Early Stages of Childhood Development

Series Summary

Early childhood is a special time for both kids and parents. It is widely held that during the first few years of a person’s life, some of the most important physical and emotional aspects of development are set in place. Young children are dependent upon their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents to meet their needs during this time. To grow into healthy, happy adults, kids require many things, including safe surroundings, a good diet, peer interaction, a variety of experiences, and someone to take care of them when they’re not feeling good.

In this free parents’ guide to child health and safety, learn some of the most basic things you’ll need to know to take good care of your young children, as well as what you should expect from school and daycare providers while they have your kids. Our expert will walk you through some basic lessons, including general safety tips for home and daycare, how to choose a child care facility, what to feed the kids, why immunizations are important, when to keep your sick child home from school, and most important...how to properly dispose of dirty diapers.

Video Transcript

" Hi! This is Patti Billings. I am a certified pediatric nurse practitioner on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip, we are going to talk about experiences of how they affect the early development of children and their learning abilities. There have been many studies that have shown that early brain development is affected by the quality of care and the different experiences that children receive. From birth to 12 months, children really need lots of nurturing and physical care. They need to be fed and loved and held and feel that their world is secure and as a result, then they can start to learn that when you know certain things happen like they cry, their needs are met and their parents will help hold them and feed them. As they get older, 1-2 year old becomes much more independent and wants to be down and does not want to be held. They want to have a variety of experiences. They want to have you know, things to color, they want books to read, they want to play, swing and run and just have sometime to explore all kinds of things. Then from 2-3, children start to integrate more of that into their personality and start to become more social with other children and it is very important at about three, that they start to interact socially with other children and that’s how they develop some of their relationships. "