The First Stages of Child Development

 

On of the very first stages of child development is the prenatal stage. This is the stage when the baby is still within the mother’s

body. The mother has to do several things to ensure the baby’s health. She should not drink any alcohol. She should take prenatal vitamins. What’s more, she has to sleep enough and eat healthy food in order to ensure that her baby gets all the necessary nutrition and vitamins.

 

The second stage is when the baby is 2 weeks old. This is when babies should get used to a routine of eating and sleeping. They will hardly react to their parents’ voices but will be regular with eating, sleeping and popping.

 

The third stage is at 2 months. The babies begin showing facial expressions. They should also be able to respond to their parents’ voices and turn their head in the right direction. They may even start cooing at their parents.

 

The fourth stage is at 4 months. The baby’s personality begins to uncover. It laughs more and shows signs of being ticklish. It can be a “supported sitter”. With its neck growing stronger the baby begins to raise its head by itself.

 

The fifth stage is at 6 months. The baby laughs at almost everything it sees and becomes really sociable.

 

The sixth stage is at 9 months. They begin to crawl everywhere they can. They even begin to pull up on things. That’s where you have to be extremely careful as their feet are not strong enough to walk.

 

The seventh stage is at the baby’s first birthday. It has to be able to feed itself. Babies usually begin walking during that stage.

 

The eighth stage is at 15 months. The baby has unlimited energy and does not stop walking.

 

The ninth stage is at 18 months. This is the time where a baby begins to understand the meaning of the word “no” and may try to use the word against them.

 

There are 11 more stages throughout a child’s life – at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. The people you may ask for help are your child’s doctor, its teachers, family members, social services and members of your church.

 

What Should We Do During the Stages of Child Development?

Having a first baby is something most parents consider challenging. Parents may have helped for the raising of a sibling or may have taken a short term care of another baby. But having your own baby is nothing like this. It means you have to be 100% responsible for another human being and this is not that easy.

 

Parents have the desire to do all they can in order to provide the best possible way of life for their child throughout the different stages. They believe they can make their baby a well rounded, happy young person. Parents think they are the ones that pave the way for their baby and they tend to do their best.

 

The most important part when raising a child are the natural instincts. They lead us in the best possible way while trying to provide a better way of life for our baby. However, nowadays media messages stress parents and add extra pressure. Driven by the best of intentions parents tend to compartmentalize parts of the child’s life – its nutrition, emotions, spiritual values and others.

 

A comparison between a newly born baby and a little puppy can be made. We want, however, to point out that there are many significant differences. For example, if a family gets a puppy and feeds it well it will grow into a healthy dog. But soon the family may appear not to be ready to raise a puppy and becomes inpatient in toilet training, chewing of shoes and other dog stuff. In this way the puppy grows but can never become the well rounded family dog it could have become if it had taken better care.

 

The same thing can be applied to a baby or a child. A baby’s world is so small when it is little and it is mainly limited to its parents. Just one mistake made by its parents may result in great changes throughout their lives. This is why the holistic approach to different stages of child development is the way to go.

 

The Language throughout the Stages of Child Development

Speech development is something parents observe closely during the first years of their baby’s life. The first three years are said to be the most critical. This is the time when the child observes, listens and learns to recognize the sound of words. Scientists say that at that period children’s brains learn languages easily. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders says that there are several stages and sings in speech development we should look for in our baby’s early life.

 

From birth to five months children begin distinguishing different voices and intonations and also begin responding to different voices. From six to about eleven months it will start communicating through gestures and babbling which will later turn into distinguished speech.

 

From twelve to seventeen months the child will begin to understand the words and respond to them.

 

Between eighteen and twenty three months babies should use several words with mastery. They will definitely love to be read to and will like to learn new words every single moment. At the age of two babies should be able to connect to or more words into a simple sentence.

 

For the next one year, your child’s vocabulary will increase greatly. Children begin to like poems, songs and recognizable vocabulary. They also begin creating longer and more meaningful sentences.

 

At the age of five the child will begin to answer more sophisticated questions. At five it will begin rhyming and enjoying word games.

 

This is a general view of the stages of child development. Speech develops differently among different children. Some develop speech earlier and with clarity, other – later. The main factor is the social factor and the time parents spend talking to their children because when it is little a child memorizes almost everything it hears. There is a lot of interesting things to learn about stages of child development.

I hope you enjoyed this article about Stages of Child Development!

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