Child development refers to physical, intellectual, biological, and emotional changes from birth to adulthood. A child goes through different stages of growth during this time period. 

 

These stages are the milestones of child development. The skills or things a child can do at a certain age like the first smile and first wave are known as developmental milestones.

 

A milestone is a significant event in a child`s life. Children reach their milestones by playing, speaking, acting, and moving. We can see children reach their milestones on a daily basis.

There are four main types of developmental milestones. These are:

  • Physical Development

It is the steady increase in a child`s height, weight, and muscles during the first six years of development. The children grow about 3 inches and gain 4 to 5 pounds weight each year from two to six years. 

 

Their fine motor and gross motor skills developed during this time period. They learn from kicking a ball to holding a ball and from crawling to standing and running during these years. 

At the age of 1 child start to stand up by holding furniture and also stand without help for a second or two then sit down. And at the age of two, they stand alone, run, walk, and tried to hold heavy things.  

 

Physical development in children contributes to cognitive development in them.

  • Cognitive Development

Children`s intellectual abilities like how they think, explore, and figure out things around them refer to their cognitive development. Children mostly at the age of three start questioning things they found in their surroundings. They frequently used “Why” in their sentences. They are more curious about the world and ask questions again and again. 

They learn new words and speak them frequently. They try to solve problems on their own. Preschoolers’ interest in learning the alphabet and new words are examples of cognitive development.

  • Social-emotional Development

Children learn to understand, express, and manage their thoughts and emotions in the early years and learn how to develop relationships and practice social skills. 

Children during the preschool years,  learn to share toys and materials, play with and talk with peers, and realize their feelings as well as the feelings of others. They also start following classroom and home routines unaided. Children learn social skills from observing others’ interactions and through conversations with adults and peers. 

As a preschool teacher one can play a significant role in encouraging children’s social-emotional skills if he/she engages them early on in meaningful experiences with peers and other adults in the classroom and program.

  • Language and Communication Development

Language development starts when a child first produces a sound. Sounds and gestures lead to words and sentences. Language and communication development in children can be supported by talking a lot with them. Give them responses to their every sound and gesture and teach them how to communicate. Storytelling is the best choice for language and communication development.

The most intensive period for acquiring speech and language skills is the first 3 years of life as the brain is developing and maturing during these years. in the early years of a child`s life, you can teach them any language that you want. 

These are the developmental milestones that you can see in them on daily basis and also help them out to enhance their skills.