Children’s development is continuous and can be measured in a number of different ways.

Although all children will develop at different rates and in different ways, the sequence in which they develop will be roughly the same as they need to have developed one skill, for example walking, before they move on to develop another such as running and jumping.

Development is often referred to on a timeline and is broken down in ages. As development is more rapid in early years the milestones start by being quite close together before becoming further apart as baby becomes a child and then a young adult.

The aspects of development that children are measured on are physical, language, social and emotional, and intellect.

Physical
Their vocabulary could consist of anything up to 150 words and the use of single words will progress to phrases and later small sentences. Questions will begin to be constantly asked.

Between two and three years their speech will have progressed into longer sentences and they easily learn new words, names, places etc. Children will begin to join in and remember both the words and actions to songs. They will begin mark making on paper with crayons/chalks etc. Their vocabulary can consist of several hundred words by the time they are three years old.

From three to four years children begin to develop their language skills further, their vocabulary continues to extend towards 1500 words and mark making becomes more controlled. In both speaking and singing they will start to use pitch and tone. They may start to use past tense.

As children approach five years, their grammar becomes more accurate and their language and conversations/questions more complex. They understand that pictures in story books help them follow the story and enjoy story books both with and without words. Their pencil control becomes steadier and they begin to form letters and copy shapes/patterns. They will recognise their written name and other commonly used words.

Between five and seven years children continue to build on their language both written and spoken. They will be able to hold