While many of us parents find that our children definitely do not follow those growth and development charts perfectly and fit absolutely into the “average”–I do still believe that children do learn and develop step by step. One child may speed through the steps faster than another, and many children tend to go in stops, starts and spurts–but overall, I think as parents we need to respect that things happen step by step.
Expecting a child to go from sitting to running sounds pretty ludicrous, doesn’t it? Still, if we get stuck comparing our children to others we may wonder why so-and-sos child is already reciting the alphabet and ours is not even though their birthdays are only a few weeks apart. Children learn and develop one step or layer at a time so it is important to have the foundation and pre-reading pieces in place first, before reading and writing can truly be established. It is not so much about chronological age as it is about developmental steps and stages. Some things have to come first before others can happen.
For example, I remember that my own children had to learn how to do certain physical things before they could do others. They had to learn how to hop on either foot before they could learn to skip and they had to learn how to kick a soccer ball with their “preferred foot” before they could learn how to kick it with the other foot or even learn how to “dribble” the ball. One skill had to come before the other.
Remembering that there are steps in just about every learning process may help us to give our children plenty of practice and NOT expect them to jump ahead or be further along than they are developmentally ready to be.
Also: Be Aware of Developmental Stages