Developmental milestones or norms describe a recognised pattern of development that children are expected to follow, every child will develop at different rates, but broadly in the same sequence.
Looking at milestones helps us see the general pattern of development while recognising the different rates children develop There are some disadvantages’ of looking at milestones, it can cause anxiety when a child doesn’t achieve them when expected at a certain age, children’s performance can be affected by stress, tiredness, illness, anxiety, when assessing a child’s development, observations are a valuable tool to providing comprehensive information.
A child’s development depends on the level of maturation, this is a process shaped after birth through genetic programming and may determine whole sequences of development. (Arnold Gesell1925 Thelen & Adolph 1992) use the term to describe genetically programmed sequential patterns of change. Changes in the body, shape, size, hormones at puberty, muscles, bones, nervous system are all programmed this way, any maturational pattern is marked by 3 qualities, it is universal appearing in all children, it is sequential inviting the same pattern of unfolding skills or characteristics and it is relatively unaffected by environmental influence, eg you don’t have to be taught to walk, body changes at puberty aren’t taught, these are maturational patterns, they require some minimal environmental support such as good diet, and opportunity for movement and exploration.
Research informs us that specific experience interacts with maturational patterns (Greenough 1991) noted that one of the patterns required for the development of the visual system is controlled by a gene whose action is triggered by visual experience
Examples like this tell us that maturational sequences do not unfold automatically but requires experience to trigger them, the shift from crawling to walking is an example of maturational developmental change, it follows the same basic pattern in boys/girls in Asians. Blacks, Latinos, Caucasians but it will depend on the child’s level of maturation and experiences when this takes place, as practitioners we need to be aware of the different maturation rates and experiences of children and take this into account when assessing their development. Hope thats a help, thats basically what i read and researched.
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