Clinics in Mother and Child Health

Significance of Growth and Development in Children

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington State, Washington, United States of America
^*Correspondence: Olivia Denning, Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington State, Washington, United States of America, Email:

Received: 04-Mar-2022, Manuscript No. CMCH-22-16402; Editor assigned: 07-Mar-2022, Pre QC No. CMCH-22-16402 (PQ) ; Reviewed: 25-Mar-2022, QC No. CMCH-22-16402; Revised: 01-Apr-2022, Manuscript No. CMCH-22-16402 (R); Published: 08-Apr-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2090-7214.22.19.408

Description

The growth and development of a child includes the biological, psychological, and emotional changes that occur in people from birth to the completion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into three life stages, including early childhood, middle childhood, and late childhood (pre-adolescence). Early childhood usually ranges from infancy to 6 years of age. Development is important during this time, as many milestones in life occur, including the first word, learn to crawl, learn to walk.

There is speculation that middle age, or between the ages of 6 and 13, are the most important years in a child's life. Adolescence is a stage of life that usually begins around the age of 15 and continues to legal adulthood. In the process of development, individuals move from dependency to increased autonomy. This is an ongoing process, with predictable sequences, but each child has their own trajectory.

Not at the same speed, each stage is influenced by previous developmental experience. Genetics and prenatal development usually form part of the study of child development, as genetic factors and events in prenatal life can strongly influence developmental changes. Related terms include developmental psychology, which refers to lifelong development, and pediatrics, a field of medicine related to the children care.

Developmental changes can occur as a result of a genetically controlled process known as maturity, or as a result of environmental factors and learning, but most commonly with interactions between the two. It can also be the result of human nature and human ability to learn from the environment.

There are different definitions of time periods in child development, as each period represents a continuum with individual differences regarding starting and ending. Examples of age-related developmental periods and defined intervals include new-born (ages 0-4 weeks); infant (ages 4 weeks-1 year); toddler (ages 12 months-36 months); preschooler (ages 3-5 years); schoolaged child (ages 6-13 years); adolescent (ages 14-19). Promoting child development through parenting, among other things, promotes good child development. Parents play a major role in the activity, socialization and development of their children. Having multiple parents can add stability to a child's life, thereby promoting healthy development. Another factor that influences a child's development is the quality of their care. Child care programs can help children develop their learning and social skills.

Optimal development of a child is considered essential to society and it is important to understand the child's social, cognitive, emotional and educational development.

Milestones

Milestones are changes in certain physical and mental abilities (such as walking and language comprehension) that indicate the end of one developmental phase and the beginning of another. For stage theory, milestones indicate stage transitions. Studies on the achievement of many developmental tasks have identified typical chronological ages associated with developmental milestones.

However, even among children with developmental trajectories within typical limits, there are significant differences in achieving milestones. Some milestones are more volatile than others. For example, receptive language indicators do not make a big difference to children with typical hearing, but expressive language milestones can be very different.

A common concern in child development is developmental delay. This includes delays in age-specific ability to reach important developmental milestones. Prevention of developmental delay and early intervention are important issues in the study of child development. Developmental delay should be diagnosed based on the characteristic variability of milestones, not on the average age of arrival. An example of a milestone is eye-hand coordination.

This includes improving the child's ability to manipulate objects in a coordinated way. Between the ages of 4 and 15, especially between the ages of 4 and 7, there is a phenomenal growth orexponential increase in child development. In addition, the return on investment in education is highest in the early stages (1-3 years old) and peaks in grades and adolescence.