Child Growth & Development

The stages of child growth and development represent the average child with no physical or mental disabilities.  In reality, each child is an individual, and may go through these stages a little slower or a little faster than average.

INFANT MILESTONES:  Most infants learn to:  lift their heads at 1 month, smile at 2 months, laugh at 4 months, roll over at 5 months, pick up finger foods at 8 months, pull themselves up to stand at 10 months, talk a little at 12 months, and walk at 12 to 15 months.

THE TODDLER STAGE:  Toddlers begin to develop a sense of independence and like to learn about the world around them by using their muscles.  Many toddlers begin speaking in complete sentences and have a vocabulary of about 100 words. 

THE PRESCHOOL STAGE:  Preschoolers are intensely curious about the world.  They ask “why?” frequently.  As preschoolers, boys and girls grow at nearly the same rate.  By age three, most children are toilet trained, although some children catch on earlier and others aren’t ready until age four. 

SCHOOL-AGED KIDS:  Girls begin to grow faster than boys during this period.  During this period, children learn by expanding their creativity at school and at home.  They also learn to make more decisions for themselves and to take some risks.  For this reason, this is an important time to enforce rules on children. 

THE ADOLESCENT STAGE:  At puberty, the sex organs develop and both boys and girls grow more body hair.  Girls begin to menstruate. Adolescence is a time for learning from different experiences.  Teenagers try to put together everything they have learned to help them decide how to become an adult.  Moodiness or depressive attitudes among adolescents should not be considered “normal”.  Certain stressors that many adolescents face during their everyday lives can lead to long-term depression and even suicide. 

WHEN YOU WORK WITH KIDS, DON’T:

• Leave children unattended, even if they are sleeping.
• Discipline children by withholding food, by confining them or with physical punishment.
• Forget to watch children carefully at all times.  It only takes a moment of looking away for an accident to happen.

WHEN YOU WORK WITH KIDS, DO:

• Report poor feedings and/or poor weight gain to your supervisor.
• Encourage children to use their minds and their muscles as much as possible!
• Remember that each child develops at a different speed, but all children need support and encouragement no matter what stage they’re in.