Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter 1 Learning About Children 7 Child development is one of the most fascinating subjects you can study. Children are constantly changing and discovering. They are also curious and creative. Who else would use a cardboard box for a house, a car, or a hiding place? If you spend any time with children, you know they can be lov- able and challenging. As you learn more about children, you will see that they go through many stages of growth and development. This book emphasizes the early years (before birth through the elementary school years) because these years are the most important in shaping children’s lives. What Is Child Development? For many years, scientists and researchers have been studying children. The goal of these professionals is to learn more about how children grow and develop. Development is the gradual process through which babies become adults. Development begins at conception and continues until death. The process of development has many stages, such as before birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Child development is the scientifi c study of children from conception to adolescence. Like lifespan development, child development is con- cerned with the whole child and the process or changes that occur in both growth and behavior. Growth is a change in size, such as height, or in quantity, such as vocabulary. Changes in behavior include any change in motor, thinking, and social skills. By conducting research, experts in the fi elds of medicine, education, family and consumer sciences, and sociology help gather knowledge about children. People then use these facts to learn about children. Anyone who interacts with children can benefi t from this knowledge. Child development teaches teens and adults how to care for children. Domains of Child Development Because the domains (areas) of child devel- opment are so highly related, child development experts must learn about all four of the domains (Figure 1.1). Experts usually discuss these domains separately. For the purposes of this text, however, social and emotional domains are frequently dis- cussed together. Therefore, this text uses the fol- lowing terms to describe the domains of child development: • physical development—involves growth of the body and the development of both large and small motor skills. • intellectual development—includes how people learn, what people learn, and how people express what they know through language. • social-emotional development—concerns interactions with people and social groups, disposition, and emotions. The domains of development constantly interact. For example, learning to walk (physical develop- ment) leads the more mobile child to explore and learn about objects (intellectual development). Showing caregivers what can be done with an object aids interactions with others (social development) and brings pleasure to the child (emotional devel- opment). These behaviors lead to changes in the brain (physical development). Individual Life Cycle The individual life cycle is a description of the stages of change people experience throughout life (from birth through old age). To help them study development over time, experts divide life into age-related stages. Each stage of life has unique opportunities, achievements, and challenges. Thus, each stage requires different ways of supporting growth and development. Average ages are given for the stages to provide a basic idea of when stages may begin and end. The exact ages for a specifi c person, however, may vary. This book covers the fi rst six stages, which are those