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Child development is the study or examination of mechanisms that operate during the biological and psychological process of growth of a child to adolescence, from dependency to increasing autonomy. Pediatrics is the branch of medicine relating to the care of children. Age-related development terms are: Infant or baby (ages 0 - 1.5) (including neonate or newborn), toddler (ages 1.5 - 2); child; preadolescence up to adolescence and puberty.

The optimal development of children is vital to society. Therefore the social, cognitive, emotional, and educational development of children is important to understand. Increased research and interest in this field has resulted in new theories and strategies, with specific regard to developmentally appropriate practice within the school system. Along with all of these developments there are also some theories that seek to describe a sequence of states that comprise child development. Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory delineated development from infancy onward into five stages which centered around the particular area of the body which the libido was gratified by at a given time. He further argued that, as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development—first in the oral stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the anal stage (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in evacuating his or her bowels), then in the phallic stage. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the Oedipus Complex) but that the child eventually overcame and repressed this desire because of its taboo nature. (The lesser known Electra complex refers to such a fixation on the father.) The repressive or dormant latency stage of psychosexual development preceded the sexually mature genital stage of psychosexual development.

Milestones are the specific physical and mental abilities (such as walking and understanding language) according to age of a child. Milestones are the major focus of Child development stages. Milestones can be described as what a child accomplishes throughout the different stages in their life. An example of this would be eye-hand coordination, which includes a child's increasing ability to manipulate objects in a coordinated manner. Increased knowledge of age-specific milestones allow parents and other caring adults to keep track of appropriate development. Crucial aspects of child development include: patience, problem solving, social skills, and creativity. All of these traits should be taught at a young age and practiced frequently.^[1] A common concern in child development is developmental delay. This concern involves a delay in age-specific ability for important developmental milestones. Early intervention and prevention of developmental delay are the major focus of research in child development.

• Child
• Child psychology
• Critical period
• Feral child
• Early childhood education
• Infant
• Parenting
• Pedagogy
• Play (activity)
• Syndromes
• Attachment in children

• Child Development and Developmental Delay
• Child and Family WebGuide: typical development