TExES Early Childhood: PK-3 (292)

This chapter covers Competency 001, Foundations of Child Development. It reviews typical milestones in the physical, cognitive, language, social, emotional, sensory and aesthetic domains, explains individual variation, and shows how growth in one domain affects the others. Knowing what is typical lets a teacher recognize both a concern that deserves follow-up and a behavior that is simply part of growing up.

Several principles hold across all domains:

Development follows a predictable sequence, but the rate varies from child to child.

Physical development proceeds from head to toe (cephalocaudal) and from the center of the body outward (proximodistal). A baby controls the head before the legs and the arms before the fingers.

Development moves from general to specific: an infant swipes at a toy with the whole arm before using a precise pincer grasp.

Domains are interrelated. A child's motor skill, language, thinking and relationships grow together.

Development is influenced by both biology (maturation, genetics, health) and experience (relationships, culture, opportunities to practice).

Milestone checklists usually describe what most children can do by a certain age. Public health milestone checklists describe skills that most children (about three out of four) show by the listed age, so a child who has not reached a milestone by that age warrants a closer look rather than automatic alarm or automatic dismissal.

Gross motor skills use large muscles for movement and balance. Fine motor skills use small muscles of the hands and fingers, often coordinated with vision.

Selected Motor Milestones

Handwriting depends on fine motor control, hand strength, visual-motor integration and posture, all of which mature at different rates. Many young children reverse letters such as b and d through about age seven; reversals alone are not a sign of dyslexia. Hand dominance usually becomes clear between about ages three and six.

Exam Tip: If an item asks for the most appropriate way to build a prekindergartner's readiness for writing, look for activities that strengthen hands and fingers (play dough, tongs, tearing paper, using spray bottles) and offer many purposes for drawing and writing. Tracing worksheets for long periods are a weaker choice.

Cognitive growth in the early years includes attention, memory, problem solving, symbolic thinking, classification, seriation and early number concepts.

Infants learn cause and effect (shaking a rattle makes noise) and develop object permanence, usually around eight to twelve months.

Toddlers begin symbolic play, such as pretending a block is a phone.

Preschoolers sort by one attribute, then by more than one; they ask many "why" questions; they begin to count with one-to-one correspondence.

Kindergartners and primary children develop more logical thinking about concrete objects, longer attention spans and growing working memory. Conservation of number typically appears around ages six to seven.

By grades 2 and 3, many children can classify by multiple attributes, understand reversibility (if 8 + 5 = 13, then 13 − 5 = 8) and plan multistep tasks.

Children also develop theory of mind, the understanding that other people have thoughts and beliefs that may differ from their own. It usually emerges around ages four to five and supports empathy, perspective taking and storytelling.

Language includes receptive language (understanding) and expressive language (speaking or signing). It also includes pragmatics, the social rules of communication such as taking turns and adjusting speech to the listener.

Selected Language Milestones

A common rule of thumb for how well an unfamiliar listener understands a child's speech is about 50 percent at age two, about 75 percent at age three and nearly all speech by age four, even if some sounds are still developing. Sounds such as /r/, /l/, "th" and /s/ blends may not be fully mastered until around ages six to eight.

Common Trap: A three-year-old who says "goed" or "mouses" is not making a careless error. Overregularization shows the child has learned a grammar rule and is applying it too broadly. The appropriate response is to recast the sentence correctly ("Yes, you went to the park") rather than correcting the child directly or asking the child to repeat.

Social development concerns relationships with others; emotional development concerns understanding, expressing and regulating feelings. Mildred Parten's classic description of social play remains useful:

Emotional milestones include stranger and separation anxiety in late infancy, frequent tantrums during the toddler years as children want independence but lack words and self-control, and growing ability to name feelings and use simple calming strategies in the preschool years. By the primary grades, children compare themselves with peers, care about rules and fairness, form closer friendships and can feel strong pride or embarrassment. Temperament, a child's inborn style of reacting (for example easy, slow-to-warm-up or more intense), affects how quickly a child adjusts to new situations.

Ages six through eight bring steady physical growth, the loss of primary teeth, and greater coordination, balance and endurance. Children enjoy games with rules and often care intensely about whether rules are applied fairly. Cognitively, they shift toward concrete operational thinking: they conserve number, classify by more than one attribute, put objects in order by size (seriation) and begin to reason about cause and effect in more systematic ways. Working memory and attention improve, so they can follow multistep directions and stay with a task longer.

Socially, primary children form closer friendships, often with same-age peers who share interests, and they begin comparing their abilities with others'. This is Erikson's stage of industry versus inferiority, so children are sensitive to failure and benefit from tasks that are challenging but achievable, along with feedback that focuses on effort and strategy. Emotionally, they can name a wider range of feelings, including mixed feelings, and use more strategies to calm down, though they still need adult coaching under stress.

Exam Tip: An item may describe a second grader who becomes upset when a classmate changes the rules of a game. Strong concern for rules and fairness is typical at this age; the best response teaches negotiation and problem solving rather than treating the reaction as a behavior problem.

Sensory development includes vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and the body senses of balance (vestibular) and body position (proprioception). Children learn by integrating these senses, which is why sand, water, textured materials and movement are valuable. Some children are over-responsive (bothered by noise or tags in clothing) or under-responsive (seek intense movement), and teachers can adjust the environment while documenting patterns to share with families and specialists.

Aesthetic development refers to children's growing appreciation for beauty, art, music, movement and nature. It develops through open-ended art, music and exposure to diverse artistic traditions, and it is valued for its own sake as well as for links to fine motor, language and emotional growth.

Children of the same age differ widely because of genetics, health, temperament, culture, language and experiences. Some families encourage early independence in feeding and dressing; others value interdependence and help children longer. Neither is wrong, and a teacher should not label cultural practice as delay.

Growth in one domain affects the others:

A child with frequent ear infections may hear speech inconsistently, which can slow language and affect peer interactions.

A child who walks later explores less independently, which can affect cognitive experiences.

A child with strong language skills can use words to resolve conflicts, which improves social success.

A child who struggles with fine motor control may avoid drawing and writing, which can reduce practice and confidence.

Memory Aid: Think "PILES" for the domains a teacher observes: Physical, Intellectual (cognitive), Language, Emotional, Social. Then add sensory and aesthetic.

Development follows a predictable sequence but varies in rate; milestone checklists show what most children do by an age.

Motor development proceeds head to toe and center outward; fine motor control underlies handwriting readiness.

Language includes receptive, expressive and pragmatic skills; overregularization is a sign of learning grammar.

Parten's play stages move from solitary and parallel toward associative and cooperative play.

Domains interact; a need in one domain can affect several others, and a strength can be used to support a need.

Cultural differences in child-rearing are not developmental delays.