How do you ensure that you make the most of any training and development opportunities for yourself and your staff? If you have concerns about your child's development, a member of our 0-19 team is able to complete an assessment of your child and refer to other services as needed, including: community paediatrician, speech and language therapy, hearing assessment, and vision assessment.

Parents and other adults, such as grandparents and child care providers, play important roles in children’s development. As a parent, you are the most important teacher in your child’s life. You also know your child best. Learning more about how children grow and develop is one way to build on what you already know and get new ideas about how to support your child’s learning and well-being. Harold G, Elam K, Lewis G, Rice F and Thapar A (2012) ‘Interparental Conflict, Parent Psychopathology, Hostile Parenting, and Child Antisocial Behavior: Examining the role of maternal versus paternal influences using a novel genetically sensitive research design’ Development and Psychopathology 24 (4) 1283-1295

Cleaver H, Unwell I and Aldgate J (2011) Children’s Needs – Parenting capacity. Child abuse: Parental mental illness, learning disability, substance misuse, and domestic violence. (2 nd edition.) London: The Stationery Office Saracho, O. N. (2020). An integrated play-based curriculum for young children. Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429440991 Although general progressions of development and learning can be identified, variations due to cultural contexts, experiences, and individual differences must also be considered. Your child’s development is supported by positive relationships with friends and neighbours, and access to playgrounds, parks, shops and local services like child care, playgroups, kindergartens, schools, health centres and libraries. Child development: differences among children Neural connections in the brain—which are the basis for all thought, communication, and learning—are established most rapidly in early childhood. 14 The processes of forming new neural connections and pruning the neural connections that are not used continue throughout a person’s lifespan but are most consequential in the first three years. 15 When adults are sensitive and respond to an infant’s babble, cry, or gesture, they directly support the development of neural connections that lay the foundation for children’s communication and social skills, including self-regulation. These “serve and return” interactions shape the brain’s architecture. 16 They also help educators and others “tune in” to the infant and better respond to the infant’s wants and needs.

Being physically active is vital to your child’s health. It gets your child moving, develops motor skills, helps your child think and gives your child an opportunity to explore their world. So your child needs plenty of opportunities for active play, including active outdoor play. Educators shape children’s conceptual development through their use of language. For example, labeling objects helps young children form conceptual categories; statements conveyed as generic descriptions about a category are especially salient to young children and, once learned, can be resistant to change. 56 It is also important for educators to monitor their language for potential bias. For example, educators who frequently refer to “boys” and “girls” rather than “children” emphasize binary gender distinctions that exclude some children. Educators can also encourage children’s continued exploration and discovery through the words they use. For example, when given an object, children are more likely to engage in creative explorations of that object when they are provided with more open-ended guidance versus when they are given specific information about what the object was designed to do. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020). Erik Erikson. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erik-Erikson Parents, grandparents, early childhood providers, and other caregivers can participate in developmental monitoring, which observes how your child grows and changes over time and whether your child meets the typical developmental milestones in playing, learning, speaking, behaving, and moving.All these areas of development are connected. We should always think about the whole child. For example, once children learn to use words, it is much easier for them to express their emotions. And once they begin to crawl, they begin to explore more and learn about other parts of the world around them. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child Development, 45(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.2307/1127743 Child development theories may be categorised into five primary domains (for a good general source on development see Stassen Berger and Thompson, 1995):

Play is a great relationship builder. Playing with your child sends a simple message – you’re important to me. This message helps children learn about who they are and where they fit in the world. Other things that shape child development Social workers’ limited training and knowledge about child development has been highlighted in a number of recent studies (eg Brandon et al, 2011; Davies and Ward, 2012), as well as in the Munro Interim Report (Munro, 2011). The Curriculum Framework: Planning Supporting Permanence (CPD) highlights the importance of training in relation to child development, with a particular focus on developmental progress, continuities and discontinuities, the child’s timescales and to the role of the social worker in supporting children’s development in placement (Schofield and Simmonds, 2013). Your child also learns by seeing relationships among other people – for example, by seeing how you behave with other family members or friends. This learning is the foundation for the development of your child’s communication, behaviour, social and other skills. Young children live in a digital era in which technology and interactive media are pervasive. Given rapid changes in the types and uses of new media, the knowledge base of their effects on children’s development and learning continues to grow and shift. Emerging evidence suggests a number of cautions, including concerns about negative associations between excessive screen time and childhood obesity as well as negative impacts on toddlers’ performance on measures of fine motor, communication, and social skills. 65 There is no evidence that development is enhanced when children younger than age 2 independently use devices with screen media. 66 Keeping these cautions in mind, technology and interactive media can help to support developmentally appropriate practice. For example, technology and interactive media can facilitate communication between families, children, and teachers. It can also support learning, comprehension, and communication across language differences and provide adaptations that support inclusion of children with disabilities. The use of digital media can facilitate reflection through documentation and formative assessment by children, educators, and families. The use of media can also provide isolated children (for example, children with health problems that prevent them from participating in group settings or those with less well-developed social skills) with opportunities to engage effectively with peers. 67Bijou, S. W. (1975). Development in the preschool years: A functional analysis. American Psychologist, 30(8), 829–837. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077069

Plenty of time spent playing, talking, listening and interacting with you helps your child learn key life skills. These skills include communicating, thinking, solving problems, moving and being with other people and children. Play promotes joyful learning that fosters self-regulation, language, cognitive and social competencies as well as content knowledge across disciplines. Play is essential for all children, birth through age 8. Development and learning are dynamic processes that reflect the complex interplay between a child’s biological characteristics and the environment, each shaping the other as well as future patterns of growth. If your child is not meeting the milestones for their age, or you are concerned about your child’s development, talk with your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Don’t wait! Effective uses of technology and media by children are active, hands-on, engaging, and empowering; give children control; provide adaptive scaffolds to help each child progress in skills development at their individual pace; and are used as one of many options to support children’s learning. Technology and interactive media should expand children’s access to new content and new skills; they should not replace opportunities for real, hands-on experiences. 68 When truly integrated, uses of technology and media become normal and transparent—the child or the educator is focused on the activity or exploration itself, not the technology. Readers are encouraged to review the NAEYC/Fred Rogers Center position statement on the use of technology for more information on this topic.How do you help foster carers and adopters to understand children’s development and progress, particularly where there are problems? How do you ensure that you have a good knowledge and understanding of the impact of maltreatment on children’s development? (See briefing 4 ‘Early brain development and maltreatment’ and briefing 2 ‘Attachment theory and research’.) Mannering A, Harold G , Leve L, Shelton K, Shaw D, Conger R, Neiderhiser J, Scaramella L and Reiss D (2011) ‘Longitudinal Associations between Marital Instability and Child Sleep Problems across Infancy and Toddlerhood in Adoptive Families ’ Child Development 82 (4) 1252-1266 This dynamic text emphasizes the practical and applied implications of developmental research. It begins by introducing the ways in which psychologists study developmental processes before going on to consider all major aspects of development from conception through to adolescence. Children are active learners from birth, constantly taking in and organizing information to create meaning through their relationships, their interactions with their environment, and their overall experiences.