Child Development Hub

To help myself and other writers, the summarized information is intended to guide us as we create characters and their traits, dialogue that sounds authentic, and story arcs or concepts that resonate at different developmental stages. Use the tabs below as a writer’s desk reference and a source of inspiration.

A concise developmental reference for families, educators, and writers to consider when choosing or creating kidlit. The stages, along with age ranges, represent the majority of typically developing children. Some children may accelerate or lag behind, but the goals in each stage are achieved in order.

Sensorimotor

Age range: Birth to 18–24 months | Goal for stage: Object permanence

The infant learns about the world through their senses and through their actions (moving around and exploring their environment).

During the sensorimotor stage, a range of cognitive abilities develop. These include: object permanence; self-recognition (the child realizes that other people are separate from them); deferred imitation; and representational play.

Cognitive abilities relate to the emergence of the general symbolic function, which is the capacity to represent the world mentally.

At about 8 months, the infant will understand the permanence of objects and that they will still exist even if they can’t see them, and the infant will search for them when they disappear.

Helping children make a leap

Imitate actions of adults (kissing babies/others)
Petting animals, making the animal "voice," and labeling the animal
Labeling parents/self
Pop-up or manipulative board books help children process and attain object permanence as well as provide tactile interest
Mirrors help the child recognize and differentiate themselves from others
Playing peekaboo or hide-and-seek games helps your child develop their understanding of object permanence, as well as cause and effect.
For younger babies, hold a blanket or clothe in front of your face. If your baby can grasp and pull, put their hand on the clothe and pull it away. Repeat with toys.

Preoperational

Age range: 2 to 7 years old | Goal for stage: Symbolic thought

Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery.

During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one thing, such as a word or an object, stand for something other than itself.

A child’s thinking is dominated by how the world looks, not how the world is. They are not yet capable of logical (problem-solving) type of thought.

Moreover, the child has difficulties with class inclusion; they can classify objects but cannot include objects in sub-sets, which involves classifying objects as belonging to two or more categories simultaneously.

Children at this stage also demonstrate animism: the tendency to think that non-living objects (such as toys) have life and feelings like a person’s.

Helping children make a leap

Labeling objects with words to increase vocabulary
Engage in pretend play (block=car, banana=phone)
Beware of safety concerns--dishwasher packets look yummy, whirling blades of a fan look fun to touch, pan does not look hot.
Introduce ideas like Daddy is parent and Daddy is coach or milk is food, milk is a drink.
Join in play routines, animate toys or use puppets
Sort objects by color, size, type (car vs stuffie), or function

Concrete Operational

Age range: Ages 7 to 11 years | Goal for stage: Logical thought

During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events.

Children begin to understand the concept of conservation: understanding that, although things may change in appearance, certain properties remain the same.

During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (for example, picture a ball of clay returning to its original shape).

During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel.

Helping children make a leap

• Discuss cause and effect in the child's physical and emotional world. Teaching opportunities are everywhere. (Move from concrete thinking, i.e., Joe hit John. He was wrong. Incorporate cause and effect...First, John grabbed the toy and broke it.) Pose other possible reactions or causes.

• Experiment with the same volume of liquid in different containers

• Visualize the route between home and school both forward and in reverse.

• Start building empathy by asking your child what they would feel like if... ?

Formal Operational

Age range: Adolescence to adulthood | Goal for stage: Scientific reasoning

Concrete operations are carried out on physical objects, whereas formal operations are carried out on ideas. Formal operational thought is entirely freed from physical and perceptual constraints.

During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas (for example, they no longer need to think about slicing up cakes or sharing sweets to understand division and fractions).

They can follow the form of an argument without having to think in terms of specific examples.

Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems and consider possible solutions. For example, if asked, “What would happen if money were abolished in one hour?” they could speculate about many possible consequences.

Piaget described reflective abstraction as the process by which individuals become aware of and reflect upon their own cognitive actions or operations (metacognition).

Helping children make a leap

• Encourage adolescents to develop long term plans and predict outcomes

• Engage in mental math and manipulate problems systematically

• Challenge adolescents with what-if moral thinking and problem solving based on fiction and non-fiction scenarios.

• Consider our own thought processes and motivations, assimilate knowledge or experiences into new situations, and accommodate changes to existing schemas.

Reference Material

Bukatko, Danuta, and Marvin W. Daehler. Child Development: A Thematic Approach. Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2003.

· Related desk-reference pages

Speech and language milestones
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
Symbolic play and preschool play
Writing resilience (kidlit and protective factors)

Create matching Ghost pages from the HTML files in the content/ folder of this project.

This information provides age-anchored expectations for caregivers and educators, and reference for writers when creating characters and authentic dialogue.

Birth to 5 months

Coos
Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds differently (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)
Makes noise when talked to

6 to 11 months

Understands “no-no”
Babbles (says “ba-ba-ba”)
Says “ma-ma” or “da-da” without meaning
Tries to communicate by actions or gestures
Tries to repeat your sounds
Says first word

12 to 17 months

Answers simple questions nonverbally
Says 2 to 3 words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)
Tries to imitate simple words
Vocabulary of four to six words

18 to 23 months

Vocabulary of 50 words, pronunciation is often unclear
Asks for common foods by name
Makes animal sounds, such as “moo”
Starting to combine words, such as “more milk”
Begins to use pronouns, such as “mine”
Uses two-word phrases

2 to 3 years

Knows some spatial concepts, such as “in” or “on”
Knows pronouns, such as “you,” “me,” or “her”
Knows descriptive words, such as “big” or “happy”
Uses three-word sentences
Speech is becoming more accurate, but may still leave off ending sounds. Strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said.
Answers simple questions
Begins to use more pronouns, such as “you” or “I”
Uses question inflection to ask for something, such as “my ball?”
Begins to use plurals, such as “shoes” or “socks,” and regular past tense verbs, such as “jumped”

3 to 4 years

Groups objects, such as foods or clothes
Identifies colors
Uses most speech sounds, but may distort some of the more difficult sounds, such as l, r, s, sh, ch, y, v, z, th (may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8)
Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words; some difficult consonants may be distorted, but the child attempts them
Strangers are able to understand much of what is said
Able to describe the use of objects, such as “fork” or “car”
Has fun with language; enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities
Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around them
Uses verbs that end in “ing,” such as “walking” or “talking”
Answers simple questions, such as “What do you do when you are hungry?”
Repeats sentences

4 to 5 years

Understands spatial concepts, such as “behind” or “next to”
Understands complex questions
Speech is understandable, but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words, such as “hippopotamus”
Uses some irregular past tense verbs, such as “ran” or “fell”
Describes how to do things, such as painting a picture
Lists items that belong in a category, such as animals or vehicles
Answers “why” questions

5 years

Understands time sequences (for example, what happened first, second, or third)
Carries out a series of three directions
Understands rhyming
Engages in conversation
Sentences can be eight or more words in length
Uses compound and complex sentences
Describes objects
Uses imagination to create stories

Reference Material

Stanford Children’s Health — speech and language milestones

While foundational in psychology, Kohlberg's framework is often debated for several reasons:

Gender Bias: The theory was based entirely on male subjects, favoring a "justice" perspective.
Moral Thought vs. Action: The theory measures moral reasoning, which doesn't always translate into moral behavior.
Cultural Bias: It heavily favors Western, individualistic philosophies and may not accurately reflect the moral reasoning found in collectivist societies.

The framework gives us a loose (stages ranging from 3 to 7+ years) reference for the development of moral reasoning and is interesting to consider the leaps primary and elementary school children experience. Just walk in most kindergarten classrooms and you will find behavior reinforcement systems that shape routines, teach rules and consequences, and friendship skills. This eventually gives way to self-monitored token economies by 3rd grade. Even more enticing for writers, IMO, is the leap from Stage 3 to 4, as elementary students approach middle school and grapple with the rules of a "friend group" that might conflict with societal expectations or laws.

Preconventional (Level 1)

Stage 1

Typical ages: about 2–6

Description: Children judge whether an action is good or bad according to the consequences it will have for themselves.

Stage 2

Typical ages: about 5–8

Description: Children learn to conform to earn positive feedback or rewards.

Conventional (Level 2)

Stage 3

Typical ages: about 7–15

Description: Social rules and conventions become the authority for moral behavior. Children seek to preserve the rules of a group and are concerned with how their behavior is perceived by peers.

Stage 4

Typical ages: about 10–15

Description: The social conventions that guide behavior expand to include the norms and laws of that society. When examining whether an action is justified, the child might ask, “What would happen if everyone acted the way I did?”

Postconventional (Level 3)

Stage 5

Typical ages: 12+

Description: Morality extends beyond the frame of reference of any one society. Individuals feel as if they have freely entered into a contractual commitment with others, based on a desire for consensus and a rational assessment of mutual benefit from shared rules.

Stage 6

Description: Judgments of good and bad become influenced by universal moral principles. People at this stage agree that laws and societal values have validity, but if those laws conflict with principles of human dignity they hold internally, they will follow those principles.

Note (from author materials): Kohlberg estimated that only 20 to 25% of the adult population attains the postconventional level of morality.

Reference Material

Bukatko, Danuta, and Marvin W. Daehler. Child Development: A Thematic Approach. Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2003.

General characteristics and play materials

Age 2

General: Uses language effectively and large muscle skills. Energetic and enthusiastic with a need to demonstrate independence and self-control; some difficulty with stubbornness and negativity (tantrums).

Play materials: Swings, steps, ride-on toys, pull and push toys, castles, tents, water play, bubbles.

Age 3

General: Expanded fantasy life with unrealistic fears (monsters). Fascination with adult roles. More malleable and beginning to produce things through play. Better at sharing, waiting turn, cooperating.

Play materials: Props for imaginative/dramatic play, kitchens, tool benches, mowers, fire trucks, puzzles, art materials (play dough).

Age 4

General: More secure and self-confident. Wants adult approval. More planful but products are often accidental. Much improved small muscle control. Models similar to parent.

Play materials: Vehicles, art materials including painting, sewing, beads, building materials, books with themes beyond the child’s real world.

Age 5

General: Stable, predictable, and more other-centered. Early signs of logical thinking. Willing to share and cooperative with peers.

Play materials: Cut and paste, work from models, simple card and board games of chance (not strategy), elaborate props for imaginative play with peers.