A child physician in El Cajon can help your son or daughter reach all developmental milestones with the utmost ease. The childhood development process is a remarkable, but sensitive process that requires good health care during each step. Over time, your child’s cognitive faculties, brain, behavior, and body structure will transform right before your very eyes. A doctor who specializes in this field can assess your child’s developmental progress.
Early Stages of Development
The first, and potentially the most important, stage occurs during the first month of infancy. By this time, your infant should be able to place their hands near their eyes and mouth, as this signals the presence of motor skills that will become more sophisticated down the line. Children are also expected the contract their hands into a fist, display rapid reflexes, identify specific sounds, especially familiar ones, and display a preference for human faces and soft sounds.
As you can see, a child physician in your area can serve as one of your greatest aids in giving your child a healthy start. Assessing a child’s health requires an in-depth examination of not merely physical health but of the cognitive and motor skills discussed above. The next milestone that your doctor will observe occurs during three months of age. Your child should be able to raise their head and chest while lying down, grasp objects, kick and stretch their legs, follows faces and objects with their eyes and coo and babble. A qualified doctor can easily detect these developmental milestones and screen your child for good health.
By the time your child reaches seven months, they will be able to roll in both directions, recognize their own name, engage in social play, use more consonants and convey certain emotions verbally. By twelve months old, your baby will develop new abilities, including sitting upright without assistance, finding hidden objects, crawling and displaying responses to verbal cues.
Later Stages of Development
Of course, qualified pediatricians near El Cajon are uniquely equipped to evaluate the later childhood stages as well, to ensure that your child develops steadily into adulthood. Between the ages of two and five, children experience some of the most life-altering neurological, physical and cognitive changes. By two, children should be able to run, kick objects, pull objects, say short sentences, mimic conversation, and have an awareness of a self. These are just a few of many changes a child physician will identify.
Between three and four, children engage in more sophisticated behaviors, such as riding bikes, speaking clearly, and much more. By five, they should be able to draw basic shapes, sing, dance, understand time, draw people, and a variety of other abilities. Overall, childhood development is complex, and requires the keen eye of a child physician in your area to screen for any delays or abnormalities.
