Child Development Stages and Types

Stage Names and Age Ranges

• Newborns are 0 to 3 months old.
• Infancy lasts from 3 months to 1 year.
• Toddlerhood is from ages 1 - 3 years.
• Preschool age is from 3 to 5 years old.
• School age is from 5 to 10 years old.

Types of Growth & Development

• Physical Development is growth and ability in body size.
• Growing taller, gaining weight, building muscles, and coordinating eyes and hands are all physical developments.
• Emotional Development is the maturing of the mind.
• Thinking, reasoning, using language, and forming ideas are all emotional developments.

Emotional and Social Development

• Emotional and social development focuses on feelings and relationships with others.
• Strong feelings, such as love, fear, and anger, are part of emotional development.
• Developing self-esteem and sharing are elements of social development.
• Social development involves coping with changes, communicating with others, and playing with others.
• Learning right and wrong is part of developing social skills.

Newborn Development (Birth to Three Months)

• Newborns have short necks, sloping shoulders, protruding abdomens, and narrow chests.
• Newborns have weak legs and arms, and are very helpless.
• Newborns respond to touch and warmth.
• Newborns may kick or cry at air changes, or when aware of rough textures or moisture.
• Newborns see patterns in close-up objects.
• The best distance newborns can see at is about eight inches.
• Newborns communicate by crying and cooing, and begin to smile.

Reflexes of Newborns

• The Rooting Reflex occurs when a newborn's cheek is stroked, prompting them to turn their head and start sucking.
• The Grasping Reflex happens when the inside of a baby's palm is touched, causing them to grasp tightly.
• The Startle Reflex happens when a baby is put down, held away, or hears a loud noise
• The Startle Reflex causes the baby to throw out their arms, draw back their head, and stretch out their legs.
• The Babinski Reflex causes babies to extend their toes when the soles of their feet are stroked.

Developmental Factors

• Heredity, environmental factors, and cultural aspects are developmental factors.
• Physical disabilities and hospitalization can also be developmental factors.

Vision Development: Birth to Four Months

• Babies see in black and white and shades of gray at birth.
• Newborns tend to only focus eight to twelve inches away.
• Babies begin focusing by looking at faces and then gradually moving to bright objects brought near.
• Newborns can momentarily hold their gaze on an object for a few seconds.
• Around 8-12 weeks, they start following people or moving objects with their eyes.
• Infants initially move their whole head to move their eyes.
• At 2-4 months, they start moving their eyes independently with less head movement.
• Infants develop tracking and eye teaming skills as they follow moving objects.
• Young infants have not yet developed enough neuromuscular control to prevent their eyes from crossing.
• By 4 or 5 months, babies generally coordinate their eye movements as a team.
• The crossed-eyes should stop by 4 - 5 months; consult an optometrist if eyes cross after this time to rule out any issues.
• By four months, babies start to reach for objects, signaling the start of eye-hand coordination.
• By four months, babies' visual systems have developed.

Vision Development: Four to Six Months

• Eye-body coordination develops as babies learn to push themselves up, roll over, sit, and scoot.
• Four- to six-month-old babies become more skillful with eye-hand coordination.
• Babies learn to direct a bottle into their mouth or grasp at objects freely.
• Hands become the most important tool, reaching for anything they see.
• Babies begin to remember things they see.
• By the fifth month, binocularity develops as the brain fuses images from both eyes into one and strong depth perception forms.
• Spatial and dimensional awareness improves as babies learn to reach for objects of interest.
• Babies refine their eye teaming and focusing skills.
• Babies learn to look quickly and accurately between near and far distances.
• Normal visual acuity (20/20) usually develops by six months.

Vision Development: Six to Eight Months

• Most babies start crawling, further developing eye-body coordination.
• Babies learn to judge distances and set visual goals.
• A baby sees something and moves to get it.
• Visual perception skills rapidly develop - babies experience their bodies in relation to objects and notice differences in size, shape, and position.

Vision Development: Eight to Twelve Months

• Babies can judge distances well.
• Eye/hand/body coordination allows babies to grasp and throw objects accurately.
• Perception skills, like visual memory, help babies to make sense of their exciting new world.
• Integration of vision and fine motor skills allows babies to manipulate smaller objects.
• Many begin feeding themselves with finger foods at this age.
• Children learn to use their eyes to direct and coordinate body movements once they start walking.

Vision in Toddlers and Preschoolers

• Children's vision continues to develop throughout their preschool years.
• Continued development of eye/hand/body coordination, eye teaming, and depth perception is important
• Stacking blocks, rolling a ball, coloring, drawing, cutting, and assembling toys improve important skills.
• Reading to young children develops strong visualization skills as they "picture" the story.
• Children should have their first eye exam by age three, sooner if there are vision problems in the family.
• An optometrist can check if vision is developing normally and catch any problems early.
• Vision should be checked again when the child enters school.

Vision in School-Aged Children

• A complete eye examination before starting school is important.
• The optometrist determines if a child's vision system is prepared for reading, writing, and close work.
• Schoolwork can stress a child's visual system and cause new problems.
• Toddlers use their eyes mostly to look at a distance, while school requires children's eyes to focus closely for hours every day.
• This can cause vision problems.
• Children might not realize their eyes are under strain and rarely report the issues.
• Children often believe everyone sees the way they do.
• School vision screenings are valuable, but children can pass the tests and still have undetected vision problems affecting schoolwork.
• Eye charts only check sharpness, failing to assess all required visual skills.
• Eye charts don't assess tracking, focus or if both eyes are working together comfortably.
• School screenings can’t provide a complete eye examination by a family optometrist.

Case History for Children

• A case history and chief complaint is taken from parents.
• The chief complaint is written as the parents record (the parents own words).
• The birth condition should be considered.
• Key birth history elements include delivery problems, prematurity (birth age), and birth weight.

Taking Case History

• APGAR is a quick test performed on a baby at 1 and 5 minutes after birth and should be recorded.
• A 1 minute score determines how well the baby tolerated the birthing process.
• A 5 minute score tells the doctor how well the baby is doing outside the mother's womb.
• You should also record breathing effort, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin color.
• Each category is scored with 0, 1, or 2, depending on the observed condition.

Normal Values

• Normal birth weight is between 2.7 and 4.6 kg.
• Weight should double by 5 months.
• Weight should triple by 1 year.
• Weight should quadruple by 30 months.
• Normal length should be between 35.6 and 50.8 cm.
• Length should increase by 20% at 5 months.
• Length should increase by 50% at 1 year.