Child Development

Theory and Milestones

Importance of Early Years
Conception to age
six is the key to
subsequent
Growth
Development
Productivity
Developmental Needs
Infants need:
Protection from physical danger
Adequate nutrition
Adequate health care
Adults with whom to form an attachment
Adults who understand and respond to their
signals
Things to look at, touch, hear, smell, and taste
Opportunities to explore the world
Appropriate language stimulation

Donohue-Colletta, 1992
 Developmental Needs
Toddlers need all of the above and:
Support in acquiring new motor, language, and
thinking skills
A chance to develop some independence
Help in learning how to control their behavior
Opportunities to begin to learn to care for
themselves
Daily opportunities to play with a variety of
objects
Donohue-Colletta, 1992
Developmental Needs
Preschoolers need all of the above and:
Opportunities to develop and refine fine motor
skills
Encouragement of language through talking,
singing, books
Activities which will develop a positive sense of
mastery
Opportunities to learn cooperation, helping,
sharing
Experimentation with pre-writing and pre-reading
skills
Donohue-Colletta, 1992
 Child Development Principles
Development begins
prenatally and learning is
occurring at birth
Development has several
interrelated dimensions
Children are active
participants in their own
development and learning
The Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development
Development proceeds in
predictable steps and
learning occurs in recognized
sequences, within which
there is a great deal of
individual and social
variability
Development and learning
occur continuously through
interactions with people and
objects in the environment
Rethinking the Brain
Old Thinking New Thinking
How a brain How a brain
develops depends on develops hinges on a
the genes you were complex interplay
born with between the genes
you are born with
and the
experiences you
have
Direct quotes from Shore, 1997 as cited in
the Early Years Study, Final Report, 1999
Rethinking the Brain
Old Thinking New Thinking
The experiences you Early experiences
have before age have a decisive
three have a limited impact on the
impact on future architecture of the
development brain, and on the
nature and extent of
adult capacities

Direct quotes from Shore, 1997 as cited in

the Early Years Study, Final Report, 1999
Rethinking the Brain
Old Thinking New Thinking
A secure Early interactions
relationship with a dont just create the
primary caregiver context, they
creates a favorable directly affect the
context for early way the brain is
development and wired.
learning

Direct quotes from Shore, 1997 as cited in the

Early Years Study, Final Report, 1999
 Rethinking the Brain
Old Thinking New Thinking
Brain development is Brain development is
linear: the brains non-linear: there
capacity to learn and are prime times for
change grows acquiring different
steadily as an infant kinds of knowledge
progresses towards and skills
adulthood

Direct quotes from Shore, 1997 as cited in the

Early Years Study, Final Report, 1999
Rethinking the Brain
Old Thinking New Thinking
A toddlers brain is By the time children
much less active reach age three,
than the brain of a their brains are
college student twice as active as
those of adults.
Activity levels drop
during adolescence.

Direct quotes from Shore, 1997 as cited in the

Early Years Study, Final Report, 1999
 Brain Development Facts
Development taking
place before age one is
more rapid and
extensive than once
thought
Development is much
more vulnerable to
environmental
influences than
suspected

Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1994

Brain Development Facts,
continued
Early environment has
long-lasting influences
on brain development
Environmental
influences are not
limited to number of
brain cells and
connections among
them, also the way
connections are wired

Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1994

The Newborn
Maintain life sustaining functions
Supply oxygen
Root, suck, and swallow (reflexive)
Sneeze, cough, blink (reflexive)
Regulation of body temperature
Elimination of waste
Habituate
Taste
See
Hear
Other reflexes (e.g., Moro, grasp)
 The Kindergartner
Beginning Kindergartners Knowledge
and Skills
Reading proficiency
Print familiarity
Engagement in prosocial behavior
Approaches to learning

U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten
Class of 1998-1999
SO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What concepts and skills enable children
to move from the reflexive stage of
infancy to the stage of a kindergartner?
Principles and Patterns of
Development
highly competent plasticity
socially interactive critical learning
active learners periods
sequence is transitions occur
universal individual
skills become more differences are seen
specialized in children
 Composition

skills

complexity

fluidity/quality
Developmental areas

motor
language
cognition
social
activities of daily living (adaptive)
 Motor Development

Components Tonicity
flexion Stability/mobility
extension Movement qualities
adduction reflexive movements
abduction goal directed
internal rotation movements
external rotation
 Language Development

Components of Early language

language development
syntax perlocutionary
semantics illocutionary
pragmatics locutionary
morphology Refinement of
phonology language
 Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor period of development

Pre-operational period of development

Social Development

Attachment
initial pre-attachment
attachment-in-the-
making
clear-cut attachment
multiple attachments
Peer relationships
Play
 Activities of daily living
(Adaptive skill development)

Eating and drinking

Toileting
Self-help skills