Welcome to Verywell’s Child Development Guide. Your children’s growth, needs, and challenges change quickly over the years—and your parenting concerns develop right along with them.

The guide is divided up by age group:

• Toddlers (1 and 2-year-olds)
• Preschoolers (3, 4, and 5-year-olds)
• School-age kids (6, 7, 8, and 9-year-olds)
• Tweens (10, 11, and 12-year-olds)
• Teens (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18-year-olds)

Overview

The overviews in this guide provide a glimpse into what you can expect at each stage of your child’s development, including:

• Physical development: Learn how your child’s body is growing and changing and take notice of the new motor skills they are gaining at each age.
• Emotional development: Discover what type of emotional changes your child is experiencing at each stage and the emotional development milestones kids in each age group meet.
• Social development: Read about how kids interact, develop friendships, and connect with the world around them at each pivotal stage.
• Cognitive development: Uncover the critical thinking and intellectual skills kids develop at each age and learn about their speech and language development, the way they play, and the key cognitive milestones they reach.

You’ll also find out how to know when to be concerned about your child’s development and what to do if your child doesn’t seem to be meeting key milestones on time.

For each stage of development, you’ll also find a discipline guide to gain valuable ideas about how to address common behaviour problems. You’ll discover:

• Typical behaviours you can expect from a child in each group
• Common behaviour challenges you’re likely to see from a child at a specific age
• Discipline strategies that work best for kids at each stage
• Strategies for preventing future problems
• Tips for communicating with kids based on their development

You’ll also find parenting tips for each stage that will help you raise a happy, healthy child. You’ll develop a better understanding of what your child is going through at each stage and discover the latest recommendations for keeping your child healthy. You’ll learn:

• Diet and nutrition strategies for dealing with picky eaters, serving size suggestions, and information about what foods your child should eat or avoid.
• Physical activity recommendations, including the amount of exercise kids need, activity ideas for kids, and ways the entire family can become more active together.
• Tips for around the house to help you determine age-appropriate chores, how to spend time together as a family, and children’s roles within the family.
• Doctor visits to organize well-child checkup schedules, what type of doctor to see, common health issues by age, and recommended immunizations.
• Sleep guidelines to explain how much sleep kids need and how to encourage better quality sleep for your kids.
• Safety guidelines and strategies for keeping your kids safe.
• Technology advice on how to handle screen time and how to talk to kids about social media, the internet, and electronic devices
• Your child’s world and how you can help them manage school or daycare, navigate new friendships, handle stress, and deal with bullies and other likely stressors at each stage.

We hope this guide will help you dig deeper into your child’s developmental stage and gain an understanding of what you can do to best foster your child’s growth.