So you are a parent! With parenthood comes so much excitement, but also so much responsibility. You are responsible for the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of this child for the next eighteen years.

But how much do you know about your child’s development? Do you know how much your child is going to change in just the first three years? In this article I will be discussing the different types of development, as well as the stages of development.

Healthy Development

The first few years of a child’s life are important not just for their health, but also for their development. According to the CDC “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.” (1)

What are Developmental Milestones?

According to MedlinePlus, “Developmental milestones are behaviors or physical skills seen in infants and children as they grow and develop.” (2) There are three types of developmental milestones: physical, cognitive, and social/emotional. It is important to understand that your child isn’t just making physical milestones, their brain are also making connections very quickly.

Physical milestones “relate to changes, growth and skill development of the body, including development of muscles and senses.” (3) Some examples would be:

• Rolling over
• Crawling
• Walking

It is important to keep in mind that every child is different so they may not follow the expected milestones at or by a specific age. They do experience these milestones around the same age. There are a lot of factors that go into when a child meets milestones, including a child’s characteristics, home and family life, culture, and resources. (3)

Cognitive skills are what contribute to your child’s ability to learn, understand and problem solve. Some examples of cognitive developmental milestones (from birth to age 2) are:

• Begins to sort shapes and colors
• Can name items in a picture
• May use one hand more than the other

Social/emotional milestones are a bit different. According to Help Me Grow, social and emotional milestones are “the child’s experience, expression and management of their emotions, and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others.” (4) For a newborn social and emotional milestones would consist of:

• Shows feelings by crying
• Uses their body and facial expressions to communicate to you how they are feeling
• They calm down or stop crying in response to your touch

What are the Stages of Development?

There are four main stages of development and they are categorized by age. There is development from age 0-2, 3-6, 6-12, and 13-18. (5) Each stage has a whole bunch of changes that comes with it, physical, cognitive and social/emotional stages, as stated earlier. Each stage is going to present new parenting challenges, and it is important to adjust your parenting to the stages. This will help you avoid some, but not all fits and child-parent power struggles. I will be discussing more of that in my next blog post!

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