Early childhood development spans from infancy to around ages 5-6. It involves rapid physical, cognitive, and social-emotional growth. Physically, children gain height and weight each year and improve motor skills like jumping, hopping, and balancing. Cognitively, vocabulary increases greatly as does the ability to use language and represent abstract ideas. Socially and emotionally, children develop relationships with peers and start to evaluate themselves.

1. Early ChildhoodEarly Childhood
DevelopmentDevelopment

2. Early childhood development is defined as
“a set of concepts, principles, and facts that
explain, describe and account for the
processes involved in change from immature to
mature status and functioning”

3. Development is generally divided
into three broad categories:
• physical development
• cognitive development
• social emotional development.

4. The developmental period
extending from the end of infancy
to about 5 or 6 years. Often called
the “preschool years”

5. According to Bredecamp and Copple (1997), this
period of development is characterized by rapid
gross motor development (e.g., jumping, hopping,
skipping), refined movement of small muscles for
object manipulation, major increases in
vocabulary and use of language, abstract
representation of mental constructs, and the
development of relationships with other young
children.

6. BODY GROWTH
A. Changes in Body Size and Proportions
1. On the average, 2 to 3 inches in height and about 5 pounds in
weight are added each year.
2. The child gradually becomes thinner; girls retain somewhat
more body fat, whereas boys are slightly more muscular.
3. Posture and balance improve, resulting in gains in motor
coordination.
4. Individual differences in body size are even more apparent
during early childhood than in infancy.

7. 1. Skills that appear are basic
locomotor, ball-handling, fine eye–hand
coordination, walking leads to running,
jumping, hopping, galloping, and skipping,
climbing.
2. Children are expected to be able to draw
simple shapes such as circles, squares and
triangles. They should also be able to cut out

8. 1. Children at this age can be very possessive and have difficulty
sharing.
2. Children typically start to develop self-conscious emotions as
they start evaluating themselves, instead of purely reacting to
caregivers' or other adults' evaluations.
3. As children become increasingly self-aware, more effective at
communicating, and better at understanding the thoughts and
feelings of others, their social skills increase.

9. Between 2 to 5 years old, most children
have developed the skills to focus attention
for extended periods, recognize previously
encountered information, recall old
information, and reconstruct it in the
present.