Explore milestones in human brain development

Physical development is easy to see.

But you can’t open up someone’s head to examine cognitive and brain development.

Let’s take a look at how children learn and think as they grow from babies to teens.

During the first year of life, 1 million neural connections are made every second. These allow infants to recognize human faces, see if a person is happy or sad, and recognize certain voices.

By age 2, children can now fully understand that the face looking back at them is their own.
One of the first signs of cognitive growth is acting with intention. At first, a baby doesn’t know why they kick their legs—they just do it!

But as their brains grow connections, babies can think about how and why they want to move.
“Serve and return” interactions, like responding to a baby’s babble or cry with words or a hug, are important to shaping a baby’s brain.

The preschool years are a time of “blossoming” in the brain.

Synaptic density reaches its peak during the third year, this allows children a stronger ability to use the past to interpret the present.

Children become better at using the past to interpret the present.

This period is what we might call the golden age of playing pretend.

Pretend play helps support cognitive development and learning, and pretend play is even a stepping stone to the important adult skill of planning.

Listening to their favorite stories and retelling them on their own are ways preschoolers develop early literacy skills.

Play that involves sorting, matching, classifying, or sequencing—like with buttons or building blocks—is also important, contributing to emerging literacy and helping to strengthen hand muscles.

The sensitivity of a developing brain is evident throughout the early years. An adverse childhood experience can have an impact on learning and development.

When a situation is perceived as threatening by the brain, the body produces chemical reactions that affect heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, and focus.

Though these reactions are meant to keep us safe, they can be physically harmful if they happen too often. Childhood adversity actually changes biological and neurological systems.

On the positive side, grade schoolers are also developing new skills of metacognition. It’s important for them to learn to reflect on their own thoughts so they can practice organization and make independent choices.

Though the brain may be done growing in size by the teen years, it’s not done developing and maturing.

The prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for skills like planning, prioritization, and impulse control, may not finish developing until the mid- to late-20s.

There is a heightened reward sensitivity that may cause teens to take more risks, but also motivates them to get out into the world and learn the skills they need to become successful adults.

It’s why the pre-teen and teenage years are full of growth and learning.

And learn they must. These years are all about developing the frontal cortex, which controls reasoning.

Real learning isn’t easy at any age. Encouraging experimentation and growth are necessary every step of the way. And remember, mistakes are okay—it’s how we learn.

Have more questions about how childhood learn? Check out parents.britannica.com.