Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
There is Value in Understanding Your Child's Milestones of Development
This quote from Confucius is an accurate description of some mothers who look forward to watching and helping their children grow and develop but who are not aware of what to look for and how to understand it.
Learning about the biological and psychological changes that occur during the early years of life helps us know what to look for as our children become more and more sophisticated. Watching for the changes that should occur at specific times can give us confidence that development is proceeding normally or warn us when it is not. And, understanding the underlying processes that support the child's behaviour helps us select the toys, experiences, activities, and foods that will encourage and enhance each child's development. A milestone is a reference point that helps us understand where we are and how far we have travelled, and that gives us confidence that we are on the right path. Milestones are particularly relevant in the early years of life because the human genes and nutrition build a predictably timed skeleton, muscles, and other organs that set tight limits on what babies can do, and the nervous systems undergoes major "upgrades" that cause particularly salient changes in behavior at around 2 months, 6 months, and 12 months. These physical changes create dramatic differences in mental, motor, and emotional abilities and thus have a strong influence on observable behaviours. Very unusual environments and experiences can affect these underlying changes, but most babies follow a predictable path.
Older children have less precise milestones of psychological development and behaviour because neural development is continuous, and slight differences in the child's experience can cause big differences in how the child behaves. After the 6th birthday, specific milestones are no longer relevant because we are each on a unique path that may or may not pass the same reference point. Significant functional changes in the brain occur during puberty and at the onset of adolescence, but the timing and extent of these changes are quite variable and behavioural changes can take many different forms. A child’s behaviour can be described on many dimensions, but parents, researchers and paediatricians have found it useful to divide development into three general categories: • Mental/Language Development refers to information processing abilities such as attention, memory, categorisation and the use of language to communicate and to understand the world • Physical/Motor/Sensory Development includes the muscle and nervous system changes that allow the child to manipulate body parts, interact with objects, engage in forms of locomotion and monitor sounds, visual information and other aspects of the world. • Social/Emotional Development involves the personal skills that allow the child to interact with others, and to experience and display emotions
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The achievement of milestones is a source of pride and joy for moms. With your help, these moments become even more memorable.
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Printed: April 2025