All of these theorists' ideas will influence and inspire the coming articles in this series.

The documents in
this series will concern child development, both from theoretical perspectives, and also from applied
perspectives, in the form of parenting skills coverage. Eight documents cover four stages of child
development, defined for the purpose of this document series to be:

Infancy (covering birth to age two)

Early Childhood (covering ages two to seven)

Middle Childhood (covering ages seven to eleven)

Adolescence (covering ages eleven to twenty-two)

This breakdown of ages provides rough correspondence with the stage theories of Piaget, Erikson, and
Bronfenbrenner too. Within each stage, a 'theory' document will describe how development typically
proceeds through the major developmental channels, including physical, mental, emotional and social,
and sexual developments. A second 'applied' document will address appropriate parenting skills in light
of what is known about children's development within each stage.

It's important to remember that while these documents will make general statements about when
developments occur in a child's life, each child will nevertheless develop at his or her own speed, and
that even within a given child, certain channels may progress faster than others. For example, a twelve-
year-old may have the physical growth and change of an adolescent but mentally still be in the concrete
operational stage. This is normal because often one aspect of a child's being will mature faster than
another. Most of the time, given the right nurturing and stimuli, everything will catch up in the end.
These ages are just an average and should be looked at as a general guide rather than a rule.

When babies are in infancy, they are changing from being totally dependent on caregivers to learning to
walk, to talk, to play alongside others, and are realizing they are their individual selves. When children
enter early childhood, they continue to improve their large and small motor skills as they run and move
more smoothly. They also grow mentally and socially as they enter school and other places where they
interact with children. During middle childhood, children continue to grow and improve physically, while
also growing mentally as they attend school. They maintain friendships in large same-sex groups and
begin forming ideas about gender roles and jobs. During adolescence, people go through puberty as
their bodies mature and become capable to reproduce. Teens attempt to assert their individual identity
while still needing rules and limits to continue to help them make good life decisions. During later
adolescence, young adults begin the tasks of finding a life calling or job and of finding or creating their
own next-generation family.
Even more milestones and more in-depth information will be explained in future articles. Hopefully, they
will give you the tools that as a caregiver you need to give your children the best possible basis to grow
and to succeed.

Pre school

Developmental Milestones

Skills such as naming colors, showing affection, and hopping on one foot are called developmental
milestones. Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age. Children reach
milestones in how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move (like crawling, walking, or jumping).

As children grow into early childhood, their world will begin to open up. They will become more
independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. They will want to
explore and ask about the things around them even more. Their interactions with family and those
around them will help to shape their personality and their own ways of thinking and moving. During this
stage, children should be able to ride a tricycle, use safety scissors, notice a difference between girls and
boys, help to dress and undress themselves, play with other children, recall part of a story, and sing a
song.

4.4Healthy Development

The early years of a child’s life are very important for his or her health and development. Healthy
development means that children of all abilities, including those with special health care needs, are able
to grow up where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Having a safe and loving home
and spending time with family―playing, singing, reading, and talking―are very important. Proper
nutrition, exercise, and sleep also can make a big difference.

Effective Parenting Practices

Parenting takes many different forms. However, some positive parenting practices work well across
diverse families and in diverse settings when providing the care that children need to be happy and
healthy, and to grow and develop well. A recent report looked at the evidence in scientific publications
for what works, and found these key ways that parents can support their child’s healthy development:
Responding to children in a predictable way

Showing warmth and sensitivity

Having routines and household rules

Sharing books and talking with children

Supporting health and safety

Using appropriate discipline without harshness

Parents who use these practices can help their child stay healthy, be safe, and be successful in many
areas—emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and social. Read more about the report here.

Positive Parenting Tips

Get parenting, health, and safety tips for children from birth through 17 years of age

Developmental Milestones

Skills such as taking a first step, smiling for the first time, and waving “bye-bye” are called
developmental milestones. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, behave, and move
(for example, crawling and walking).

Children develop at their own pace, so it’s impossible to tell exactly when a child will learn a given skill.
However, the developmental milestones give a general idea of the changes to expect as a child gets
older.

As a parent, you know your child best. If your child is not meeting the milestones for his or her age, or if
you think there could be a problem with your child’s development, talk with your child’s doctor and
share your concerns. Don’t wait.

Milestones children should reach from birth through 5 years of age

Learn more about milestones and parenting tips from the National Institutes of Health:
Normal growth and developmentexternal icon

Preschoolersexternal icon

School age childrenexternal icon

Adolescentsexternal icon

Developmental Monitoring and Screening

physician and child

Parents, grandparents, early childhood providers, and other caregivers can participate in developmental
monitoring, which observes how your child grows and changes over time and whether your child meets
the typical developmental milestones in playing, learning, speaking, behaving, and moving.

Developmental screening takes a closer look at how your child is developing. A missed milestone could
be a sign of a problem, so when you take your child to a well visit, the doctor, nurse, or another
specialist might give your child a brief test, or you will complete a questionnaire about your child.

If the screening tool identifies an area of concern, a formal developmental evaluation may be needed,
where a trained specialist takes an in-depth look at a child’s development.

If a child has a developmental delay, it is important to get help as soon as possible. When a
developmental delay is not found early, children must wait to get the help they need to do well in social
and educational settings.

This work is situated in a relational developmental systems framework that looks at the “mutually
influential relations between individuals and contexts” (Lerner & Callina, 2013, p. 373). This framework
makes it clear how children’s development and learning are shaped by interactions among the
environmental factors, relationships, and learning opportunities they experience, both in and out of
school, along with physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional processes that influence one
another—both biologically and functionally—as they enable or undermine learning (Fischer & Bidell,
2006; Rose, Rouhani, and Fischer, 2013). Although our society and our schools often compartmentalize
these developmental processes and treat them as distinct from one another—and treat the child as
distinct from the many contexts she experiences—the sciences of learning and development
demonstate how tightly interrelated they are and how they jointly produce the outcomes for which
educators are responsible.

Key insights from the science of learning and development are that the brain and the development of
intelligences and capacities are malleable, and the “development of the brain is an experience-
dependent process” (Cantor et al., 2018, p. 5), which activates neural pathways that permit new kinds of
thinking and performance. As a function of experiences, the brain and human capacities grow over the
course of the entire developmental continuum and across the developmental spectrum (physical,
cognitive, affective) in interactive ways. What happens in one domain influences what happens in
others. For example, emotions can trigger or block learning. Emotions and social contexts shape neural
connections which contribute to attention, concentration, and memory, to knowledge transfer and
application. Understanding how developmental processes unfold over time and interact in different
contexts can contribute to more supportive designs for learning environments.

Furthermore, general trends in development are modified by interactions between unique aspects of
the child and his/her family, community, and classroom contexts. As a result, children have individual
needs and trajectories that require differentiated instruction and supports to enable optimal growth in
competence, confidence, and motivation.

A central implication for educators is that this integrated and dynamic developmental system is
optimally supported when all aspects of the educational environment support all of the dimensions of
children’s development. This calls for a deeply integrated approach to practice that supports the whole
child in schools and classrooms that function coherently and consistently to build strong relationships
and learning communities; support social, emotional, and cognitive development; and provide a system
of supports as needed for healthy development, productive relationships, and academic progress. This
holistic approach must necessarily connect with family and community contexts: developing strong,
respectful partnerships to understand and build on children’s experiences and, as needed, to strengthen
any aspects of the developmental system where there are challenges to children’s health and well-
being.

In what follows, we describe the implications for practice of these interrelated systems that address
major developmental needs: the need for strong, supportive relationships that enable students to take
advantage of productive learning opportunities in cognitive, social, and emotional domains, plus
additional supports (physical, social, emotional, and/or academic) needed to address individual
circumstances that need attention at a moment in time to maintain a positive developmental trajectory.
We stress that all of these are interactive and interrelated and that these aspects of education must be
designed to work together in a tightly integrated fashion. Figure 1 illustrates the four areas that
structure the remainder of this review:

Picture

Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community. These include
positive sustained relationships that foster attachment and emotional connections; physical, emotional,
and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and purpose;

Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed learning.
These curriculum, teaching, and assessment strategies feature well-scaffolded instruction and ongoing
formative assessment that support conceptual understanding, take students’ prior knowledge and
experiences into account, and provide the right amount of challenge and support on relevant and
engaging learning tasks;

Social and Emotional Learning that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable academic progress,
efficacy, and productive behavior. These include self-regulation, executive function, intrapersonal
awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth mindset, and a sense of agency that supports resilience and
productive action;

System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and address learning
barriers. These include a multi-tiered system of academic, health, and social supports that provide
personalized resources within and beyond the classrom to address and prevent developmental detours,
including conditions of trauma and adversity.

Within this framework, we address the following questions: Given what we know about human
development and learning, and what is known from multiple domains of educational research, what
school and classroom practices can create environments that support students in all of the areas of their
development? In what ways can educators help students acquire transferable knowledge, skills, habits,
and mindsets that support ongoing learning? And what kinds of changes are needed within our
education system as a whole to reflect what we know about development, since our current system was
not designed with this knowledge in mind?

We focus primarily on K–12 schools, although the principles we articulate are generally applicable to
early childhood as well. As we answer these questions, we emphasize the whole child within a whole
school and a whole community context. From an ecological systems framework, the school serves as an
immediate context shaping children’s learning and development through instruction, relationships with
teachers and peers, and the school culture. Connections between home and school are critical to
provide aligned supports for children.

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