Child Development

What is development?

The changes your child goes through as they grow is called development. They learn new skills and then combine these skills to develop more complex tasks such as walking, talking and playing.

Developmental milestones are skills such as taking a first step, smiling or waving goodbye or the first time,

Most children reach specific milestones at around similar ages, and this is called ‘normal development’.

The 5 key areas of development:

• gross motor skills, such as crawling, jumping or running
• fine motor skills, such as writing and drawing
• speech and language
• cognitive (thinking and learning), such as counting or identifying shapes and remembering
• social and emotional skills, such as playing with other children

Read more about child development:

• in your Child Health magazines (from birth to 4 years)
• Child development 3 - 4 years 
• Child development 4 - 5 years 
• Raising Children Network has lots more information on child development
• Bright Tomorrows app gives you access to over 1,000 meaningful moments and tips to help build young brains
  
   

Why are the early years so important?

Your child’s early development is vital to their health and wellbeing throughout their whole life.

The quality of nurturing and support you provide in the early years will influence your child’s ability to learn, their behaviour, their ability to control emotions and their risks for disease later in life.

Children experience the greatest rate of development during their early years. The first 5 years of life are a critically important time in brain development. While connections in the brain are made throughout life, the rapid pace at which our brains develop in these first 5 years is never repeated.