Development milestones

Abstract

Child development is formed from several interconnected aspects that define the evolution of the individual from conception. Therefore, developmental milestones assess the natural order of advancement of functions, including sensory, motor, language, social, adaptive, emotional, and cognitive functions. To ensure the effectiveness of the assessment, it is necessary to maintain continuity during the childcare consultations. For this, monitoring the child's daily activities in order to detect delays early and to reverse or reduce losses in child development, enables a healthy childhood and the formation of an adult adapted and integrated into society. It is important to assess the influences that positively and negatively interfere with individual development, taking into account determining factors such as genetics and also other associated factors: environmental ones, which increase their interference from the second year of life onwards. Added to this, external factors: complications during pregnancy or birth, inadequate or absent prenatal care, prematurity, low birth weight, use of teratogenic drugs and mental health syndromes during pregnancy can cause exponential damage to development. For a development considered adequate, the ability of nervous tissue to multiply must be taken into account, especially in the first years of life. At this stage, external conditions can be harmful to growth. However, due to its great capacity for neuroplasticity, the child adapts better to interventions.