in the better child development. The development of a child is actually how the child
grows physically, mentally and emotionally and how the child communicates, thinks and
socializes in the society (Ormrod & Jones, 2012). The relationship between the child and the
parents is very important influence on child’s learning and development phase (Sallis, Floyd,
Rodríguez, & Saelens, 2012). Cognitive development in a child is also very important as it is a
manufacture of a thought process which includes remembering the things, ability to solve a
problem and ability to make a decision starting from childhood thorough adolescent to adulthood
(Carson et. al, 2015). There are about four stages cognitive development in child which includes
sensory motor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage
(Trawick-Smith, & Smith, 2014). Sensory motor stage is the time period starting from birth
through 2 years of life and children learn through their senses, starts to talk and handling of the
objects. Preoperational stage is the time period since 2 years of life through 7 years and during
this stage a child develops imaginations and memory. Concrete operational stage is the time
period from 7 years through 11 years and during this stage a child becomes more aware of
external events and develops feelings. Formal operational stage is the period since 11 years old
up to the older life and in this stage a child can solve his problems, can make decisions and plan
for the future as well. Proper cognitive development shows that the brain is functioning properly.
At birth a person’s brain will have almost presence of all neurons that it will ever have. The brain
continuously start to grow for few years after the life has start and up to 2 years of life the brain
grows almost eighty percent as same as an adult brain. Brain develops rapidly in the early years
of life but the child development is seriously affected when the quality of stimulation, nurturance
and support is incomplete or impaired.

The areas of human development are physical development, intellectual development, social
development, emotional development and moral development (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018). In
physical development there is change in shape, size and physical maturity of the body including
the physical coordination and abilities. Intellectual development is the phase of learning, and use
of the language, the ability to solve problem, the ability to reason in short it is a cognitive
development and shows the physical growth of the brain. Social development is the process of
fitting in the environment and society and is the process of gaining the skills and knowledge
which is important to interact in the community within the community members. Emotional
development is the development of feelings and emotional response to the situations, and
understanding one’s feelings and the way of expressing the feelings. Similarly, moral
development is the way of understanding of wrong and right and behavioral change due to
understanding also known as conscience (Turiel, 2015). The domains on the development of
child are language development and literacy development, proper cognition and knowledge
development, approaches towards learning, proper motor development and physical well being
and emotional and social development.

Furthermore, developmental milestones are physical and behavioral signs of infant’s

development. It helps to get information regarding the child’s early development. Walking,
talking, crawling, rolling etc are considered as developmental milestone (Raman et.al. 2016).
Smiling, waving a good bye are the examples of developmental milestones. Thus, all these
development should be met to have a proper child development and have a successful future.

Evaluation

Knowing about the child development is vast in itself. A child’s growth is more than just a
physical growth. A child grows, develop and learn throughout the life. Every child has different
physical and psychological needs depending on their age, personality and stages of development
(Van den Akker, Deković, MAsscher, & Prinzie, 2014). The physical and psychological changes
of the children that undergo from birth through adolescent often leave parents and care givers
wondering how best to engage and help them. Child development may encompass everything
from fine motor skills to language speaking, sensory awareness and abilities to socialize. A
strong child development is highly influenced by the genetic makeup, the environment around
him and the cognitive skills he have. Researches show that the first five years of a child is very
critical for the child’s development and future outcomes. During the developmental phase, as a
child grows he gets mature and go through the different phases where he explore the
environment, learn the reasoning skills, make the decisions, learn verbal skills, socialize with
other peoples and uphold his independence from the family members. A positive environment
with proper affection, love and care, with proper understanding and time stimulates and
encourages the child’s physical, mental, social and intellectual growth. The childhood
development is important physically, mentally, emotionally, cognitively, socially. All these
development of a child has a direct effect on the overall development and in the future as well.

Similarly, cognitive development is also important factor that affect the individual’s life.
Improper cognitive development leads to unmanaged life living and unmanaged well being as
well. Every individual has different cognitive strengths. A good cognitive development includes
cognitive skills which include short term memory, long term memory, attention, logic, reasoning,
visual and auditory processing and speed. Some people may have high cognitive strength where
as some may have low or weak cognitive strength. For example, some people may have higher
intelligence and high memory power whereas some may have weak memory power. Cognitive
strength and cognitive weakness has a huge bump on whether the person is successful or the
struggler. If a child is struggling in reading, learning, giving attention, or has less memory the
child is lacking the cognitive development and needs a cognitive assessment to view the clear
picture about how a child is performing cognitively and identifying the information about the
basic strengths and weakness of a child.

Furthermore, getting a clear picture of developmental milestone, it helps to illustrate a child’s

growth. Developmental milestone is also can be thought as checklist. Milestones can be
described as changes in mental and physical abilities that mark the end of developmental phase
and beginning of another phase (Scharf, Scharf, & Stroustrup, 2016). It represents what a child
can do around a particular age and how a child performs his activities. There also exist
developmental delays when a child does not reach his milestones at the expected times. A
common concern in development of child is developmental delay which involves delay in the
abilities to their specific age for important developmental milestone (Demirci & Kartal, 2016).
About seventeen percent of children are suffering from developmental, language and behavioral
disabilities in United States. By looking at the different developmental milestone, doctors,
teachers and parents are able to understand how a child grows and develop according to the age.
Some child may begin to walk in early nine or ten months where as some child may take about
14 to 16 months or even later to walk. Developmental milestone helps to detect the real fact
about the defect in milestone. There are about four basic types of milestones which includes
physical milestone, cognitive milestone, social and emotional milestone and communication
milestone. In physical milestone a child should start standing up, sitting, walking, crawling,
holding and picking up the things (small objects), grasping spoons etc. In cognitive milestone, a
child should start to learn, think and solve the problems and show facial expressions (Turnbull &
Justice, 2016). In social and emotional milestone a child should start to have emotional feelings
towards the family members, towards precious things and the loved once and have to properly
socialize and talk and play with others. The communication milestone includes both the verbal
(language) and nonverbal communication. One of the examples of communication milestone is a
year old child learning to say his first word and a four years old child learning how to respect the
older ones. According to the age, the communication milestone increase as communication
increases in increase in age. Developmental milestone is very essential to fulfill the tag of proper
growth and development of a child.

Therefore, all the physical, mental, social, emotional and intellectual development should be met
including the developmental milestone to have a perfect result of growth and development of a
child. A positive mind, positive environment and love and support help to develop all these
factors and make a healthy and successful well being in the future.

Conclusion

The chapter of child development is very fruitful as a learning part. It helped me to know why
and how the child develops at the early year of life. Understanding the feelings and the need of
the children in young age is very important to boost up their future wellbeing. Cognitive
development should also be build up as child sexual abuse, violence and trauma may leads to
improper development both mentally and physically. Similarly, developmental milestone should
be met according to the age as it helps to know about the instant child growth and development.
Thus, a positive environment with proper facilities and proper love and care leads positivity on
child development physically, mentally, socially and intellectually and it helps to foster a healthy
and successful future.
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