In line with its mission, the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony makes every effort to provide reliable medical content supported by the latest scientific knowledge. The additional flag “Checked Content” indicates that the article has been reviewed by or written directly by a physician. This two-step verification: a medical journalist and a doctor allows us to provide the highest quality content in line with current medical knowledge.
Our commitment in this area has been appreciated, among others, by by the Association of Journalists for Health, which awarded the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony with the honorary title of the Great Educator.
Infancy covers the first 12 months from birth. During this time, the child’s body undergoes important changes that affect the entirety of the person who is being shaped in the future. The child’s development during this period is uneven. The baby just seems to be growing on a regular and systematic basis. Meanwhile, a child’s development also includes so-called developmental leaps. What are they, how often do they occur and what new behaviors of our children may be associated with?
During the first year of a person’s life his entire organism develops, along with all its systems. Accelerated development gives rise to new behaviors and abilities in the child. Therefore, the periods of rapidly accelerated development are called a leap in development. The first of jumping babies pass when they are only about 5 weeks old. However, the last of the development leaps falls on the 20th month.
Symptoms of developmental jumps
Each of the developmental leaps is associated with the acquisition of new skills by the child, new competences in the field of behavior, and sometimes even a radical change in the current ways of functioning. If your child begins to have problems falling asleep, his mood changes for the worse: he cries more and louder, grumbles, is irritable, and at the same time demands more parental care than usual, it may mean that he is approaching developmental leap. Because each of the jumping is associated with the accelerating development of the nervous system, the symptoms are most often unpleasant and burdensome for a child, and are also associated with a change in the way their existing sensory apparatus functions. It can therefore make the child feel a general sense of helplessness and confusion, thereby increasing the need to care for and experience love.
How many development leaps are there?
Usually only stands out 7 development leaps, falling in the first year of life through which every human being goes through in the course of his organic development. Of course, it is worth remembering that the moment of occurrence of a given jump is approximate and may vary from person to person over a period of days or even weeks.
The first major development leap we observe in a child in the 5th week of life. During this period, the sensory organs responsible for perceiving sound, visual impressions and smells develop and specialize. As a result, the child may be hypersensitive during this period to the excess of sensations they perceive, and it is easier to stress or fall into a state of anxiety. Unfortunately, it may take a few days for a child to get used to this new, extremely sensitive way of perceiving the world.
At 8 weeks of age follows the second important development leap. Developing senses open up for the child access to the world of various sound, taste and smell sensations. Also, motor skills and the ability to use hands are developed, and they become objects of play for the child. The child also learns to distinguish the tone of the voice, to recognize the emotions of his loved ones. The child becomes more sensitive and sensitive to the perception of the world. The child’s curiosity to experiment also develops – with his own voice, body, and behavior. During this period, the child learns to make new sounds on purpose.
Another development leap falls on the interval between 14 and 19 weeks of age. The child then has the ability to recognize the logical order of events: by throwing a toy on the floor, he does it on purpose, as he knows that doing so will create the impact sound. The child is able to deliberately produce the effect that he expects. In this respect, his manual skills develop: the child is able to gesture in a simple way, for example to point to a toy that interests him; as well as mimic skills: the child learns to make new sounds and simulate expressions.
The period between 22 and 26 weeks of age this is another developmental leap. During it, separation anxiety appears, which means that the child begins to fear separation from his loved ones. A child, realizing the physical separateness of objects and people, begins to fear the loss of parents, especially the mother, in front of his eyes, and also shows a clear reluctance towards unknown people who appear in his field of vision.
Another important development leap to the period between 33 and 37 weeks, which is about 8 months of age. Then the intelligence of our child begins to develop at a significant pace. The child begins to take the initiative – he takes up play himself, actively expresses his emotions, begins to actively express his well-being – for example through pranks or making funny faces.
The last leap in development falls per interval between 41 and 48 weeks of age. During this period, the way our children understand events develops. During this period, children are able to perform simple tasks – to match toys of a similar shape to each other, follow the guardian’s orders, imitate sounds made by instruments (e.g. a car) or animals.