Child Development Stages Chart

Each child's progress is individual to them and that different children develop at different rates. A child does not suddenly move from one phase to another, and they do not make progress in all areas at the same time.

However, there are some important 'steps' for each child to take along their own developmental pathway. Below are typical child development stages of children from birth to 6 years.

Remember that the child development stages chart below are averages and some children may reach various child development stages earlier or later than others. Please use this information to help you understand what to expect from your child and any questions about your child's development should be discussed with your child's doctor.

Child Development Stages - Birth to 6 Years

Birth - 12 Months

During this period, young children's physical development is very rapid and they gain increasing control of their muscles. They also develop skills in moving their hands, feet, limbs and head, quickly becoming mobile and able to handle and manipulate objects. They are learning from the moment of birth. Even before their first words they find out a lot about language by hearing people talking, and are especially interested when it involves themselves and their daily lives. Sensitive caregiving, which responds to children's growing understanding and emotional needs, helps to build secure attachments to special people such as parents, family members or carers. Regular, though flexible, routines help young children to gain a sense of order in the world and to anticipate events. A wide variety of experience, which involves all the senses, encourages learning and an interest in the environment.

1 - 2 Years

As children become mobile new opportunities for exploration and exercise open up. A safe and interesting environment, with age-appropriate resources, helps children to develop curiosity, coordination and physical abilities. This is a time when children can start to learn the beginnings of self-control and how to relate to other people. In this period children can be encouraged to develop their social and mental skills by people to whom they have a positive attachment. Building on their communication skills, children now begin to develop a sense of self and are more able to express their needs and feelings. Alongside non-verbal communication children learn a few simple words for everyday things and people. With encouragement and plenty of interaction with carers, children's communication skills grow and their vocabulary expands very rapidly during this period.

2 - 3 Years

Children in this phase are usually full of energy and need careful support to use it well. Growing physical strengths and skills mean that children need active times for exercise, and quiet times for calmer activities. Playing with other children is an important new area for learning. This helps children to better understand other people's thoughts and feelings, and to learn how to cooperate with others. Exploration and simple self-help builds a sense of self-confidence. Children are also learning about boundaries and how to handle frustration. Play with toys that come apart and fit together encourages problem solving and simple planning. Pretend play helps children to learn about a range of possibilities. Adults are an important source of security and comfort.

3 - 4 Years

Children's fine motor skills continue to develop and they enjoy making marks, using a variety of materials, looking at picture books and listening to stories, important steps in literacy. Self-help and independence soon emerge if adults support and encourage children in areas such as eating, dressing and toileting. Praise for new achievements helps to build their self-esteem. In this phase, children's language is developing rapidly and many are beginning to put sentences together. Joining in conversations with children is an important way for children to learn new things and to begin to think about past, present and future. Developing physical skills mean that children can now usually walk, climb and run, and join in active play with other children. This is an important time for learning about dangers and safe limits.

4 - 5 Years

An increased interest in joint play such as make-believe, construction and games helps children to learn the important social skills of sharing and cooperating. Children also learn more about helping adults in everyday activities and finding a balance between independence and complying with the wishes of others. Children still need the comfort and security of special people. Close, warm relationships with carers form the basis for much learning, such as encouraging children to make healthy choices in food and exercise. At this stage children are becoming more aware of their place in a community. Literacy and numeracy can develop rapidly with the support of a wide range of interesting materials and activities. Children's language is now much more complex, as many become adept at using longer sentences. Conversations with adults become a more important source of information, guidance and reassurance.

5 - 6 Years

During this period children are now building a stronger sense of their own identity and their place in a wider world. Children are learning to recognise the importance of social rules and customs, to show understanding and tolerance of others, and to learn how to be more controlled in their own behaviour. Learning and playing in small groups helps to foster the development of social skills. Children now become better able to plan and undertake more challenging activities with a wider range of materials for making and doing. In this phase children learn effectively in shared activities with more able peers and adults. Literacy and problem solving, reasoning and numeracy skills continue to develop. Children's developing understanding of cause and effect is encouraged by the introduction of a wider variety of equipment, media and technologies.

Fun and Games

Games are a fun way to play with the children on a level where you too can be an active participant. These games don’t require any props so can be played on short notice.

Hide and seek

Depending on the age group will depend on what you are counting too. Generally it is between ten and twenty. During this time, the other children hide. When the child has finished counting they call out, “Ready or not! Here I come!” and goes off in search of the other children. The first person found is the next person to count in the next round.

This is a fun game that can be played with three year olds and up, generally when playing with three year olds, I have hidden with them {in a nannying context rather than long day care setting}. To make it more interesting for the older children, by playing in the dark and using torches is a great modification! I have played this with children from around five, however again this was in a nannying context and was with the youngest child throughout.

On the River, On the Bank

Using chalk/rope/string/tape/etc to mark a line down the carpet and have the children stand on one side of the line. If they are standing closest to you {in front of the line} that is the bank, if they are standing over the line {further away from you} that is the river. You then call out, ‘On the river’ or ‘On the bank’ and the children jump back and forth. This can be played with children four years and up.

Port and Starboard

One player is the captain, the other children follow the captain’s orders {the children can get “out” if they miss an order but this is optional}.
The Orders are -

:  To the ship: run to the captain’s right
:  To the island: run to the captain’s left
:  Hit the deck: lay down on your stomach (or if players don’t want to get dirty, they can crouch down)
:  Attention on deck: salute and yell, “Aye, aye captain!” – must stay in that position until captain yells, “At ease!” (ie even if the captain gives a different order such as “to the ship” the crew must continue to remain at attention until told “at ease”)
:  Scrub the deck: everyone on their knees scrubbing
:  Captain’s Quarters: everyone ran towards the captain.
:  Sick turtle: Everyone falls onto their backs and waves hands and feet in the air.
:  Bow: Run to the front of the boat
:  Stern: Run to the back
:  Port: Run to the left side of the boat
:  Starboard: Run to the right side of the boat.

When playing this game, depending on the ages of your children will significantly depend on the number of orders you have. Also, keep in mind if this game is played over a period of time, the orders will become easier to remember. {There are a lot more orders but are mainly for large groups}. The game can be played inside the house or out in the backyard.

If playing with children of four years, keep instructions simple using four key orders and slowly building up depending on age group and setting.

Statues/Freeze

The children dance to the music whilst it is playing and when the music stops, they freeze. Children from four years or even younger can enjoy this game, but the concept of stopping and “freezing” may still need a little more practice.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Re-enacting this favourite will be a great way to spend the afternoon. Use the story and walk around with your children through the grass and the mud {pretend} and make it a fun experience. You could also make props using large cardboard and keep so that it can be used repeatedly. Once finished the children could then draw what they saw on their walk.

Something fun for children of all ages, but around three would be a good age to introduce and could easily be down with a mixed age group.

Educational Psychology

Educational psychology

is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified in the US and Canada as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. This distinction is however not made in the UK, where the generic term for practitioners is "educational psychologist."

Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks.

General Didactics

Concept: Education 

Education is the progressive, systematic and natural development of all cognitive powers and abilities, where conducts are modified to give way to enhanced ones, resulting in intellectual and personal maturity of the individual. It is a lifelong process through which values, skills and knowledge are acquired from every day experience. Etymologically, educare means "to guide" and educcere means to "bring out to light". Education is thus the process of guiding the student to the improvement of his or her being. 

Concept: Didactics 

The word is derived from the greek didaskein (to teach) and tekne (art). The concept is both a science (as it involves research and experimentation) and an art (as it makes use of creativity to adapt to specific circumstances). Didactics is a discipline oriented mainly towards practicality, and it studies the teaching-learning process and it approaches it systematically.
For its study, it can be divided as follows:

    General Didactics 

    Involving the basic norms of group-organization and personal orientation.

    Special Didactics 

    Studies didactic norms

    Differential Didactics 

    Studies and determines didactic norms in reference to context and particular                       circumstances

Thanks to advances in educational research, there have been found various forms today to transmit knowledge. The study of didactics has given way to the development of strategies, a series of methods, techniques and procedures affecting the teaching process. These strategies should be used by teachers with the aim of targeting students in the appropriate context (whether is individually or as part of a group) and in accord with their maturity level. In this way, the objective of transferring knowledge that can result in the development of superior skills by the students can be more readily achieved.

An example of how Didactics is an active participant and shaping force in the teaching process is the modification of everyday concepts deeply involved in the process of education.

This knol is still under construction and we welcome collaborators.

Top 5 Color Mixing Tips

Color Mixing Tip No 1: Add Dark to Light
It takes only a little of a dark color to change a light color, but it takes considerably more of a light color to change a dark one. So, for example, always add blue to white to darken it, rather than trying to lighten the blue by adding white.

Color Mixing Tip No 2: Add Opaque to Transparent
The same applies when mixing an opaque color and a transparent one. Add a little of the opaque color to the transparent one, rather than the other way round. The opaque color has a far greater strength or influence than a transparent color.

Color Mixing Tip No 3: Stick to Single Pigments
For the brightest, most intense results, check that the two colors you are mixing are each made from one pigment only, so you’re mixing only two pigments. Artist’s quality paints normally list the pigment(s) in a color on the tube's label.

Color Mixing Tip No 4: Mixing the Perfect Browns and Greys
Mix ‘ideal’ browns and grays that harmonize with a painting by creating them from complementary colors (red/green; yellow/purple; blue/orange) in the palette you’ve used in that painting, rather than colors you haven’t used. Varying the proportions of each color will create quite a range.

Color Mixing Tip No 5: Don’t Overmix
If, when you mix two colors together on a palette, you don’t mix and mix until they’re totally, utterly, definitely combined, but stop a little bit beforehand, you get a far more interesting result when you put the mixed color down on paper or canvas. The result is a color that’s intriguing, varies slightly across the area you’ve applied it, not flat and consistent.

Color Theory Lesson: Using Black and White

Color Theory Lesson: Using Black and White

While it may seem logical that to lighten a color you add white to it and that to darken it you add black, this is an oversimplification. White reduces brightness so although it makes a color lighter, it removes its vibrancy. Black doesn't so much add darkness as create murkiness (though there are instances in which black is uniquely useful, such as the range of greens it can produce when mixed with yellow!).

Why Can't I Add White to Lighten a Color?

Adding white to a color produces a tint of that color, makes a transparent color (such as ultramarine) opaque, and cools the color. This is most noticeable with red, which changes from a warm red into a cool pink when you use titanium white. You can add white to lighten a color, but because this removes the vibrancy of a color you'll end up with a washed-out picture if you use white to lighten all you colors. Rather develop your color mixing skills to produce hues of varying intensity. For example, to lighten a red, add some yellow instead than white (or try zinc white). Watercolor paints are, of course, transparent, so to lighten you simply add more water to paint to let the white of the paper shine through.

Why Can't I Add Black to Darken a Color?

Black tends to dirty colors rather than simply darken them. Of the most common blacks, Mars black is the blackest and is very opaque, ivory black has a brown undertone, and lamp black a blue undertone.

Color Theory Lesson: Complementary Colors

Color Theory Lesson: Complementary Colors

The complementary color of a primary color (red, blue, or yellow) is the color you get by mixing the other two primary colors. So the complementary color of red is green, of blue is orange, and of yellow is purple.

What About Secondary Colors?

The complementary of a secondary color is the primary color that wasn't used to make it. So the complementary color of green is red, of orange is blue, and of purple is yellow.

Why are Complementary Colors Important in Color Theory?

When placed next to each other, complementary colors make each other appear brighter, more intense. The shadow of an object will also contain its complementary color, for example the shadow of a green apple will contain some red.

How am I Going to Remember This?

The color triangle as (shown above) makes it easy to remember: the three primary colors are in the corners. The color you get by mixing two primaries is between them (red and yellow make orange; red and blue make purple; yellow and blue make green). The complementary color of a primary color is the color opposite it (green is the complementary of red, orange for blue, and purple for yellow).

Print out Color Mixing Triangle Worksheet and paint it in. It may seem like a simple exercise, hardly worth spending time on, but it's the first step in a fundamental painting skill -- successful color mixing. Put it up on the wall where you can see it at a glance until you've internalized which colors are primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, and complementaries.

What Happens if You Mix Complementary Colors?

If you mix complementary colors with one another, you get a tertiary color, particularly browns (rather than grays).