Not surprisingly, how children and adolescents grow and develop is a central theme within the fields of developmental and educational psychology.
Development refers to a series of (normally) orderly changes in an individual's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development that occur over the course of our lives.
The term
physical development is relatively straight-forward, referring to the physical changes that occur over time in the human body (including the brain).
Cognitive development, arguably the preeminent focus of educational psychologists, refers to changes in how a person's thinks, reasons, makes decisions, and reflects on their thinking (I.e., metacognition) at various stages of development.
Emotional development focuses on a person's feelings (or affect), including an individual's developing sense of self-concept (I.e., how one feels about oneself) (
♾).
Social development refers to changes in how an individual interacts with others.
Physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development should not be viewed in isolation from each other. Each impacts the others. For example, a child's sense of self-concept (emotional development) is closely tied to their confidence in social situations (social development).
Although physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes occur throughout the human lifespan, it is early childhood which features the most sensitive periods. For example, due to rapid changes in physical development (including brain development), it is young children who make the most strides in human development, most notably learning to walk and talk, normally in their first two years.
