Over the next few weeks, I will be writing a series of articles about  child development . The focus of this series is children’s developmental stages and behaviors and how we, as teachers, view them in the preschool. The mixed aged group at our preschool give us a wonderful opportunity to see children’s development over a continuum of 2.9  to our almost 6 year olds who are headed off to kindergarten.

Stages in child development are seen in many different facets of a child’s life. For example, a sequence of developmental steps occurs in:

• gross and fine motor activities
• drawing/art
• emerging literacy
• social behavior and interactions
• block building
• other aspects of cognition.

As parents, you are probably most familiar with stages of early gross motor development. You have watched as your child moved from sitting up to crawling, then standing, walking, and running. You may have also noticed that the rate of this and other developmental changes varies from child to child, however, the “pattern” or “order” in which children  learn and develop the skills is quite consistent. The variation in rate among  children is absolutely normal.

As teachers, we observe and record  your children’s activities and behavior  in order to thoughtfully  understand their growth and development as they progress. We take note of the stages of the various domains of their development. With this information, we are able to respond in several key ways.

1. We are able to plan curriculum and teacher interactions that will interest and challenge each child.
2. When we look at a profile of your child’s stages of development in all of the different areas, we always see a pattern where some areas are stronger than others. That is true for all of us. As we  better understand your child’s areas of strength, we nurture and support them. When we learn where needs may exist, we gain insight into how to promote strong growth.
3. We come to understand better how your child engages in an activity or play situation in terms of thinking, organization, learning styles, and problem solving strategies.

We love having this kind of insight into your children; it gives us the means by which we can really help each child grow and flourish.

Over the next few weeks, I  invite you to read the articles about each domain of child development. The first one is about child development and block building. I welcome your comments and your stories.Tweet