Child Development in the First Twelve Months

By our first birthday, fifty percent of essential qualities needed to survive are developed. About twenty percent of all child development is completed, and this is not only physically but also intellectually, linguistically, emotionally, and socially. The infant is truly a remarkable creature. We, as adolescents, still struggle to learn new material, yet as a baby everything is new. We are open to it, though, at that age. To think, we were all infants at one point. Child development during the first twelve months is the most determining segment of a person’s life.

In the first three months, the development begins. As a newborn, we are completely dependant on others, but the baby has many skills that are imperative in order to communicate. We have a cry, reflexes, and brain capable to recognize routine. In the social aspect, we stare at who is feeding us and enjoy baths and other routine activities, and we begin to smile. Physically, our legs are not strong enough to hold any weight. We can something such as rattle, but cannot at it simultaneously. Also, we can hold our head by ourselves. On an emotional sense, we would quiet to the sound of a familiar voice and show excitement when handled and distress to loud noises. On language, the baby would stop crying to the sound of a rattle, turn our head to any sound, and make noise when happy. Intellectually, we are very alert and will follow with our eyes and we love to play with our hands. In only three months we have learned so many different truths about ourselves, our family, and our surroundings.

Notice I have been using the word “learn” often. This is because we can only learn when everything is new. The definition of learn is “to acquire knowledge of or skill by instruction, s...

... middle of paper ...

...limated, but a baby has no prior experience to base anything off of. We try with so much effort as infants. Throughout this paper, I have used the pronoun “we” as a substitution for the word infants because we must never forget that babies are human just like us, for we were once infants before. Please note that all the ages mentioned in this paper are generalizations and are not exactly the same for every child. However, the study of this subject is important and it is crucial to have some idea about the development at certain periods of a baby’s life because child development is the most determining segment of our lives

Works Cited

Butler, Trudi. "Child Development Chart". The Parent Guru. March 28, 2010 .

McDevitt, Teresa M., and Ormrod Jeanne Ellis. Child Development and Curriculum. New York: Pearson, 2009