Children undergo fast growth and development, especially during their first five years.  As parents, you are responsible for providing support and guidance to your children's progress.  You can assist them effectively if you understand their needs at every stage of their development.

Before we dive into the areas of development, let us start with the basics first.

What is Child Development?

Child Development pertains to the changes that a child undergoes from the time of his/her birth to the start of his/her adulthood.   As children grow, they become capable of doing more complex things and acting independently.

Child Development encompasses five areas of development:

1.     Cognitive Development

Babies like to observe their surroundings, explore and play with objects, and imitate gestures and expressions.  Their curiosity, observation, and exploratory skills are examples of their cognitive development.

Cognitive development refers to the child's ability to explore, learn, and solve problems.  The children increase their ability to process their thoughts, retain information, and make decisions over time.  Brain development is associated with cognitive development.

Through cognitive development, the child gains an understanding of how the world around him/her works. 

2.     Social Interaction and Emotional Development

It involves development in the areas of social interaction, self-regulation, and emotional awareness. 

Social interaction refers to the child's ability to interact with others and develop a relationship with his/her peers and adults. Children learn to converse, play, share, and cooperate.  Eventually, they form friendships with their peers and relationships with their families.

Self-regulation is the child's ability to express his/her feelings, thoughts, and behavior in a socially-acceptable manner.  When a child learns to self-regulate, he can calm himself whenever he/she feels big emotions such as anger and excitement.   The ability to try after failure is also a skill under self-regulation.

Emotional awareness is the ability to recognize his/her emotions and actions and how it can affect other people around him/her.  Through observation and example, children learn different emotions: happy, sad, angry, excited, and more.  They learn to associate facial expressions, words, and body language to gauge their and other people's emotions.

3. Speech and Language Development

It refers to the overall development of your child's ability to use and understand the language. Language development has two areas:  Receptive Language Development and Expressive Language Development.

Receptive Language Development refers to the child's ability to understand and comprehend the language.  It includes understanding the spoken words, gestures, and written words.  The development begins at the womb as the baby hears the sounds of his/her environment.  He/she familiarizes himself/herself to the sound of your voice and begins to understand the words you say.

On the other hand, Expressive Language Development refers to the child's ability to use words to express his/her thoughts and emotions.  Even as babies, children express their needs through sounds.  Eventually, they begin to coo to show happiness and then use single words to communicate.  Toddlers will have an exploding vocabulary and speak in simple sentences.

4.     Fine Motor Skills Development

Fine motor skills involve activities that use small muscle groups such as the hands and fingers.  Developing your child's hand and finger muscles' strength and dexterity is very important to do day-to-day tasks.

Fine motor skills are needed to feed oneself, write, color, cut, dress up, and other daily activities.

5.     Gross motor skills development

Gross motor skills involve activities that use the large muscles in the arms, torso, and legs.  Babies start to advance their gross motor skills as they learn to sit, begin to crawl, stand unassisted, and make their first steps.

Other gross motor skills include climbing, hopping, skipping, and running.

What is Healthy Child Development?

Every child's progress is different.  Some may reach some milestones ahead of their peers, while others may be behind. Children grow and develop according to his/her pace, depending on his/her genetics and environment.

Genes influence the child's physical appearance, behavioral patterns, and intelligence, but it does not necessarily define or predict the child's future and development.

On the other hand, the environment plays an essential role in a child's development. As parents, you can assure your child's healthy development by providing his/her a safe and loving environment, access to good education and health care, and quality time. These are critical, especially during early childhood, in which rapid growth and development happen.

Part of the support is monitoring if their child is achieving his/her developmental milestones. 

What are Developmental Milestones?

Developmental milestones are skills that a child attains at a specific time frame or age.  These milestones are sequential, meaning that the child needs to meet some milestones before developing more complex skills.  For instance, a child needs to sit up independently before he/she can start eating solid foods.

You can use it as a guide for having a general idea of your child's expected skills.  While developmental milestones are not exact for all children, you can use them as a basis of comparison if your child is developing within the expected time frame.

For example, children should be able to say their first words between his/her tenth to the fifteenth month.  If your child is still not saying a word within the timeframe, there is no need to worry.  However, it may be a concern if your child has not met this milestone in his/her sixteenth month. 

What should you do if you suspect that your child has a development delay?

If your child is not meeting the developmental milestones, it may indicate a possible developmental delay.  If you have notice delays or have concerns about your child's development, talk with your pediatrician.  Your doctor will perform development screening during the checkup.  The development screening includes a set of questions and observations to get your child's ability to perform different skills.

Depending on the assessment, your doctor may advise certain medications or therapy as needed.  Remember that early intervention is the key to address and help your child. So if you have any concerns, don't delay and seek your doctor.

Watch out for our next articles because we will dive deeper into the specific development milestones expected for every age group over the following weeks.

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