Synonyms
Definition
Behaviors that develop throughout infancy and childhood, such as crawling, walking, and talking.
Introduction
As infants enter the world, their awareness and perception of their environment are experienced through their response to external stimuli. At the time of birth, infants possess functional sensory skills including audition, haptics, olfaction, gustation, and vision. These skills enable infants to obtain information and stimulation from their environment while also maturing these senses to further gain perceptual knowledge in their later years. After birth, humans continue to develop and achieve new functions as they grow. This development of a new function is considered a milestone in human development. As one grows into adulthood, he or she will undergo multiple cognitive and physical milestones, including critical developments in language/communication and motor/movement skills.
Although every individual endures his or her own unique...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Adolph, K. E., Berger, S. E., & Leo, J. A. (2011). Developmental continuity? Crawling, cruising, and walking. Developmental Science, 14(2), 306–318.
Amso, D., & Scerif, G. (2015). The attentive brain: Insights from developmental cognitive neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 606–619.
Baillargeon, R. (1987). Object permanence in 3½- to 4½-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 23(5), 655–664.
Breslin, A. S. P. (2013). An evolutionary perspective on food and human taste. Current Biology, 23, 409–418.
Dunn, W., Griffith, J. W., Sabata, D., Morrison, M. T., MacDermid, J. C., Darragh, A., Schaaf, R., Dudgeon, B., Connor, L. T., Carey, L., & Tanquary, J. (2015). Measuring change in somatosensation across the lifespan. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(3), 1–9.
Eaves, B. S., Jr., Griffiths, T. L., Fledman, N. H., & Shafto, P. (2016). Infant directed speech is consistent with teaching. Psychological Review, 123(6), 758–771.
James, A. (2009). Development of hearing. About kids health: Trusted answers from the hospital for sick children. Retrieved from http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/ResourceCentres/PrematureBabies/LookingAhead/GrowthandDevelopment/Pages/Development-of-Hearing.aspx
Masapollo, M., Polka, L., & Ménard, L. (2016). When infants talk, infants listen: Pre-babbling infants listening to speech with infant vocal properties. Developmental Science, 19(2), 318–328.
Mombaerts, P. (2001). How smell develops. Nature Neuroscience Supplement, 4, 1192–1198.
Murray, G. K., Jones, P. B., Kuh, D., & Richards, M. (2007). Infant developmental milestones and subsequent cognitive function. American Neurological Association, 62, 128–136.
Neys, W. D., & Vanderputte, K. (2011). When less is not always more: Stereotype knowledge and reasoning development. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 432–441.
Piaget, J. (1951). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. New York: Routledge.
Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic.
Renzi, D. T., Romberg, A. R., Bolger, D. J., & Newan, R. S. (2017). Two minds are better than one: Cooperative communication as a new framework for understanding infant language learning. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 3(1), 19–33.
Romanczyk, R. G., Gillis, J. M., Noyes-Grosser, D. M., Holland, J. P., Holland, C. L., & Lyons, D. (2005). Clinical clues, developmental milestones, and early identification/assessment of children with disabilities: Practical applications and conceptual considerations. Infants & Young Children, 18(3), 212–221.
Santrock, J. (2011). Adolescence (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schneider, W., & Ornstein, P. A. (2015). The development of children’s memory. Child Development Perspectives, 9(3), 190–195.
Siegler, R. S., Liebert, D. E., & Liebert, R. M. (1973). Inhelder and Piaget’s pendulum problem: Teaching preadolescents to act as scientists. Developmental Psychology, 9(1), 97–101.
Slater, A. (1998). Perceptual development: Visual, auditory, and speech perception in infancy. Hove: Psychology Press.
Stoel-Gammon, C. (2006). Infancy: Phonological development In Keith Brown (ed.). Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (2nd ed.). (pp. 642–648). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Walk, R. D., & Gibson, E. (1960). The visual cliff. Scientific American, 202, 67–71.
Wittmann-Price, A. R. (2010). The olfactory sense: A developmental and lifespan perspective. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21, 2545–2554.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lorentz, B. (2017). Developmental Milestones. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2369-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2369-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences