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What Are the Stages of Child Development?

Byusername

Jan 13, 2021

Have you ever noticed how quickly a child grows? If, for example, you met a young family member who lives out of state and then you did not see them for a few years, it might shock you when you see the same child only three years later. In only a few years, children can grow quite a bit. Indeed, child development is ever changing. Because of this, researchers use several ways to understand the different stages young humans go through. Here are some to consider.

Three Stages

When it comes to understanding and documenting young people in the United States, the government classifies children into three age groups:

  • Early Childhood
  • Middle Childhood
  • Adolescence

Early childhood usually refers to children under the age of eight, middle childhood refers to children from six to 12 and adolescence refers to young people ages 13 and older. In addition to the U.S. government using these stage categorizations, learning centers like those for early childhood development Desoto TX also use this system of classification.

Age Milestones

Another way to group the stages of childhood development is with categories related to age milestones. For example, you can classify the development of your kids as follows: birth to 18 months, 18 months to two years, three to five years, six to eight years, nine to 11 years, 12 to 14 years and 15 to 17 years. For each of these two-year intervals, researchers have identified developmental standards that most people should expect to see.

Skill Development

As part of the age milestone classification system, child development specialists also describe childhood growth based on cognitive development, physical development, language development and social-emotional development. As a young person grows, the functions of these four areas drastically change.

In a world that is constantly changing, you can expect the development of children to move in a similar fashion. From the time a child is born to the day it reaches adulthood, he or she will go through many stages. The classifications here are just some of the ways to describe them.