CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Q:WHY DO SOME BABIES DEVELOP FASTER
THAN OTHERS ?
A:
It’s not always clear why some babies progress
more quickly. The trend may run in the family;
a toddler who is late learning to walk may have a
parent who was also a late walker. The timing is
much less important than many parents think.Q:DOES IT MATTER IF MY CHILD IS LATE IN
REACHING DEVELOPMENT MILESTONES ?
A:
Probably not. The ages given below are only
average, so many babies will be later and many
earlier in reaching certain stages. Also, assessing
your baby’s progress depends not only on what he
is doing, but on how well he is doing it.Q:WHAT IS HAPPENING PHYSIOLOGICALLY
AS MY BABY DEVELOPS ?
A:
Development depends on the maturity of
your baby’s nervous system—his brain and his
nerves. A sheath of myelin around each nerve
makes it conduct impulses faster, but at birth many
nerves don’t yet have myelin, so a newborn’s nervous
system isn’t fully formed. Nerves outside the brain
can take up to two years to develop a complete
myelin sheath, which is one reason why toddlers
lack coordination and why you can’t toilet train
your child until he is around two years old, when
his neural development will enable him to control
bladder and bowels. The nerves within the brain
are not fully myelinated until he reaches adolescence.Q:WHAT IS HAPPENING PHYSIOLOGICALLY
AS MY BABY DEVELOPS ?
A:
Development depends on the maturity of
your baby’s nervous system—his brain and his
nerves. A sheath of myelin around each nerve
makes it conduct impulses faster, but at birth many
nerves don’t yet have myelin, so a newborn’s nervous
system isn’t fully formed. Nerves outside the brain
can take up to two years to develop a complete
myelin sheath, which is one reason why toddlers
lack coordination and why you can’t toilet train
your child until he is around two years old, when
his neural development will enable him to control
bladder and bowels. The nerves within the brain
are not fully myelinated until he reaches adolescence.Q:WHAT IS HAPPENING PHYSIOLOGICALLY
AS MY BABY DEVELOPS ?
A:
Development depends on the maturity of
your baby’s nervous system—his brain and his
nerves. A sheath of myelin around each nerve
makes it conduct impulses faster, but at birth many
nerves don’t yet have myelin, so a newborn’s nervous
system isn’t fully formed. Nerves outside the brain
can take up to two years to develop a complete
myelin sheath, which is one reason why toddlers
lack coordination and why you can’t toilet train
your child until he is around two years old, when
his neural development will enable him to control
bladder and bowels. The nerves within the brain
are not fully myelinated until he reaches adolescence.Q:MY BABY WAS BORN PREMATURELY. WILL
THIS AFFECT HIS DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
Prematurity will not slow down his rate of
development, but you must make allowances
for the fact your baby has started life at a different
point. If, for example, he was born six weeks early,
this means at three months his development may be
more like that of a six-week-old. By the age of two
years, there should be no difference between children
who were born prematurely and those who weren’t.Q:MY BABY WAS BORN PREMATURELY. WILL
THIS AFFECT HIS DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
Prematurity will not slow down his rate of
development, but you must make allowances
for the fact your baby has started life at a different
point. If, for example, he was born six weeks early,
this means at three months his development may be
more like that of a six-week-old. By the age of two
years, there should be no difference between children
who were born prematurely and those who weren’t.BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN YOUR CHILDQ:HOW CAN I BRING OUT THE BEST IN MY
CHILD AS HE DEVELOPS ?
A:
The key is to attend to your child’s emotional
needs as well as his physical ones. All children
thrive best in a secure environment that offers
them plenty of love. There will be testing times,
but try not to lose your patience, criticize unduly,
or be sarcastic. It’s far better to praise him so that
he grows up in an atmosphere where he feels at
ease with himself. Whenever you can, reward your
child with attention, not candy or presents. This is
better than punishing him when he does go wrong.
He will often get things wrong, but he has to know
that it’s all right to learn from his mistakes.Q:HOW CAN I ENCOURAGE MY CHILD’S
DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRESS ?
A:
Spend time doing things with your child
rather than ignoring him to concentrate on
things you want to do. Have conversations with
him all the time about anything, and take his
questions seriously. When he’s about three years
old, he’ll probably ask endless questions, most of
them beginning with “Why?” Always answer as
best you can. Curiosity is the sign of an active
mind, and you may find that soon he asks you
things you need to look up in order to answer.
Find the explanation together in a book or on the
Internet, even when your child can’t yet read. A
love of learning is vital and you’re his first and most
natural teacher. Give him an interest in books and
read to him from early on. If you and your partner
read for pleasure, your child will see the satisfaction
it brings, and he’ll be happy to copy you.Q:ARE SOME PERIODS MORE IMPORTANT
FOR DEVELOPMENT THAN OTHERS ?
A:
Yes. There may not be well-defined periods
with sharp cut-off points, but there are
windows of opportunity or times when your baby
or child is most ready to acquire a certain skill.
For instance, there’s a window of opportunity at
around eight months when a baby is ready to
chew. So, if you continue to feed him only milk
and sloppy mixtures, he’ll take much longer to
learn to deal with chunks of food. However, it is
rather misleading to think of certain critical periods
because all of childhood is critical to your child’s
development. You only pass this way once with
your child, so be sure to make the most of it.
Q:IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO SPEED
UP MY CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
No, and you shouldn’t try. You can’t teach him
to walk sooner than nature intended, or to do
anything else until he is ready. With the use of
flash cards and other fast learning methods, your
child may pick up one or two skills that by
repeating he will learn to do automatically.
You may even be able to teach him to write in
this way. However, until he’s old enough for real
understanding, these are little more than party
tricks. There isn’t a useful way of accelerating his
progress—by putting pressure on a child, you can
do more harm than good and may even discourage
him from learning in the long run.Q:WILL THE SPEED OF HIS DEVELOPMENT
DEPEND ON HIS INTELLIGENCE ?
A:
Partly, but not entirely. The link between
development and intelligence is not a simple
one and it’s made more complicated by being a
sensitive issue among educators. Babies and
children who are intellectually disadvantaged are
often slower in several spheres of development
because some skills demand some degree of
intelligence in their acquisition. But the arrow
doesn’t go both ways—you can’t pinpoint a
superior intellect simply from the age at which a
baby passes certain developmental milestones.
There is a definite link between speech
development and intelligence in the sense that a
low IQ (intelligence quotient) can delay speech
acquisition, but late speech does not necessarily
mean that a child is intellectually backward.Q:WHAT FACTORS MAY AFFECT MY
CHILD’S INTELLIGENCE ?
A:
Intelligence is hard to predict as well as
difficult to define. We can all think of people,
both adults and children, who are academically
able but lack emotional maturity. If you measure
intelligence simply with an IQ test, statistically,
the first-born child is likely to be slightly more
intelligent than his younger siblings. In larger
families, especially those in which there are only
short gaps between successive children, the average
intelligence tends to decrease by a few points
with each child. Children tend to inherit the
intellect of one or both parents, but it’s wrong to
expect a child to be just like you.Q:HOW CAN I MAXIMIZE MY CHILD’S
OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING ?
A:
Let him play—it is vital to his learning. All
toys are educationally useful, but some—such
as play mats and play gyms incorporating an array
of textures, sorting and pairing toys and games,
puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, and books—are more
valuable than others. Babies and young children get
bored easily, so try to vary the selection of playthings
available. As soon as your child is interested, teach
him colors as well as the similarities and differences
between everyday things.Q:WILL PRACTICE HELP MY CHILD
DEVELOP HIS SKILLS ?
A:
Yes. Young children enjoy practicing what they
have just learned and it is useful for them to
do so, since repetition establishes the new skill more
firmly. Let your child scribble and paint as much
as he wants, dress himself, or help you make lunch,
but never force your child to practice.
Q:I WORK FULL TIME, SO HOW CAN
I HELP MY CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
Establish a daily routine with your child’s
caregiver. The environment she provides has to
be acceptable to you, but not identical to that which
you would provide. Variety of experience enriches a
child’s emotional and social development. When
you’re not working, spend time with your child. As
a working parent your contribution to your child’s
development will be slightly different from that of a
parent who is at home full time, but if you get the
balance right, your contribution can be as valuable.Q:COULD CONFLICT AT HOME SLOW MY
CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
Yes. Any threat to a child’s sense of security
will affect him. Emotional stability is vital to
development in all areas, so if you and your partner
disagree, it is extremely important that you make
the effort to shield your child from the conflict.Q:COULD POOR LIVING CONDITIONS
AFFECT MY CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT ?
A:
They may. Children from less affluent or more
crowded homes tend to do less well in terms
of development. It’s not the money that counts but
the food, housing, heating, playthings, and time
that it buys. If you are struggling to provide for
your family, you may be short of time and energy
to give to your children. Many parents manage to
overcome this with dedication and ingenuity. KEY DEVELOPMENT CHECKS
---------------------------------------------
These checks assess how your child
is growing and developing, and screen
for a variety of medical conditions,
including heart disease, congenital
hip dysplasia, and strabismus, so that
they can be treated at an early stage
before symptoms affect your child’s
progress. Use these checkups to ask
your doctor or pediatrician about any
concerns you may have.
What checkups will my child have ?
Your child will be examined soon after birth
and then at regular intervals throughout
childhood. He may be asked to do particular
tasks or to talk about something as well as
having a medical examination.
Does missing a checkup matter if I think my
child is generally developing well ?
Yes. There are conditions, such as heart disease,
hip dysplasia, and undescended testicles, which
are almost impossible for a parent to pick up at
a time when treatment would help most.
What if my child is unwell or won’t
cooperate on the day ?
It doesn’t matter if your child has a minor
illness, such as a cold. However, reschedule the
checkup if he has a feverish illness, or has an
infection (such as rubella) that could affect
others at the doctor’s office. Sometimes babies
and toddlers are uncooperative because they are
hungry or tired. Feed your baby before the
checkup, but don’t worry if he’s a little grumpy.
Your doctor may be able to do some of the
checks and leave the rest for another day.
How accurate are screening examinations ?
You can’t rely 100 percent on any screening
procedure, but having them done maximizes
the chances of any medical condition being
picked up at the earliest possible stage.
However, a doctor can miss a problem such as
congenital hip dysplasia even if your baby has all
his checkups at the right time. Talk to your
doctor or pediatrician about any concerns that
arise between checkups.
