Child Development

a healthy pregnancy and delivery, obstetrations are
prepared to deal medically with complications. It is
not uncommon for midwives and obstetricians to col-
laborate.

Since the 1970s, a small but growing proportion
of North American women have chosen midwives to
attend their births. Many of these midwives are regis-
tered nurses with formal midwifery training and certi-
fication by the American College of Nurse Midwives.
There are also ‘‘lay’’ or ‘‘direct-entry’’ midwives, who
have not been trained as nurses. Midwife deliveries
may take place in hospitals, birth centers, or homes.

See also: BIRTH; NATURAL CHILDBIRTH;
PREGNANCY; PRENATAL CARE

Bibliography
Lefèber, Yvonne, and Henk W. A. Voorhoeve. Indigenous Customs
in Childbirth and Child Care. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gor-
cum, 1998.
Rooks, Judith P. Midwifery and Childbirth in America. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1997.
Faye B. Steuer

MILESTONES OF DEVELOPMENT:

OVERVIEW

Milestones of development are major turning points
in childhood that help organize or direct other as-
pects of a child’s development. Milestones occur in
every area of development: physical and motor, social
and emotional, and cognitive. Almost everyone expe-
riences these environmental (e.g., nutrition and cul-
ture) factors. Not reaching a milestone or an extreme
variation in timing may have an influence on the
child’s later development. One example of a physical
milestone is the development of the ability to walk.
Walking, rather than crawling, opens up the toddler’s
physical and perceptual world. A major social-
emotional milestone is the development of an attach-
ment to a major caregiver during the infant’s first
year. Secure attachment has been found to promote
the child’s later social and cognitive development.

See also: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Bibliography
Abe, Jo Ann, and Carroll Izard. ‘‘The Devleopmental Functions of
Emotions: An Analysis in Terms of Differential Emotions
Theory.’’ Cognition and Emotion 13 (1999):523–549.
Hay, Dale, and A. Angold. Precursors and Causes in Development and
Psychopathology. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993.
Lee, Kang. Childhood Cognitive Development: The Essential Readings.
Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000.
Diane E. Wille

MILESTONES OF DEVELOPMENT

Human development is a complicated affair, prog-

ressing as the result of the continuous interaction of

biologic and environmental factors. It is for this rea-

son that no two people are exactly alike, not even

identical twins. Despite such variability, there are as-

pects of development that are predictable, such that

children throughout the world develop certain abili-

ties and characteristics at about the same time. These

universal accomplishments are termed ‘‘mile-

stones’’—guideposts that reflect normal, species-

typical development.

The temporal regularity of these milestones im-

plies that they are under biological control, little af-

fected by the vagaries of the external world. This is

only partially true, for all aspects of development are

also influenced by environmental factors. Children

inherit not only a species-typical genome (DNA), but

also a species-typical environment, which begins pre-

natally and continues after birth as infants around the

world are nurtured by adults in social settings. Subtle

differences at both the genetic and environmental le-

vels affect development of even these reliable mile-

stones, so that experts are not able to specify the exact

time children will display a particular characteristic

but can state only approximately when they will ap-

pear. Variation around these average times is normal,

with half of all children showing these characteristics

sooner than average and half later than average.

In Tables 1–3 are partial lists of physical, cogni-

tive, and social/emotional milestones, denoted sepa-

rately for the periods of infancy, preschool, school

age, and adolescence. Some of these milestones have

great social significance. For instance, in some tradi-

tional societies, a girl’s first menstrual period signals

a move from childhood to adulthood; and, in Ameri-

can society, being out of diapers is a requirement for

admission to some preschools.

Perhaps the first thing to note is that there are

many more entries for infancy than for the other age

groups. This is primarily because the accomplish-

ments of the first two years of life are more under the

influence of maturational factors than environmental

ones. As children get older, their developmental

pathways vary as a function of the societies they live

in. For example, for children in literate societies, one

could have included milestones related to reading.

Reading, however, requires specific instruction that

not all children receive; moreover, there are different

writing systems, alphabets, and educational philoso-

phies that result in different patterns of reading-

related behavior even in literate cultures.

272 MILESTONES OF DEVELOPMENT: OVERVIEW