To encourage children s best development, we need to understand the various ways they grow. Children's physical development includes learning large muscle skills like jumping and running, and small muscle skills like cutting and pasting. Intellectual development involves children's increasing ability to think and solve problems. Emotional development is about learning to experience, identify, express and control feelings.
Social development means learning how to relate to others.
To thrive, children need a healthy physical start, enough to eat, and warmth and affection. To help their intellectual development they need a safe and stimulating environment where they can play, learn and explore. They need encouragement and guidance from adults. The earlier children experience good care, the longer their developmental gains last. Early childhood experiences have powerful effects on the development of children's physical and emotional abilities and influence their abilities in math, logic, language and music.