Talk:Child development stages

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 July 2019 and 23 August 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jackieelsokkary, Bschen12, Stevenvpham, Ksucsf19. Peer reviewers: Kathrynngyn.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:24, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Age seven up?
I'm doing a chart for NVQ of stages of development (age groups 0-3, 4-7, 8-12, 13-16) in different areas (physical, emotional, cognitive, communication, social)

I found this page very useful for the first two age groups - thanks to everyone who contributed.

Just wondering why it stops at age six when children continue developing?

Obviously it's easy to ask that question when I'm not putting in the info but I think it would be a useful source of info.

Anyway I'm off to trawl google for 7up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.64.205.55 (talk) 16:12, 13 July 2010 (UTC) Please delete all my Log in/create account accounts that I have made on Wikipidia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.79.164.226 (talk) 21:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Five year old section
Physical, cognitive, and language development are repeated, but with different information, which means it can be about six year olds. Someone either merge information with existing lists or make a new section on six year olds.MewtwoDude (talk) 22:42, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Swimming Reflex
I watched the movie "Blue Lagoon," and noticed that the baby that the two main characters have moves its arms and legs on its own when submerged in water, when it is, at most, a few weeks old. It also did not show any signs of starting to drown. I realize it's just a movie, but when I asked my aunt about it, she said that at a young age babies have a reflex to hold their breath when underwater, and that they can swim a little too. I was just wondering -- is this true? And if so, when does this reflex disappear? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.39.148.218 (talk) 04:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I've heard this mentioned before too. The practice of Water birth involves giving birth to the baby in water, and though the Wikipedia article doesnt mention it, Im given to understand that the baby will start swimming around in there automatically.  When does the reflex disappear?  I dont believe it ever does.  It's just that if you're not exposed to underwater environments until you're, say, ten years old, by that time you've long since outgrown relying on instinct to gauge your actions and you're going to say "whoa".  This is all hearsay, of course, which is why I'm not posting it into the main article.  Soap Talk/Contributions 10:08, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Water Birth occurs when the baby is still receiving oxygen from the placenta and therefore does not need to breathe. Putting a baby into water post-birth is totally different. Tripper (talk) 13:27, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Merge proposal
I was looking for "developmental milestones", and found a very short stub on it. I think the former term is likelier to be searched than the current title of this list/article. Also, may be with effort (actually quite a bit), this list could be transformed into full fledged article with some (at least) preliminary explanation of what all aspects of development are considered.

Looking forward to some feedback.

—Ketan Panchal  t aL K  16:21, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Can't see why not! Could even divide the article in two perspectives, if needed: changes vs age, age vs changes. All in tables. Khullah (talk) 03:48, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the merger with "developmental milestones" and with the idea that people are more likely to look under those words if they are looking to find out if their kid is okay. However, I got here from the psych end of things, and I was expecting an overview of the stage theories of human development (Piaget, Erikson, Freud, etc). Is there a page with nutshells of those that then could fork out into the detail pages for each major theory? Mirafra (talk) 23:18, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Ctrala (talk) 16:09, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Massive culturally biased errors are inevitable..
The simple act of breastfeeding an infant properly will result in a dramatically different set of milestones for an infant. For the most part, development of skills is slightly accelerated due to the well known benefits of breastfeeding, however, there is a large initial lag-time with certain aspects of hand-eye coordination for breast-fed infants simply because they have not been put into that do or die situation where they are forced to learn how to work a bottle.. additionally, stress has been shown to accelerate development of reproductive traits in many mammals (including humans), and I can't help but speculate that all the aches and pains of having to digest infant formula while simultaneously fighting infection without any help from the mothers immune system (via breastfeeding) must be pretty stressful..

Additionally, children who are abandoned into infant cribs experience far less human interaction than infants who's parents practice cosleeping at night. Crib infants learn quickly that they must cry out, and loudly, in order for their needs to be met, while a cosleeping infant will learn to communicate in other, more subtle ways, such as poking mom or dad awake when its time for a diaper change. This will obviously also have a dramatic effect on the development of infant social skills. Even worse, the use of daycare facilities where completely unrelated people care for numerous unrelated children for low wages does nothing to encourage growth in the ability to form strong, loving relationships.

Cultures that practice proper breastfeeding and encourage mothers to directly care for their children day and night will have a very different set of milestones than cultures that encourage the abandonment of infants in cribs and daycare facilities. There is no real love in the coldness of a silicone nipple. Zaphraud (talk) 20:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)


 * There are probably several examples of bias in this article, but this one leaped out of the screen at me: "Names eighteen to twenty uppercase letters. Writes several letters and sometimes their name". Surely that depends on various factors e.g. when they start formal schooling, whether the parents make any attempt to teach them to read before this, but above all whether the teaching system attempts to teach the uuper case or lower case letters first. PatGallacher (talk) 21:07, 10 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, Socioeconomic status (SES) plays a critical role in pretty much everything to do with development. Physical milestones vary by ethnicity. But, yes, most research is on medium/high SES and majority ethnicity. Not specifically a child-development research issue, though. Ajoykt (talk) 22:19, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Reading and Cognitive Development
i realize that this article is a generalized list, which is why I point out that some children can read by the ages of two and three. The article says that children "pretend to read" beginning at three, which is an overt generalization. I'm sure there are many others, but this was most noticeable to me. If the article could be made to come out of such a strict list form I'm sure it would be adviseable to include variations and avoid generalities. 24.16.246.124 (talk) 04:02, 1 March 2009 (UTC) Young reader

I agree -- this is an extremely important point about the whole nature of development. Let me see if I can put in some kind of discussion of that at the top. Mirafra (talk) 23:20, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

"Pretend to read?" So someone has asked a two year old if they're pretending to read or actually trying to figure out what they're looking at, given that they probably recognize the symbols they're looking at? Of course we're not talking about a being with great intelligence when talking about very young children, so it's much easier to predict and interpret behavior. That said, I think saying that children pretend to read starting at a certain age is quite presumptuous, especially in an article lacking good references and sources which anyone can access. Saying "shows interest in written text" would be better imo; not sure if the "offending" sentence is still in the article anyway. I know I was reading before 3, certainly not just going through the motions to imitate adults. This whole article is very fascinating to read, which is why I wish it was referenced better. 24.68.34.57 (talk) 23:54, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Specifications sorted by reached age
Where did this (massive) amount of information come from? The writing and punctuation style is inconsistent (particularly near the end; specifically the section titled "Six year old"), which suggests to me that it is an amalgamation of multiple lists, or someone added their own entries, without a source. Well, I don't think any of this section has a source, or at least not one easily checked, but I digress. Most of the points seem reasonable, but seem quite specific and numerous. I read this article roughly 1-2 years ago, and the information then was much more general, and there was almost nothing about development beyond age 4. Now there is a whole list, which, as I mentioned above, I have concerns about regarding its factuality and veracity. Anyone feel the same? Has an explanation? Has a reference anyone can view (as opposed to 3 books (1 very old, 1 somewhat old, and both those lacking ISBN) and 1 medical paper?

24.68.34.57 (talk) 23:39, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Most of this information comes from the denver developmental screening tool. An example can be found here: http://www.umsl.edu/~garziar/Media%20folder/denverresults_325.jpeg. It's a pretty common screening tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_Developmental_Screening_Test Naranoth (talk) 04:11, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

child development
Child development Checklist for development of hearing The following checklist gives some of the general signs which shows that the baby’s hearing is developing normally. New born The baby is startled by a sudden loud noise (e.g. door slamming) and blinks or opens his eyes widely. 1 month The baby begins to notice continuous sounds e.g. (vacuum cleaner ) and pauses and listens to them when they begin. Young babies are often soothed by particular types of music and singing. 4 months The baby smiles at the sound of his mother voice, even when he cannot hear her. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.141.79 (talk) 19:27, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

There are several theories of child development...
And this article doesn't really differentiate between them. Erikson's stages are noted, but there's no discussion of Jean Piaget's stages, which are as prominent if not more. There should really be some sort of introductory paragraph summarizing ECE theory, and then maybe the strictly biological developmental markers could be separated out? Because in psychological development, there are lots of differing opinions. Dare I mention Freud? -- hurtstotouchfire via 68.98.138.189 (talk) 03:32, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I removed the two stages that were part of Erikson's theory. As far as I can see now (but I did not read every line in this article), the stages in the current article are not part of a theory but rather observed stages in young children. So the theories of Freud, Piaget, Erikson etc now all are on their separate pages, which makes much more sense than trying to create an article in which all of them are mentioned. Lova Falk   talk  19:56, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Language sections
Although this is the English-language Wikipedia, its treatment of the topics is not supposed to be confined to the English-speaking world. The treatment and examples in the various Language sections presuppose, however, that the language the child is acquiring is English. A characterization like Uses the prepositions "on," "in," and "under" is totally inappropriate and inadequate for languages that don't have prepositions, which may be the majority of natural languages. I see no easy fix for the problem – even when another language has an obvious counterpart, such as a locative and other cases, it is not clear whether the (unsourced!) observation may be generalized to that language. --Lambiam 15:43, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Why not just state these are specific to English language. There are some things, such as Child Directed Speech (CDS), plus children's strategies such as cooing, babbling (prelanguage), underextension, overextension, and telegraphic speech which are thought to be universal. There are others such as referential style/expressive style known to differ between English and East Asian languages (Berk, "Infants and Children: Prenatal through middle childhood", ed. 7, Allyn & Bacon, p. 240). Whether there is an innate grammar is controversial, and we could link to the Chomskian theory for that one. Similarly, in early childhood kids acquire nouns before verbs in English, but verbs before nouns in East Asian languages (p. 354, ibid). Ajoykt (talk) 21:59, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Edit protection
I need to edit Child Development Stages please remove the semi-protected lock and put in edit edit edit edit edit edit on the Child Development Stages on the stages like you did before —Preceding unsigned comment added by Katebondy (talk • contribs) 05:26, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
 * There is a reason that the article is semi-protected: it has been the target of excessive vandalism for a protracted period of time. As a measure of protection, only established users can edit it. You appear not to have made yet even a single constructive contribution to the Wikipedia project, so your request appears rather peculiar and even somewhat suspect. --Lambiam 07:15, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: this user has posted similar requests nine times more since this one, in every case refusing to explain what she wants to add, despite being asked nicely. I have realized she is not listening and have removed all of the requests.   —  Soap  —  22:31, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Edit semi-protected

Edit request from 70.79.191.145, 18 February 2011
edit semi-protected

Can I edit wikipedia child development stages page?

70.79.191.145 (talk) 21:20, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. Salvio  Let's talk about it! 23:35, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Its the same vandal as above. We're just blocking her now as it's clear from those edits of hers that do get through she just wants to vandalize.  —  Soap  —  23:43, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Censorship of the talk page
Please do not remove blocks from the talk page. The block on this editor in understandable but if you remove the requests for the right to edit the reason for it is not as clear. It also encourages others to alter the talk page to suit them. Britmax (talk) 09:48, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * If you really want to see the old edit requests they are still visible in this old diff: and several others from later on where she tried to restore the content but was reverted by others.  —  Soap  —  12:44, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * It's not a question of me wanting to see them, I think that in the interests of process transparency everyone should be able to see them as they should not have been removed. Britmax (talk) 12:49, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
 * OK. I'm not gonna do it, though.  I don't think the people who read this talk page really care that there was a vandal. If they did, the diff link that already exists is enough.  If you do restore the old edits, keep in mind that that's how the other person got blocked.  —  Soap  —  18:02, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from 174.7.97.222, 24 August 2011
174.7.97.222 (talk) 03:06, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Please post the specific lines that you would like to have changed from and to and why, not the whole page. Thank you. --Jnorton7558 (talk) 03:24, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Edit request, 25 August 2011
The link to the "CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early.” campaign" in the [|External Links] section is broken. Please change the URL from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/actearly/screening.html to http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html or to some other page.

Olasunny (talk) 13:03, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
 * ✅. Feezo (send a signal | watch the sky) 17:36, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Merge from Toddler
The Toddler article duplicates, at least in spirit (I haven't checked it line-by-line), much of the information here. The info (and images?) there, to the extent it's (they're) "salvageable", should probably be merged into this article. - dcljr (talk) 02:55, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Toddler seems considerably better written than this article, so I wouldn't merge it in. Warren Dew (talk) 02:40, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Caloric intake
Any sources for caloric intake? The numbers seem high to me; I think the CDC numbers are around 1200 kcal/day for toddlers and preschoolers, not as high as 1700. Warren Dew (talk) 02:40, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

King's University College
EEdmiston Eedmiston (talk) 01:38, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

I will be editing the language sections of this article using information from a scholarly journal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eedmiston (talk • contribs) 14:21, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

English skills
Why "English skills"? Is it valid only with English? Why not "Language skills"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.237.59.206 (talk) 08:22, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

citations desperately needed
What is going on with these older ages? All of the information is unsourced, and a lot of it seems dubious. According to the social and emotional development sections, an adolescent's temperament flips from cheerful and friendly to moody and combative, like clockwork, every year on their birthday: I never realized adolescent social development followed a square wave, someone ought to publish that. 206.35.36.2 (talk) 21:19, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Age 10 - "overall disposition tends to be cheerful and fun-oriented"
 * Age 11 - "often critical of others, stubborn, and egotistical... more arguments than before... worrisome and afraid of things"
 * Age 12 - "overall disposition is pleasant and upbeat... less melodramatics than at 11”
 * Age 13 - "moody and uncomfortable with themselves and their surroundings... may believe the world is out to get them... may not get along well with adults"
 * Age 14 - "generally pleasant, sunny disposition"
 * Age 15 - "typically quarrelsome and unwilling to share their problems with others... may want to be independent and free of their family"
 * Age 16 - "good overall relationship with family"

"First ejaculation in boys" occurs at age eleven?
A user seemed to change the sentence "No obvious signs of puberty in boys yet" to "First ejaculation typically occurs for boys at this age" under the "Eleven-year-old" section. I would definitely like to see a reliable source for that, and until I do, I reverted that user's edit with the statement "It's rarely ever that early". According to the Puberty article, boys typically begin puberty at the age of 12, and have their first ejaculation one year later, at age 13. If a boy achieved spermarche at 11, that would definitely be earlier than usual.

2600:1700:8880:6410:F47E:F6C8:85C8:16F7 (talk) 08:30, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

UCSF Foundations 2 2019, Group 1a proposed edits
Hi! In the next two weeks, my group and I will be working on adding onto sections of this article. We will be expanding and updating the table on development milestones. We will also be focusing on adding more information in the table for ages 7 and up. Ksucsf19 (talk) 20:22, 30 July 2019 (UTC)Ksucsf19


 * I edited your header title to make it easier for peer reviewers to find it. Please make sure the remaining members of your group assign themselves to the article as well. Thanks. Health policy (talk) 03:13, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Major changes
I am going to be making some major edits to this page, as it currently has a lot of issues. The article has consisted mostly of unsourced content from the start, and it only seems to have gotten worse over the years. I am going to try and remove all the unsourced and improperly sourced content and add more sourced content.

Additionally, the page's content was originally organized in a list, and a table was later added by an IP editor in 2006. The editor put a single citation to a source that I can't access at the top of the table, but there is no way for me to know whether all the original content in the table actually came from there. For now, I am just going to remove that citation along with any other inaccessible citations used in a similar manner (meaning that the citation was found only at the top of a large section) and add them to a Refideas template at the top of this page. The table originally seemed to intended to be an overview of some of the milestones, but at this point it is pretty much just unsourced clutter, so I am going to remove the whole thing and add any properly sourced content from it to the list below. A properly sourced overview table can be added later on, if desired.

Please do not be alarmed if I remove a large number of bytes from the page, as all the information I remove will be unsourced or unverifiable. If you disagree with anything that I do, please either fix it manually or bring it up on this talk page, but please do not revert entire edits. - Preceding signed comment added by Evil Sith Lord (talk • contribs) 06:22, 3 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your work and please continue on this page its a mess. Poketama (talk) 02:33, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Factual accuracy tag
This article has been largely unsourced since inception and needs work, especially for such an important article. I noticed this when I undid a users addition from 2017 saying a 7 year old will begin to learn to ride a balance bicycle (and linked to a shop page). Other issues are well documented on this page and it comes from the whole thing being original research. Poketama (talk) 02:47, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia Ambassador Program course assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at King's University College supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2012 Q3 term. Further details are available on the course page.

The above message was substituted from by PrimeBOT (talk) on 15:59, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: English 102
— Assignment last updated by Amay22 (talk) 02:24, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Adult Development Fall 2023
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