Children learn at different rates

You may have found the activity in the last step frustrating. It can be difficult to match development to a specific age. This is because each child is unique, learning in different ways and at their own pace. A child can typically catch a large ball between the ages of 30 and 50 months. But even then, this is not set in stone. When caring for or working with young children, it is useful to know what they may be able to do at a certain age. But this information should only ever be used as a guide and never as a checklist.

In this video, Catherine Stewart, head of Early Years at the British Council school in Madrid, talks about how young children learn and develop. Well, from our experience of working here, in the British Council School, with children from 14 months up to 6 years of age, we know that all children learn at different rates and in different ways. Our curriculum, which is the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum from England, acknowledges this.

And so it breaks down objectives into different subject areas and different age bands so that children, they don’t have to be in the correct age band where they are, they can be a little bit maybe before, or even a little bit beyond, but taking into account that children all develop at different rates.