In our previous article, we discussed that children go through various changes and these changes unfold in stages over time. No two children develop at the same pace and there are age ranges for all behaviours.
In this week’s article, we will focus on the remainder of the milestones from ages 3 through to 18 years. This incorporates Piaget’s (1967) Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operational Stage, and Formal Operational Stage. During these stages, children develop memory and imagination, become more aware of their external environment and feelings as well as make use of logic to solve problems and plan for the future. They are also able to understand things symbolically as well as the ideas of past and future.
We will begin at looking at the milestones which are associated with the Preoperational Stage of development:
3 – 7 years old:
Physical Milestones:
- Ability to dress and undress themselves.
- Refined co-ordination and ability to learn many new skills.
-Enjoys being active and doing activities like climbing, hopping, and skipping.
Emotional/Social Milestones:
- Develops the capacity to learn and understand the concepts of sharing and taking turns.
- Plays co-operatively with peers. In the process of developing some independence and self-reliance.
- Learning to distinguish between reality and fantasy/imagination.
- Learning to make connections and distinctions between feelings, thoughts, and actions.
Intellectual/Cognitive Milestones:
- The ability to understand language usually develops ahead of their speech.
- Vocabulary will have increased to 8 000 - 14 000 words by age 6, but it is important to remember that children in this age group often repeat words without fully understanding their meaning.
- They have learned to make use of most prepositions (up/down, in front/behind, beside) and some basic possessive pronouns (mine, his, ours) as well as starting to master adjectives.
- Pre-school children may continue to be quite egocentric and concrete in their thinking. They are still unable to see things from another person’s perspective.
- Children in this age range continue to have trouble with the concepts of sequence and time.
Now let’s gain some insight into the milestones which are associated with the Concrete Operation Stage of development:
7 – 11 years old:
Physical Milestones:
- Increased coordination and strength.
- Enjoy using new skills, both gross and fine motor.
- A steady increase in height and weight.
Emotional/Social Milestones:
- Increased ability to interact with peers.
- Inclined to have more same-sex friends.
- Increased ability to engage in competition.
- Begin to develop and test values and beliefs that will guide present and future behaviours.
- Developed a strong group identity which increasingly defines themselves through their peers.
- Acquire the need to develop a sense of mastery and accomplishment based upon physical strength, self-control, and school performance.
Intellectual/Cognitive Milestones:
- Children start logical thinking, which means that rather than accepting what they see as true, they begin to apply their personal knowledge and experience to a particular situation to determine whether it makes sense or not.
- Temporal concepts greatly improve in this age range. A child attending Grade One is already starting to understand the concept of time, as well as day, date, and time as a concept as opposed to being just a number.
- Children attending Grade One have acquired the basic cognitive and linguistic concepts necessary to sufficiently communicate any event that has occurred i.e. storytelling.
Lastly, we will have a look at the milestones associated with the Formal Operational Stage of development:
10 – 15 years old:
Physical Milestones:
- Growth spurt amongst girls is common.
- Puberty begins.
Emotional/Social Milestones:
- Conflict between peers and parents is common.
- Develop a strong group identity.
- Frustration tolerance improves.
Intellectual/Cognitive Milestones:
- Planning improves and they are able to understand consequences.
- Thinking is concrete and gradually develops into abstract thinking.
- Increased ability to learn.
16 – 18 years old:
Physical Milestones:
- Growth spurt amongst boys is common.
Emotional/Social Milestones:
- Introspection increases.
- They may often feel self-conscious.
- They form their individual identity, beliefs, and values.
- They prefer spending time with their peers.
- Conflict with parents is common.
- Interest in romantic relationships increases. Having a plan for the future becomes important and a priority.
Intellectual/Cognitive Milestones:
- Ability to think abstractly increases.
Please note that these guidelines allow for variations in the various stages of development. Use them to gain insight into what you are currently observing in your child’s development and to preview what you can look forward to in the years ahead. Remember that life is not only a matter of milestones, but moments. Enjoy the development of your child/children over the years to come.
