How kids develop

ABSTRACT

Children really want to become adults. It's what they're set up for. Despite being born with an impressive number of physiological adaptations that help survive, e.g. extra water in their cells at birth so they can survive a short period of starvation, the ability to cling on to fingers so strongly that you can lift them up, and an amazing cry which has been called one of the most stimulating calls to action that any adult human will ever hear, babies are still quite helpless. Innate in a healthy baby is the ability to develop her brain as long as she is given the opportunity to do so. like dogs, which adapted very successfully to humans 15,000 years ago, babies are the keenest observers of human behaviour and body language. That's why they observe us so closely. That's why they imitate us so much. They are trying to learn new skills. That's called development and it is related to those amazing connections between brain cells that develop as soon as the baby is born and is exposed to increasing variety of sounds, sights, smells, tastes and emotions. Most children learn these skills in an orderly, progressive fashion - one following an building on the other. First the child learns to say 'Da Da', then she learns 'Bye Bye' and after some time she learns to say 'Bye Bye, Da Da'. These skills are called developmental milestones and they are points of progress that we can observe and measure on the child's route to adulthood. When a child does not attain one of these milestones at the proper time, there is a possibility that the child has some form of disability, some of which can be very subtle.