5 Developmental Stages of a Child

This piece is going to elaborate more on the developmental stages of a child and frankly speaking, the development that takes place in a human body right from birth is phenomenal.

The best stage has got to be childhood or infancy, if you’re a grown-up young adult or an adolescent, you must be relating to it on an extreme level and chuckling right now, living the nostalgia and the reminisces from your childhood.

To understand the developmental stages of a child, the first and foremost thing that one needs to understand is the meaning of development. If you Google the definition, it comes out to be the process of being developed or the process of evolution or growth and it is true indeed.

The process or cycle in which an individual is growing right from birth is development.

Development Can Be Further Classified Into:

• Physical development
• Cognitive development
• Psychosocial development

Physical development: In physical development, a human body starts developing physically, the physical features tend to start growing or broadening.

Cognitive development: Cognitive development refers to the thinking process of a human being, revolving around an individual who thinks, explores and figures out the solution to his/her existing problems.

Psychosocial development: It is a newly introduced word which deals with how the psychological development of a human being meets social or societal needs.

5 Developmental Stages of a Child:

1) Cognitive development: As explained earlier, the child can solve his/her problems and have the power to respond in each situation. It may vary from child to child and from age to age.

2) Emotional and Social Development: Social development refers to how the child is interacting with the people of his/her own age around them and how they are interacting and behaving with them and the adults.

3) Language and Speech development: As a child is growing, he/she starts acquiring new words and language adjusting to what they hear daily and language and speech development is the development associated with learning them.

4) Motor skill development: Motor skill development is associated with the functioning of the bone and the muscles present in the body and this may also vary from child to child and age to age and physical fitness may also play a vital role in determining this type of development.

5)   Gross Motor Skill development: These are the big movements, the movements which every parent in this world is proud of. They include sitting, standing and walking for the very first time.

Some Developmental Stages Associated With Ageing in a Child:

1) New-born: It’s the primary stage of a child where the baby comes into the world and embarks on his/her journey called life.

2) Infancy: It’s the early stage of a child, basically the age from birth to 12 months. In this stage, they learn to focus their vision, explore new things and acquire happenings around them.

3) Toddler: It is the stage that comes after infancy, usually from 12 to 36 months. During this stage, the child learns how to speak, behave and move.

4) Child: This is the stage where the child is very active and grasps everything that he/she comes across. The child starts going to school during this stage and hustles to become a better version of themselves.

5) Adolescent: This is the teenage stage of a child where the development takes place physically and the child is usually lethargic and uninterested most of the time, this stage goes on till the last teenage year and then the child begins a new journey as a young adult.

Points You Can Consider to Provide a Healthy Environment to Your Child During the Developmental Process:

1)   Responding and reacting to their activities in a positive way

2)   Being sensitive towards the topic they care about

3)   Having some basic ground rules at home

4)   Suggesting good books and having regular conversations with them

5)   Making sure they are healthy and safe and promoting it

6)   Trying to discipline them without being rude or ruthless

During the developmental stage, the child is going through many hormonal changes and may experience mood swings and parents should treat it with dignity, respect and love instead of scolding them. Scolding and punishing them might harm them and might push them away from their parents.

Written By-Mohammad Arbaz Jalees