understanding children and young peoples development

A traditional approach to child development study has been to emphasise “Normative Measure”. This is concerned with studying milestones or stages in a child’s development and show what most children can do at a particular age. In reality there is a wide range of normal development and this will be influenced by genetic, social, and cultural factors, so it is important to be aware that normative measures can only indicate general trends in children s development.
Physical development
By 6 months a child will:
 Turn their head toward sounds and movement
 Watch an adult's face when feeding
 Smile at familiar faces and voices
 Reach up to hold feet when lying on their backs
 Look and reach for objects
 Hold and shake a rattle
 put everything in their mouths Between 6 months and 1 year:

 Move from sitting with support to sitting alone
 Roll over from their tummy to their back
 Begin to creep, crawl or shuffle on their bottom
 Pull on or push against adult hands or furniture to reach a standing position
 Raises arms to be lifted
 Turn and look up when they hear their name
 Pat and poke objects when playing
 Pass objects from hand to hand
 Look for things that have been hidden or dropped
 Reaches hand towards source of food

Between one and two years:

 Begin to walk
 Sits alone indefinitely
 feed themselves
 Push and pull toys while walking
 Wave goodbye
 Point or make noises to indicate wants
 Enjoy a picture book

 Shake head for 'No'
 Uses thumb and first two fingers to grip
 Bangs objects together
 Crawl upstairs
 stoops to pick things up from the floor
 Begins to show preference for one hand
 Builds tower of few bricks
 Holds crayon in palm and makes marks on paper

Between two and three years:

 Kneels to play
 Throws
 Kicks ball
 Builds larger brick tower
 Pour liquids
 Uses pencil to make marks and circular scribbles