Children until the age of five years go through immense changes from the time they are born. These changes relate to speech, cognitive, physical, gross & fine motor skills, and much more. Parents are educated nowadays, and they understand how crucial these first five years are in the life of their kids. So, they opt to send their kid to Child Care centers for optimal development. 

There are five stages of child development that parents must be aware of. Read on to find out more about them. 

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development involves higher-level functioning, including remembering, judging, and knowing surroundings. The cognitive phase involves solving the problems, varying according to kids' ages from 1 to 5 years. The first phase starts during the toddler period when a child moves around and touches things to know about his/her surroundings.

Social and Emotional Development 

The social and emotional development of a kid starts at a very early age. Like, an infant between the age of 1 to 3 months will start looking at his parents and other people and tries to smile at them. In a little over four months, the kid will respond to the facial expressions, be aware of the stranger's presence, prefers family people, responds differently to different tones, etc. When the child crosses the age of 1, you may see them learning self-control, waving at people, or engaging in simple games.

Speech and Language Development

The child in their infant and toddler stage learns to know their surroundings. They start becoming aware of things and developing some sort of speech or language to interact with people around them. In many households, kids are seen uttering a few words like papa, dada, mom, mum, etc. Firstly, they respond to words, and they start learning these words. If we tell them the round object they are holding is a ball, so for them, a moon will also be a ball, or any other round thing will be a ball too. The kids slowly and steadily learn to express words, differentiate objects, and develop a proper speech.

Fine Motor Skill Development

Child development includes physical development too. Now, it depends on fine motor and gross motor developments. Fine motor is concerned with muscle and nerve cell growth. A child learns to move his/her hands and fingers. This is the stage where a kid learns how to hold an object or pick it up.

Gross Motor Skill Development

Over time, a child grows gross motor skills to use larger muscles like those in the arms and legs. It will support the standing up movement, walking, and running. Parents need to be vigilant about the child's gross motor development and keep a proper check on muscle development.

If you are looking forward to the optimal development of your child mentally, physically, and emotionally, reach out to St. George Mini School. It's a reputed child care center in the North York region.