www.inclusivechildcare.org || Concordia University, College of Education
Cindy Croft, Director || croft@csp.edu || 651.603.6265
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CICC E-News, Issue #8. Jan - Feb 2009
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Children's Development, What to Expect and When to Be Concerned
A child's growth is physical, social, mental, and general health. We learn throughout our lives, starting at birth. We need to monitor development early and can do this through observing how a child plays, learns, speaks, and behaves.
While the majority of children develop on a similar path and meet developmental milestones, we must also be aware of the key concerns when a child is not meeting these milestones and may need increased monitoring or a referral for a screening or further evaluation. While all children are unique and we certainly want to allow this, there are key indicators or "red flags" we can monitor for children.
How can you tell typical from atypical development?
Through an understanding of the key social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and communication milestones along with knowing the slight differences, red flags, and by using informal screening tools.
What are Red Flags?
Red flags are behaviors that should warn you to stop, look, and think and then observe and document. You want to look for patterns or clusters of a behavior and observe a child in a variety of situations. A comparison of the child's behavior to a "norm" of six months younger and six months older is a helpful guideline. You should note how much the child has grown in the past 3-6 months-has he/she progressed? You need to know the normal patterns of growth and development and keep in mind the factors that may be influencing the development.
Other subtle warning signs can include a regression or loss of skills, sensory aversions, physiological concerns, and any other familial concerns.
The child's concerning behaviors can include little or no eye contact, not respond to their name, unusual motor behaviors or motor planning, and displaying rigidity and/or getting stuck on certain activities.
More attention has recently been placed on the development of social reciprocity, which can be a primary component of healthy development; this includes joint attention, purposeful language, and pretend play.
When there is a concern, look at the concern as if "under a microscope."
- Determine if it is developmentally appropriate.
- Is the concern/behavior consistently occurring?
- Are there cultural components to be aware of that impact development?
- Is the area of concern getting in the way of:
- Learning
- Communication
- Social Interactions
You should also look at reasons for concerns. Look at the whole child and the whole family situation and factors that may impact the child's development, these may include:
- Cultural differences
- Poverty
- Abuse/neglect in the family
- Nutrition
- Sleep issues
- Allergies
- English Language Learners (multiple languages)
- Birth risk factors (e.g. prematurity)
Developmental and health screening for all children occurs with physicians during the birth to 3 year general visits. Formal screening is provided within each community for children 3-5 years of age and is required in most states before the first day of kindergarten. For many children, the physician screening is brief and parents may wait until the child is 4 years or older for the local screening. Because of these factors, early care and education professionals need to monitor development at all ages.
There are many other factors that should be evaluated when there are concerns to be sure they are not the trigger of the concern. These include lead screening, hearing screening, vision screening, and sleep habits.
When there are concerns, there are systems and resources to support screening and assessment. For children birth to 5 years of age, each local community has a Central Intake System. To locate the contact information in your local area, contact your state Department of Education or local Early Childhood Special Education program at a school district or visit the national database of information at www.nichcy.org/states.htm. Parents may also choose to discuss the concerns directly with their child's physician.
The key is to investigate concerns; because if there are developmental concerns, early intervention is critical in assuring that a child will reach his/her full potential.
For more information, visit the Center for Inclusive Child Care's Learning Center at: www.inclusivechildcare.org