Child Development

Knowledge of child development is the foundation for work with children, and therefore is a requirement for all those seeking to protect children. It influences every aspect of a child from physical growth and mental abilities, to how they express emotions, think and behave.

Healthy development takes children through stages, whereby they obtain an increasing number of physical, mental, and emotional skills in order to become independent adults. These stages provide benchmarks for determining if a child is developing normally. Without knowledge of the normal developmental stages of a child, a worker cannot identify developmental delays, assess the impact of abuse, or make recommendations regarding the child’s physical, mental or emotional health. Understanding what a child is capable of allows adults to communicate on their level and provide age-appropriate responses and interventions.

Knowledge of early childhood development and attachment behaviour is particularly important for protection workers. The physical health and care a child experiences as an infant will affect their development into adulthood. A child needs to have experienced a positive attachment by the age of 3 in order to develop cognitively, physically, socially, and psychologically. Healthy attachments come from the close bond a child experiences when provided with the responsive and stable care of at least one adult. In a residential home, children are less likely to receive the amount of individual attention from a permanent caretaker that they require. Children under 12, in particular, benefit more from a kinship, foster or adoption placement where they can experience closer relationships.

Observation of a child’s attachment to caretakers will influence the type of care, permanency plan, and level of support services offered. It can also aid in the identification of abuse.

This section contains information on the importance of child development knowledge, guidance on the ages and stages of children, and attachment theory.

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Does Family Matter? The Well-Being of Children Growing Up in Institutions, Foster Care and Adoption

Christie Schoenmaker, Femmie Juffer, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, and Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg - In A. Ben-Arieh et al. (eds.), Handbook of Child Well-Being, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 03 Jul 2014

In this chapter of the Handbook of Child Well-Being, the authors review the findings from research on the cognitive and social-emotional development of children growing up in institutions, foster care and adoption.

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Complex Trauma: Facts for Caregivers

National Child Traumatic Stress Network , 01 Jun 2014

This factsheet from the US National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides useful information to parents and caregivers of children who have experienced complex trauma.

Fathers Matter: Involved fathers change the lives of children

Save the Children, 23 Apr 2014

This leaflet is a mapping of Save the children’s role and work in promoting the engagement of fathers. It presents some of the evidence of the benefits of involving fathers and some of the strategies used by the organization and others.

Driving Science-Based Innovation in Policy and Practice: A Logic Model

Harvard Center on the Developing Child , 31 Mar 2014

This narrated interactive feature presents a logic model showing how policies and programs that strengthen specific kinds of caregiver and community capacities can build the foundations of healthy development.

A study of children in institutions offers a perspective on the cognitive benefits of parenting

Mary K. Rothbart and Michael I. Posner, Times Higher Education, 13 Mar 2014

This article reviews a new book by Charles A. Nelson, Nathan A. Fox and Charles H. Zeanah who conducted seminal studies in Romania on children who were institutionalised, comparing their developmental and well-being outcomes to children who were placed in foster care or adoptive families.

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Psychopathology in Young Children in Two Types of Foster Care Following Institutional Rearing (Romania)

Florin Tibu, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Nathan A. Fox, Charles A. Nelson and Charles H. Zeanah, 12 Mar 2014

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. In this study the authors assessed internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 54-month-old children living with foster families in Bucharest, Romania.

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Growth, Nutritional, and Developmental Status of Young Children Living in Orphanages in Kazakhstan

Mary O. Hearst, John H. Himes, The Spoon Foundation, Dana E. Johnson, Maria Kroupina, Aigul Syzdykova, Musa Aidjanov and T. Sharmonov, 12 Mar 2014

This article provide one of the most comprehensive assessments of physical growth, biological markers of growth and nutrition, and general behavioral development, in this case conducted on 286 children under 3 years of age living in 10 institutions in Kazakhstan that were globally deficient.

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Maltreatment and Mental Health in Institutional Care—Comparing Early and Late Institutionalized Children in Tanzania

Katharin Hermenau, Tobias Hecker, Thomas Elbert and Martina Ruf-Leuschner, 12 Mar 2014

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Effects of an Intervention to Promote Socioemotional Development in Terms of Attachment Security: A Study In Early Institutionalization in Chile

Felipe Lecannelier, Jaime R. Silva, Marianela Hoffmann, Rolando Melo and Raquel Morales, 12 Mar 2014

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. This article reports on a quasi-experimental study commissioned by the Chilean government that had two general aims: (a) to assess infants’ psychoaffective developmental levels and (b) to evaluate whether an intervention based on the promotion of socioemotional development modifies the infant's psychoaffective development.

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Behavior Problems in Children Transferred from a Socioemotionally Depriving Institution to St. Petersburg (Russian Federation) Families

Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov, Varvara V. Agarkova, Elena A. Vershnina, Oleg I. Palmov, Natalia V. Nikiforova, Robert B. McCall and Christina J. Groark, 12 Mar 2014

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. In this article, behavior problems were studied in fifty 5- to 8-year-old children transferred from a socioemotionally depriving Russian institution to domestic families.

Behavior problems in children transferred from institution, St Petersburg.