Child Development
Simon Watson
From the moment of birth, a child is developing. It is no myth that they develop and learn more in the first 5 years of life than they do at any other point in our lives.
Of course, there are still changes after the age of 5, but the basics should all be in place by the time we start primary school.
Speech should be established, an awareness of social norms and expected behaviours should be in place, and the child will have a good grasp of both gross and fine motor skills.
The child will continue to grow, of course, and develop physically from a child into an adult, and they will continue to learn and fine tune many of their skills ... but by the age of 5, most the foundations will all have been laid and will be well established. It is upon these foundations that new learning and the development of new awareness's and skills will be constructed.
The recognition of this is why there is such a drive to invest in 'early years.' If we can get those right, the child is more likely to develop into a well rounded and 'fully functional' adult.
The subject of how a child moves through these formative years and beyond, the study of child development, is a complex one, as many factors can have an impact on the development of a child. Many theorists have proposed ideas about why children develop the way they do.
Some of the most popular theories are ...
1.Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory.
Bowlby's Attachment Theory.
Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory.
Bandura's Social Learning Theory.
Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory.
These theories make interesting reading, and having a deeper understanding of what 'drives' us can really help to inform our understanding of why a child might be developing the way they are.
For the purposes of our work, though, we just need to understand the basics of which aspects of the child are developing, and the ways in which they develop, rather than why. These are often most easily understood using the S.P.E.C.L model.
This model proposes that there are essentially 5 'strands' of development, and that at certain ages, we should be at certain 'stages' of development in each of these strands. This is also sometimes referred to as an 'Ages and Stages' approach.
Social Development
This is how we come to understand ourselves in relation to others, how we make friends, understand the rules of society and behave towards others.
Physical Development
Physical development is how our bodies grow and develop, and includes things like height, weight, and fine and gross motor control.
Emotional Development
Having feelings – how we come to understand our own and others’ feelings and develop our ability to ‘stand in someone else’s shoes’ and see things from their point of view, referred to as empathy.
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, and problem solving which help children to understand the world around them.
Language Development
This is related to all things speech and language - the production of spoken words by the child, and the correct understanding, by the child, of spoken words and phrases. This is linked to cognitive development.
Measuring Development
Earlier on we mentioned an approach we referred to as 'Ages and Stages.' What this means is that, at any particular age, a child is expected to have reached a certain stage in each of these 5 strands of development. We can 'measure' this progress by checking if the child has reached certain typical and expected 'milestones'.
Social milestones might be social interactions with other people, and learning social norms.
Physical milestones might be meeting height and weight expectations.
Emotional milestones might be developing strong attachments to parents while becoming fearful of strangers and the development of friendships,
Cognitive milestones might be becoming aware of cause and effect, or developing increasingly complex problem solving skills.
Language milestones might be saying their first word, or being able to cope with increasingly complex spoken sentences.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have produced an interactive child development timeline you can access by clicking the image below.
If a child is not meeting their developmental milestones, then this could be an indicator that there may be a developmental delay with the child which could arise from congenital disorders, the environment in which they live or may be the result of a medical issue.
