Columnist Nozaina:  The first five years of a child’s life are called formative years that lay a foundation for their health, learning, and behavior. Early childhood experiences shape the brain and capacity to learn and develop social skills. Physical, emotional, and social development affect their social skills, school readiness, and overall development.

Every child grows at their own pace! 

The first step that develops across the five stages of development is communication, which will progress into conversation skills. Children learn to effectively communicate with their teacher, family, and peers. Through the five stages of development, the child’s body develops fine and gross motor skills. Gross motor skills involve the use of large muscles, such as independent crawling, walking, sitting, and running. Fine motor skills involve the use of small muscles, such as grasping, drawing, or object manipulation. Cognitive development involves all processes of how children understand, think, and observe the world around them. Social and emotional development helps the children to understand, what they are feeling, who they are, and how to interact with others. The emotional and social health of preschooler helps them to form positive relationships and also helps them to express and manage their emotions in different scenarios.

There are five stages of development. Each includes communication, physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development.  

1.Newborn (0-3 Months)

Communication: Primarily, newborns communicate through crying for several needs. They become calm when spoken to. Babies begin to make vowel sounds at around two months.

Physical: Newborns follow objects with their eyes and turn toward sounds. They begin to grasp objects and lift their heads for longer periods.

Social-emotional:  Newborns try to look at people and begin to start smiling at people.

Cognitive: Newborns recognize familiar objects and people at a distance. They may get bored with repeated activities. It is necessary to help them build stronger muscles by placing babies on the stomach for a short time to strengthen neck and back muscles. Encourage parent attachment and bonding through body contact, talking, and eye contact.

1. Infants (3-12 Months)

Communication: From 3-6 months, infants start babbling. After these developmental milestones, they start laughing and imitating sounds around 6-9 months. Around 9-12 months, they communicate with gestures, say a few simple words, and copy various sounds.

Physical: Around 3-6 months, infants begin to control their head movements and bring their hands together. They can sit without support and bounce in a standing position by the age of 6-9 months. From 9-10 months, infants start crawling, standing, and picking up objects without help.

Social-Emotional: From 3-6 months, infants start responding to different tones of voice, as well as facial expressions. Months 6-9 are when infants understand numerous emotions of others and respond to various gestures such as clapping hands. Infants also begin to feel comfortable around familiar faces and restless around strangers. From 10-12 months, they begin to establish relationships and connections with people around them, as well as express themselves and their emotions.

Cognitive: Infants start noticing music, responding to signs of affection and love, and identifying familiar faces around 3-6 months. Receptive language development takes place around 6-9 months when infants start processing and understanding the words that they hear. Months 9-12 are when they start to imitate gestures and understand the words.

1. Toddlers (1-3 Years)

Communication: During toddler years, they greatly expand their language skills. Children say their first word and build a vocabulary of up to 5-10 different words from the first year. By 1.5 years, they start using up to 50 words and start naming pictures, and objects. Children start saying their first full sentence of three words between two and three years. They can discuss what they are doing, and their communication skills improve continuously.

Physical: Children begin to use their right or left hand, and can mark on the paper at the start of one year. They can sit up easily, crawl easily, walk a few steps, and stand on their own. By two years old, children walk confidently and feed themselves. Around three years, children can use the toilet alone, typically undress and dress themselves.

Social-Emotional: Toddlers build secure attachments, engage in play, learn communication, express emotions, acquire coping skills, understand social norms, and form a foundation for lifelong well-being. At one year, children develop object permanence. From 2 to 3 years, emotions are clear, and children do, what they want. 

Cognitive: By one year, children’s cognitive development allows them to recognize familiar objects in books and name certain body parts. From 2 to 3 years, they can count numbers, name colors, and recognize letters. 

1. Preschooler (3-4 Years)

Communication: At the beginning of 3rd year, children begin to speak more clearly, though make grammatical tense mistakes. They start asking questions such as Why? How? What?

Physical: At this age, children’s fine motor skills and gross motor skills are refined. They confidently use tricycles, catch balls, and go up and down play structures. Children use scissors, draw shapes, write letters, and start using spoons and forks.

Social-Emotional: Children begin to feel comfortable around others in life. They understand their feelings and understand when they have done something wrong.

Cognitive: Children’s memory gets better. They can tell stories, sing songs, and know their full name, and gender. They start reading books.

5. School Age (4-5 Years)

Communication: Children begin to use more complex sentences. They develop more advanced language skills as progress through this age period.

Physical: At this age, children are independent across all of their fine and gross motor movements. They can eat, dress, and wash independently.

Social-Emotional: At this age, children become socially aware. They enjoy making new friends, taking turns, having fewer arguments, showing anger through words or actions, and can be bossy.

Cognitive: Children have a stronger sense of what is wrong and how to lie. They can understand contextual words, and comparisons and grasp numbers, size, color, and time with increased understanding. 

Parents play an important role in the development of their children. The right guidance of parents builds their character.