Explain the Sequence and Rate of Each Aspect of Development from Birth- 19 Years.

NCFE Level 3 Diploma for Children and Young People’s Workforce

Understand Child and Young Person Development


Task 1. Explain the sequence and rate of each aspect of development from birth- 19 years.

There are 4 areas of development; Physical, social, intellectual and language development. The milestones in these areas increase, as the person gets older.


Physical development

0-3 months-
Babies are born with many reflexes such as swallowing and sucking reflexes, rooting reflexes, grasping reflexes, startle reflexes and walking and standing reflexes. Most babies are born with these reflexes, if a baby is born before the fortieth week, and are described as premature, then they might need a little more time to reach the same levels of development as a baby which has not been born until the fortieth week.   Many of the reflexes babies are born with help the baby to survive. For example they have a rooting instinct to help them find milk from a nipple or teat if their mouth or cheek is touched, then a suckling and swallowing instinct in order for them to be able to feed. Babies have grasp reflexes, where they will put their fingers around an object if it touches the palm of their hand. Babies usually make stepping movements when they are held upright on a firm surface and if startled they will usually react by moving their arms outwards and clenching their fists. In their first month babies start to change very rapidly. They will be starting to look less curled up and they will appear to be startled less often. Their sleep will now be beginning to be in a pattern. They will sleep quite a lot of the time but the time in which they are awake will be increasing, as they get older.

3-6 months -
Between 3-6 months the baby will be growing rapidly, their height will increase and they will increase gaining weight. Their sleep patterns will become more regular and some babies will have developed to understand the difference between night and day time, and...