Development, although different for every child, does follow a fairly predictable path or course of progression. For example, an infant learns to control his or her head before being able to gain control of extremities, and gross motor skills (e.g., sitting, jumping, climbing) tend to mature and become set before fine motor skills (e.g., writing, cutting, eye-hand) are refined.

Developmental progression includes:

• From head to toe (cephalo-caudal)
• From trunk to extremities (from the torso to the arms and legs)
• Gross motor to fine motor (proximo-distal)
• Non-linear (areas may develop at the same time)
• Child development is a continuous, cumulative, and integrated process. It includes:
  Predictable developmental milestones (e.g., nearly every child smiles sometime between 4-10 weeks).
• Failure of a milestone to appear within a reasonable range of time is a warning that a problem may be developing. Is it a problem? No. It is a warning!
• Child Development runs in a pattern or sequence (e.g., most children roll over before they sit up).
• There is a range of normalcy. No two children are alike, nor do they perform in the same way (e.g., some infants scoot while others crawl).
• Child development is thought to be a series of phases -- spurts of rapid growth followed by periods of disorganization or disequilibrium, then on to more reorganization.
• Child development breaks done into areas of speech/language, cognitive, social/behavioral, fine motor, gross motor, self-help, sensory, health, and psychological.
• Child development is shaped by experience in the world and environment.
• Child development is orderly and predictable, following a course and sequence.

Adapted from: Allen, K. E. & Marotz, I. (1989). Developmental profiles: Birth to six. Delmar Publishers Inc.

 About the Author: Dr. Catherine Swanson Cain, PhD, LMFT provides counseling and therapy to families of young children with behavior problems or mental health disabilities. She also provides consultation and training to educators, child care providers, and professionals on a variety of behavioral health issues.