Why understanding child development milestones is important

Child development is as interesting as it is complex because the seeds of both future struggles and successes are sown at this stage of human development.

According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), early childhood development (ECD) is one of the most cost-effective investments a country can make to build human capital and promote sustainable development. Investing in the early years yields some of the highest rates of return to families, societies and countries.

Science has shown that early childhood interventions are important because they mitigate the impact of adverse early experiences. If not addressed, such experiences can lead to poor health, low educational attainment, economic dependency, increased violence and crime, and heightened risk of substance abuse, all of which add to costs of and burden to society. This is why understanding child development milestones is critical.

Children develop skills in five main areas of development: cognitive development, this is the child’s ability to learn and solve problems. Social and emotional development, this is the child’s ability to interact with others, including helping themselves and self-control.

Other areas include, speech and language development, this is the child’s ability to both understand and use language. Fine motor skill development, this is the child’s ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw and gross motor skill development, this is the child’s ability to use large muscles. For example, a six-month-old baby learns how to sit up with some support, a 12-month-old baby learns to pull up to a stand holding onto furniture, and a five-year-old learns to skip.

Each area of development has milestones a child needs to within certain age range. “It is important to understand these child development milestones because you should start developing the child pretty much from birth. You already have the brain capacity you would need as an adult by age five. It is not going to increase that much in your lifetime after that” said Omy Itsueli, founder Rainbow Manor crèche, based in Lagos.

“You find that more and more people are focusing on early years because that is the stage at which the brain is brand new and ready to soak up information. There are some milestones to look out for in order evaluate how your child is doing” Itsueli added.

A developmental milestone is a skill that a child acquires within a specific time frame. For instance, one developmental milestone is learning to walk. Most children learn this skill or developmental milestone between the ages of nine and 15 months.

Milestones develop in a sequential fashion. This means that a child will need to develop some skills before he or she can develop new skills. For example, children must first learn to crawl and to pull up to a standing position before they are able to walk. Each milestone that a child acquires builds on the last milestone developed.

A few child development milestones to pay attention to are as follows. When babies are in infancy, they are changing from being totally dependent on caregivers to learning to walk, to talk, to play alongside others, and are realising they are their individual selves.

When children enter early childhood, they continue to improve their large and small motor skills as they run and move more smoothly. They also grow mentally and socially as they enter school and other places where they interact with children.

During middle childhood, children continue to grow and improve physically, while also growing mentally as they attend school. They maintain friendships in large same-sex groups and begin forming ideas about gender roles and jobs.

During adolescence, people go through puberty as their bodies mature and become capable to reproduce. Teens attempt to assert their individual identity while still needing rules and limits to continue to help them make good life decisions.

During later adolescence, young adults begin the tasks of finding a life calling or job and of finding or creating their own next-generation family.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU