The growth of human beings commence from their birth and ends at their death. Throughout this period, the human body goes through drastic changes. This child development takes place in terms of physical development and mental development. Have you ever thought of how did you learn to crawl or walk? As children, we do not think about these things, but often as adults, these thoughts keep on coming. Thoughts like how did we learned and talk or understand different languages, etc.
How Child Development Takes Place?
The process of child development is not so tough. It is a phenomenon through which children grow from an infant to an adult. From the span of infancy till the age of 17 years is known as the development age for children. During these years, a child develops social growth, physical growth, and cognitive growth.
Child Development Theories
Browsing through history, we get to know a lot about the history of child development theories. There are three famous theories of child development.
- Sigmund Freud – Freud developed a psychosexual theory for the development of children. With the help of this theory, Freud tried to explain that a child goes through the unconscious and natural sex drives, which cause development.
- Erik Erikson – This theory states that social relationships act as a driving force to development. The development occurs at all the psychosocial stages of a child. It is quite different from Sigmund Freud’s theory.
- Lev Vygotsky – According to Lev’s theory, social interactions play a significant role in the development of children. Lev states that parent is the mentors while children are their apprentices.
Stages Of Child Development
There are four basic stages of child development, which include infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and later childhood.
- Infancy
It is the age where development starts in children. Infancy is when babies learn how to walk, talk, etc. The length of the infancy period is two years long, starting from birth. During this period, a helpless baby grows up to a toddler.
- Early Childhood
Early childhood is an important part of children, not only because this is when they start learning alphabets and numbers. During this span, they grow physically and mentally. It lasts until the age of six years. The interesting fact about early childhood development is that the center of gravity of the body shifts from the chest to the belly button.
- Middle Childhood
It is the age when children have developed up to some extent. They now know how to run, eat on their own, understand, learn, give reasons, etc. The period of middle age lasts till the age of 12 for every child. Children now go to school and have started developing certain skills apart from normal development skills.
- Later Childhood
By the time a child reaches later childhood, he or she has developed quite a lot. They have developed physically, socially, mentally, etc. It is the period before a child becomes an adult. It is known as a teenage period.
The child development process may seem to be easy, but when studied theoretically but in reality, it is a great task. In current times parents give special attention to child development.
