Child development is the process children take as they grow from infancy into adulthood. As children grow, they develop the skills and behaviors they need to learn about the world around them. Children show their interest in learning by being curious, persistent, and creative while they play and interact with others.
Families and other caregivers play important roles in fostering children’s healthy development. You know your child best and are their first and most important teacher. Learning more about how children grow and develop can give you new ways to support your child’s learning and well-being. It’s important to remember children develop at their own pace.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has resources to help you learn about the basics of child development, as well as helpful tips for families to encourage healthy development at every age.
- Explore a variety of tips and resources from the federal Office of Early Childhood Development to help you support your young child’s healthy development.
- For more information about child development and resources near you, select your state or territory on ChildCare.gov’s ”See Your State’s Resources” web page and select “Child Development and Early Learning Resources.”
- From birth to 5 years, your child should reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move. The CDC's resources on developmental milestones help you track your child’s development and act early if you have a concern.
Areas of Child Development
When children grow, they strengthen different parts of their body and mind. Each of these areas of development build on one another. For example, when infants learn to crawl, they can move themselves from place to place. This physical development allows children to freely explore their play space and investigate the things around them. Also, being able to explore and investigate their play space supports infants’ brain development. Families, caregivers, teachers, doctors, and others can support children in these different areas of child development in many ways.
Brain development is the growth in a child’s ability to think, learn, understand, solve problems, and remember. Many professionals may refer to this as cognitive or intellectual development. You can support children’s brain development by encouraging them to explore and learn.
Children are always learning. Learn more about supporting children’s brain development in these resources.
- Children’s brains grow and develop rapidly through the early childhood years. Learn more about early brain development and health on the CDC website.
- Helping your child grow a healthy brain will set a foundation for a lifetime of learning. Supporting Early Brain Development: Building the Brain, from Head Start, describes ways you can encourage your child’s healthy brain development.
- Learn how to support your child’s brain-building through positive interactions with this resource from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child.
Language development is how children learn to communicate with others and understand communication from others.
- Children’s verbal communication includes learning to make sounds and speak words and sentences to communicate.
- Children’s nonverbal communication includes the use of body language, including sign language, to communicate with others.
You can support your child’s language development by regularly reading to 
them and talking with them throughout the day. Conversations build brains. For instance, talking to your baby—chatting, explaining, asking, echoing, rhyming, and so on—can have lifelong benefits for your child. Learn more about supporting children’s language development in these resources.
- This resource from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association provides activities to encourage speech and language development you can use to support your child in learning to use and understand words.
- This resource from Zero to Three provides tips you can use to encourage your child’s language and literacy skills when they are between 12 and 24 months old.
Physical development describes how children learn to move and use their muscles. There are two types of physical development:
- Gross or large motor skills include a child’s ability to sit, stand, walk, run, keep balance, and change positions.
- Fine or small motor skills include using hand muscles to hold a spoon or fork, holding a crayon to draw or write, or zipping a jacket.
Discover ways to encourage and support young children’s motor skills by reading “Why Are Motor Skills Important?” from Pathways.org.
Social-emotional development describes how children learn to understand, express, and manage their emotions; respond to the emotions of others; develop meaningful relationships; and cooperate with others.
When children develop healthy social-emotional skills, they will be better able to make friends, work with others, deal with challenges, and interact with the world around them. Learn more about supporting children’s social-emotional development from these resources for families.
- Understanding feelings is an important part of healthy social-emotional development. Explore Teaching Your Child About Feelings, from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, for information on what to expect as children develop important social-emotional skills and ways to support their healthy development.
- Teaching Your Child to Identify and Express Emotions, from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, describes specific strategies you can use to help your child express themselves in appropriate ways.
- Head Start provides a range of helpful information on social and emotional development you can use to support your child’s development.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics provides resources to help you support the social and emotional development of your infant, toddler, preschooler, and school-age child.