#Early Childhood Development

[rudeflower]

writing young children developmentally accurately

Writing young children convincingly, especially if you aren't around them often, can be tricky because from birth to age five children change so much, and they also typically progress in a certain way. This is why parents refer to young children's age in months ("She's 18 months!") for the first several years. 12 month olds and 23 month olds are wildly different, even though they're both 1.

Because of this, it's great to be aware of whether the 18 month old in your fic/story would typically be walking, and if that 4 month old baby can typically hold their head up. If you're way off it can ring as odd for the reader, even if they aren't experts themselves.

A key word here is typical. Children typically develop skills around certain times and in a certain order, but it can vary. No child develops exactly on target, some variation is normal. And it isn't necessarily because of disability or giftedness. It is possible for a one year old to be talking, and it's possible for an five year old not to be. It is still worth being read up on typical development because if your one year old is talking fluently, it makes sense in universe for other characters to remark on it quite a bit!

You do not have to run out and get a job at a daycare or take a college level child development classes to write young children confidently. Here are some resources I recommend as someone who works in the child development field, that I reference myself even though I've taken a ton of classes/worked with young children for over a decade:

CDC's Developmental Milestones

This is a good resource on when milestones (smiling, walking, dressing onesself) TYPICALLY emerge. They are not exhaustive and also not cumulative (18 month milestones link just includes what typically emerges at 18, not everything that already happened) so read each stage up to the age you're writing to be most informed

There are also photos and videos on many of the milestones, which is also great to visually confirm what this age looks and moves like

Child Mind Institute Complete Guide to Developmental Milestones

This is similar to the CDC resource BUT it's all on one page so you can see how the skills build cumulatively. It has less media and linking out, so this is a great one to refer to while writing after you're a little more confident in what your child character can do

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Communication Milestones

This is similar to the first 2 in that it shows the typical skills by age but goes into much further detail about communication. Because of the nature of a written story much of how your child character will come across will be in how they communicate and young children typically communicate in specific ways based on where they are in their development. This resource breaks it all down!

Lurie's Play Development Milestones

Even the way children play is very dependent of what stage of development they are in. A six month old won't pretend their toy truck is a rocket ship, for example. This resource breaks down what play typically looks like by age.

Development of Healthy Eating

I'm not familiar with this source, but this page is a great simple breakdown on healthy eating with young children from breast feeding to solid foods that are choking hazards.

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These are all great resources for anyone writing a young child character, regardless of your IRL level of contact with young children. I regularly am with young children, my entire profession is about healthy child development and I still refer to resources every time I write a young child.

Don't feel like you have to follow each of these guides perfectly--it's actually more realistic for a child character to be slightly off track or even way off track in one or two ways than for them to be matching perfectly (You'll even notice these guides don't match perfectly across the board.) But generally writing for a developmentally informed point of view (Even just a few minutes of checking out a milestone table while writing) can make your child characters feel REAL and authentic.

[fosterwhat]

My home reopened for foster care last Friday, and a couple hours later a new kiddo was here.

We’ll call him Kai.

Kai is 3 years old. An emergency removal. He came dressed in girl’s clothing (I guess all the office had on hand). DCFS had grabbed one of their pre-packed bags — it had size 7/8 clothing. Girl leaning again. Kai is a peanut, he fits into size 18 month at age 3. So, you can imagine that size 7/8 was a no go.

I was told he was non-verbal and autistic, but he walked into my home said “hello, Mommy” and proceeded to talk my ear off for the next three days.

He declared our puppy “cute, but a little crazy,” which is honestly spot on. Though I will say my dog stayed so very patient, given that Kai hit him suddenly out of nowhere.

So much trauma, so many injuries that the child abuse doctors missed (drives me crazy, treating and documenting that is their only job).

I stressed to everyone who would listen that he is not autistic, that it’s just early childhood trauma, that there is so much potential there. (Autistic kids have tons of potential too, but a lot of people sadly find it harder to see, and if you’re not willing to accept an autistic child that’s sad but reality, and getting mislabeled helps no one). He reminded me of Felix, a lot. He was a lot. But also within days I had him on a routine and understanding basic rules. But he also likes to elope and screech and has never had any type of schedule. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve loved* it. Those of you who are foster parents probably know exactly what I mean. A three year old who fell through the cracks.

*this was supposed to say “lived” but autocorrected to love. And I’m leaving it, because maybe that’s what I really mean. That you don’t really get it, the combination of the hard and the potential, until you’ve loved a kid like that

[brutalcomplex]

[connieaaa]

Growing up Evangelical Fundamentalist Christian I was taught that being a mother was the highest calling a woman had.

I was a severely parentified. My mom ran whole ass illegal daycare she referred to as "Godcare". We'd get locked in the backyard, and I was held responsible if anything happened.

So I read parenting books, and books on education, and child development.

I would continue on to read books about anthropology, biology, psychology, and neuroscience.

I was taught being a mother was my highest calling, and I agree that being a primary attachment figure is the most important responsibility in the world because early childhood development is that important.

[princesscatherineblog]

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visiting the Social Bite cafe to meet with locals for her Early Childhood survey on February 12, 2020 in Aberdeen, Scotland.

[writtenroses1813]

Someone pls normalize treating early childhood bullying as severely as other types. It’s like the most underrepresented because “they don’t know better” and “older kids pick on younger kids it’s just how it goes” like no???? This is how psychopaths are made actually???

[hello-sweetheart]

It’s so cute to see small kids figure out the world.

I was in the mall and this little girl was waddling around with a sippy cup and she starts shaking it and sees drops of juice fly. So she opened the lid and just, shook it.

Then looked baffled at the mess, looked in her cup, saw there was no juice left, and started crying.

The mom had her back turned for one ☝️ second 😭

I just witness her discover fluid dynamics 🥹

[babyspacebatclone]

Another point about “Appropriate” play re: Autistic Children:

A person is going to play at a level that matches their current engagement.

If a person - child or adult - is engaging in play for internal reinforcement (aka they are doing it for personal enjoyment) they are going to adjust the play to an acceptable level of challenge.

And you know what that makes button sorting an exact equivalent to???

image from the Wikipedia page for Sudoku

I swear to the fusion that powers the sun.

Button sorting (for personal enjoyment) is directly equivalent to Sudoku.

You are going to pick a challenge level that suits your current engagement interests.

Some days, you want a basic Sudoku puzzle.

And maybe you want a nice basic button sort, three holes in this pile, four holes in this pile.

And if that’s not matching your engagement level, you will make it more challenging.

And the more rules you add to your button sorting…

Well, congratulations, you’ve created Algebra.

Algebra, according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:

A branch of mathematics in which symbols, usually letters of the alphabet, represent numbers or members of a specified set and are used to represent quantities and to express general relationships that hold for all members of the set. (emphasis mine)

Figuring out if a button is shiny enough to go into a specific pile is more skill usage than determining where to put the 8 in the top center square up there.

I say this as someone who does Expert Sudoku variants for fun.

You need to compare qualities, have a consistent set of rules.

And, again, if you’re doing Sudoku or button sorting for personal enjoyment, you’re only going to keep doing it if it continues to be an appropriate level of challenge.

And the only reason that’s less true for children is they understand their capabilities less, and so will continue to do something too challenging for longer than an adult despite their frustration.

Unless you destroy the link between their own personal determination of challenge, engagement, and reinforcement.

TL;DR: Fuck ABA “specialist” who want to extinguish “inappropriate” play, you don’t actually fucking understand learning (which is extraordinarily sad, if you know how fucking obsessed they can be with being “scientific.”)

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

15 November 2023: The Princess of Wales arrives for the Shaping Us National Symposium at the Design Museum, London. The Princess has convened experts from 21 countries to consider how we “grow, think and behave throughout life” to build resilience in early childhood.

[theroyalweekly]

Health visitors are the vital link between families, hospitals and through to the education system - the role they play in #ShapingUs is critical.

Families today are dealing with so many pressures, and spending time with Health Visitors in recent weeks has been eye-opening and an incredible insight into their work.

▶️ Watch the full film: https://youtu.be/SvBL-vS6qWc

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

==

These people are cult priests masquerading as "teachers."

[koyoba]

Baby Linguistic Inventory Post #1 - 2024-07-01

Today in "things that only I care about but I have nowhere else to post them"- My sister had a baby last June! As she and her husband currently live with us, I get to see the baby everyday, and as a former linguistics major, I have been endlessly fascinated with monitoring his linguistic development. Today, having heard him spontaneously repeat the word "smoothie" (pronounced "moo-ee") with clearly intentional meaning, I've decided to start keeping an inventory of the words that he picks up.

To my recollection, the "using words with meaning" started roughly around February or March of this year, with a larger leap in late April/early May, so he's moving along at a good clip! He's up to roughly 20 words as of this writing, by our measure.

The current word inventory, as of 7/1:

mama

dada [dada, or the outdoors as a whole; his dad is outside most of the day]

berry - beh-wee [berries, or flowers, or anything resembling a berry] [+hand sign]

blue - bwoo [+hand sign]

honorable mention: blueberry - bwoo-wee [his favorite food; he will try to combine the signs]

banana - na-na

more - moh-ah [food]

food/eat - [hand sign only]

booby - boo-bee [milk/nursing] [+hand sign]

potty - [hand signal only]

yay - ehyee [+clapping]

kitty - dee-dee [may mean cat, or it might just be the way you greet a cat]

momo [all cats; one of the cats is named Momo so he has generalized this as the easiest form of address]

puppy [baba?]

dog - da-da

night night - neh-neh [+wave]

bye bye - buh-bah [+wave/also means hello maybe]

baby - buh-bee [unclear if himself or just a sound]

ab'n/bab'n/gab'm [who knows, he just says it a lot and it seems to mean something to him 😂]

please - ba [+hand sign]

light?/fan? - beh [indeterminate ceiling fixture; usually while pointing at it]

smoothie - moo-ee [new 7/1]

Anyway, nothing pithy to say about all that! I just think it's neat 🎉

[thepastisalreadywritten]

xxx

[princesscatherineblog]

Catherine, Princess of Wales joins a Portage Session for her 'Shaping Us' campaign on early childhood on September 27, 2023 in Sittingbourne, England.

[writtenroses1813]

“Whatever that didn’t affect you that much you were too young to understand.”

Girl that’s the whole point???? It’s WORSE because I was young. You ruined my whole social development because I was that young.