Characteristics of Developmental Periods

There are five distinctive developmental periods that occurs; they are infancy which is from birth to 2years, early childhood which is 2years to six years. Then there is Middle Childhood which ranges from age six through ten, early adolescence to age ten to fourteen and finally late adolescence which lasts from age fourteen through eighteen. At birth even though the baby is dependent on his parents and caregivers he has ways that he communicate and seek comfort. The baby uses cries and other physical reflexes to get his caregiver to respond to him. The consistent response of the care giver whether it’s cuddling, feeding or changing the baby allows him to form an attachment. This feeling of security that the baby feels triggers the need for him to learn more about his surroundings. He will start by putting things in his mouth to test out taste, touching things to explore different textures even dropping things just to see what happens. As he becomes more curious his physical abilities will start developing which takes him from reaching to crawling then walking. This period of learning will prepare the now infant for early childhood. During early childhood the language and communication skills develop on a daily basis. This is a time of creative play and exploration of the world around them along with learning patterns and forming habits. The physical changes at this stage are quite noticeable because the child has a better command on movement they run, skip and jump around with confidence. On a social and emotional level the child is eager to trust and willing to make and play with friends. They won’t always share so playtime might sometimes have some aggression stemming from selfish impulses. When a child gets to middle childhood they are focused on learning how to complete task that are directly