The four basic early childhood developmental stages are infant, toddler, preschooler and school-age. During each stage children develop socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically. There are four major theories of child development including psychoanalytic (Freud), psychosocial (Erikson), cognitive (Piaget), and behavioral (Skinner, Palov).
Infant
Psychosocial: During infancy children are faced with the developmental task of trust vs. mistrust. Children develop trust in their caregivers when their needs are consistently met during this stage.
Psychoanalytic: Infancy is considered the oral stage of development. This stage of psycho-sexual development centers around infants sucking and exploring the world with their mouths.
Cognitive: The sensory-motor stage lasts from birth through two years. During this stage infants begin to differentiate themselves from their mothers.
Milestones: Smiling in response to caretakers, holding up head, rolling over, cooing, babbling and language development, laughing and interacting with caretakers, grasping objects, sitting up, and eventually crawling and standing.
Toddler
Psychosocial: The developmental task for toddlers is autonomy vs. shame. A hallmark of this stage, often described as "the terrible two's," is children learning to assert themselves. Toddlers begin to recognize that they have control over their own bodies. Parents hear the word "no" a lot during this stage.
Psychoanalytic: Physically, the focus is on toilet training. This corresponds with Freud's anal stage. Another important physical milestone is learning to walk.
Cognitive: Toddlers remain in the sensory-motor stage of development. Around age 1 a child learns that an object does not disappear even when she can't see it--a concept known as object permanency. Toddlers learn their actions have cause and effect. Children begin to use language to represent objects.
Milestones: Learning to walk, feeding themselves, rapid language development, more physical control of their bodies, and toilet training.
Preschool
Psychosocial: Children are in the initiative vs. guilt stage. Children learn initiative by imitating their same-sex parent. Gender roles start to become very defined.
Psychosexual: Preschool children are in the phallic stage of development. This means that preschoolers are discovering their bodies. They are learning that girls and boys have different genital anatomies.
Cognitive: Preschoolers are in the pre-operational stage of development. Children in this stage think in a very egocentric manner. Another characteristic of this stage is classifying objects based on one similarity. For example, a preschool may refer to all four-legged animals as "doggies."
Milestones: Children become fully potty trained, they can speak a multitude of words, learn to communicate well with others, and start to develop friendships with other children.
School-age
Psychosocial: School-age children are in the stage Erikson calls industry vs. inferiority. Children in this stage learn a variety of new skills, creativity is sparked, and children learn to feel proud of their accomplishments.
Psychosexual: Latency--sexual development is considered to be dormant during latency stage.
Cognitive: School-age children move out of the pre-operation stage and into the concrete operational stage. In this stage children learn to think logically about their worlds.
Milestones including beginning formal education, learning to read and write, learning conservation of numbers, and becoming physically stronger.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a relevant theory of child development that helps to explain how children learn and grow during early childhood. However, behaviorism is not classified into developmental stages like other developmental theories.
Behaviorist theorists such as Skinner and Pavlov view behavioral development as a pattern of learned behaviors. Children learn through operant and classical conditioning.
Operant Conditioning: Learning based on a stimulus-response pattern.
Classical Conditioning: Learning based on the association of a neutral stimulus and some other, more relevant stimulus.
