Stages of Child Development

If you are a new parent, you sure must be familiar with the astonishing rate at which your baby grows. To be precise, your baby gains an ounce a day during the first year of her life! Oftentimes, we only notice the physical growth of the baby. Although a baby may seem to be exhibiting a very lucrative lifestyle by doing nothing and waking up only to eat, one must understand that the baby keeps on growing at various fronts such as social, emotional and motor. During the first few months itself your baby undergoes several child development stages. So, what are the stages of child development? Here is a detailed account of stages of child development along with its types.

Types and Stages of Child Development

Physical Development
Physical development is the most obvious and noticeable stage of child development. During the initial weeks the baby is barely the size of your forearm. But within a couple of weeks, the baby outgrows her hospital clothes and becomes rounded. Breastfed babies grow faster than formula fed babies and are more chubby. By the end of fourth month, your baby will have doubled her birth weight. The head of the baby grows at a faster rate than the rest of her body. After an age of 1 year the physical development of the child is determined by her nutrition, genes and routine.

Visual Development
Newborn babies have a limited vision and cannot see beyond 12 inches. By the end of first month, their vision improves up to 3 feet. Babies usually begin taking notice of their surroundings by the age of 3 months. They may make an eye contact or respond to one. The babies are able to distinguish between colors by the age of 9 months. Toddlers of age 2 to 3 yrs may become smarter and even distinguish one color from the color. They are also able to associate the name of color to the specific color.

Auditory Development
At the age of three weeks, a child is able to recognize the voices of her parents and those near to her. Between 1 to 3 months, the child begins responding to the various sounds around her. By the age of 4 to 6 months the child becomes accomplished at tracing sounds to their origin. Most of the auditory development is completed in the first year itself.

Olfactory and Sensory Development
Infants have remarkable abilities of identifying smells and touch. They can smell breast milk and react accordingly. Similarly, they can also identify the touch of their mothers from other people.

Motor Development
Newborn babies have underdeveloped motor skills, hence are unable to perform any activity on their own. But, by the age of 3 months, infants show remarkable progress in their motor development. They may flip their sides or lift their chest or may even sleep on their stomachs. They also make funny facial expressions. By the age of 6 months, babies start crawling around. The next stage of motor development is taking baby steps. Most babies can walk with little or no support around their first birthdays.

Intellectual Development
Intellectual development, again occurs in different areas such as language, social, emotional, etc. It is unusual for babies to show any signs of intellectual development until the fourth month. However, this does not mean that the brain of baby is not developing. In fact the child brain development takes place at an astonishing rate in the first year of a baby's life. Language skills begin to develop at 6 to 9 months of age. Emotional or social development does not begin until the infant enters the first year. At this time around, the child begins to develop a personality of her own. She develops likes and dislikes for certain things, people, etc.

All in all, observing the various stages of child development is a rewarding and fulfilling experience for parents. Parental intervention and interaction at this stage ensures healthy physical and mental development of a child.