Holistic development means understanding the child as a whole person. Movement affects exploration. Communication affects relationships. Emotional security affects participation. Health, rest and sensory comfort affect attention. Culture, identity, spirituality, connection with the natural world and belonging affect how children make meaning.

Development is often described through domains, but the domains continuously interact. They are useful viewing points rather than separate compartments.

Development results from ongoing interaction among the child, relationships, experiences and wider environments. Biology matters, but development is not a fixed script. Family, culture, language, Country, community, health, nutrition, sleep, disability, temperament, stress, opportunity and responsive relationships may all influence what educators observe.

Important principles

• development often follows broadly recognisable sequences, but timing and expression vary;
• skills may appear in one context before another;
• children may communicate competence through movement, gesture, play, home language or assistive communication;
• temporary change may follow illness, fatigue, family change, transition or stress;
• uneven developmental profiles are common, and strength in one area does not remove support needs in another;
• high expectations mean believing in capacity while providing reasonable support;
• culture shapes valued knowledge, communication, independence, relationships and participation; and
• educators must consider access and environmental barriers before locating a problem within the child.

Infants learn through responsive relationships and active sensory and physical exploration. From birth, they communicate through gaze, facial expression, body movement, sounds, approach and withdrawal. Educators learn each infant’s cues and respond predictably and warmly.

Broad patterns educators may observe over the first year

• increasing alertness, shared attention, recognition of familiar people and reciprocal interaction;
• communication developing from crying and body signals toward varied sounds, babbling, gestures and shared meaning;
• growing head and trunk control, reaching, grasping, transferring objects and increasingly purposeful movement;
• exploration through looking, listening, touching, mouthing, repeating and testing cause and effect;
• anticipation of familiar routines and growing participation in feeding, dressing and care;
• strong preferences for familiar adults alongside curiosity about people and surroundings; and
• emerging object permanence, imitation and problem solving.

Responsive practice

• respond to cues rather than imposing a fixed timetable where individual routines are required;
• talk through care moments and wait for the infant’s response;
• provide safe floor based movement and avoid unnecessary restriction;
• offer simple, open ended objects appropriate to the child’s abilities and safety;
• use songs, stories, face to face interaction and the child’s home language;
• support continuity with familiar educators and family knowledge; and
• follow current safe sleep, feeding, health and supervision requirements.

Toddlerhood often brings rapid movement, communication and independence alongside a continuing need for close relationships and co regulation. Strong feelings, repetition, resistance and “me do it” are meaningful parts of development, not evidence that a child is deliberately difficult.

Broad patterns educators may observe

• walking, climbing, carrying, pushing, throwing, running and increasingly coordinated hand use;
• rapidly expanding receptive communication, gestures, words, signs and combinations of meaning;
• imitation, symbolic play, matching, sorting, simple planning and persistent cause and effect exploration;
• parallel play developing toward more interaction, shared moments and early cooperation;
• strong attachment needs, growing self awareness and intense emotions that exceed independent regulation capacity;
• increasing participation in eating, dressing, toileting and other self care when readiness and support align; and
• testing boundaries while learning what is safe, expected and possible.

Responsive practice

• use brief, clear language with gesture, visuals and time to process;
• offer limited genuine choices and predictable sequences;
• prepare for transitions and reduce unnecessary waiting;
• name emotions without shaming and provide calm co regulation;
• support movement, transporting, sensory play, repetition and manageable risk;
• model simple social language and help children repair conflict;
• allow children to attempt self care without withholding needed help; and
• interpret behaviour in relation to communication, fatigue, sensory needs, health, development and context.

Across the preschool years, children often develop increasingly complex language, imagination, movement, problem solving, relationships and independence. They still require co regulation, secure relationships, rest, assistance and expectations matched to the individual child.

Broad patterns educators may observe

• greater coordination, balance, strength, tool use and participation in self care;
• longer conversations, storytelling, questions, explanations and growing awareness of symbols and print;
• complex pretend play, planning, classification, counting, pattern, prediction and investigation;
• friendships, negotiation, collaborative play and developing understanding of perspectives and fairness;
• increasing emotional language and regulation, although stress can quickly reduce these capacities;
• strong curiosity about identity, bodies, families, community, nature and how things work;
• greater ability to remember sequences and contribute to routines; and
• growing capacity to persist, revise ideas and reflect with adult support.

Responsive practice

• sustain shared thinking rather than asking only test questions;
• provide rich conversation, stories, movement, inquiry, creative expression and open ended materials;
• support peer entry, negotiation, consent, boundaries and conflict repair;
• offer real responsibility without turning independence into a test of worth;
• include multiple ways to participate and communicate;
• connect curriculum with children’s cultures, communities and working theories; and
• avoid school readiness practices that narrow learning to sitting still, worksheets or rote performance.

Children do not need to develop, communicate, move, regulate or participate in one standard way to be capable learners. Disability, neurodivergence, developmental delay and chronic health conditions may influence development, but they do not define the whole child.

Strengths based and inclusive practice

• describe what the child does, communicates, enjoys and is learning before describing difficulty;
• ask what the behaviour or response may communicate;
• identify environmental, communication, sensory, social and procedural barriers;
• make reasonable adjustments to pedagogy, routines, communication, resources and spaces;
• use the child’s established communication system consistently;
• seek the child’s and family’s knowledge about what helps;
• work within professional roles and implement agreed specialist strategies;
• maintain high expectations without demanding masking, distress or unsafe performance; and
• review whether support increases meaningful participation rather than mere compliance.

Educators are often well placed to notice patterns over time and across everyday situations. Their role is to observe carefully, respond within practice, communicate through authorised pathways and contribute information. Educators should use an approved assessment tool only when trained and authorised to do so. Clinical assessment and diagnosis belong to appropriately qualified professionals.

Information that may warrant closer attention

• loss of previously established communication, movement, self care, play or social skills;
• a consistent absence of expected progress across time, particularly across more than one context;
• persistent difficulty seeing, hearing, moving, eating, communicating, engaging or participating;
• responses that suggest pain, significant distress or a health concern;
• a marked difference between the child’s participation and available opportunities or supports;
• concerns raised by the child, family or another professional; or
• a pattern that affects the child’s safety, wellbeing, relationships, access or daily functioning.

A single observation rarely explains why something is occurring. Consider frequency, duration, context, what happened before and after, strengths, supports already tried and whether the pattern appears elsewhere.

Communicating with families

• begin with a respectful purpose and the child’s strengths;
• share specific observations, not a diagnosis or alarming conclusion;
• ask what the family observes and what is typical in familiar contexts and home languages;
• listen without arguing, blaming or demanding agreement;
• explain available supports and who can provide appropriate advice;
• record and share information only as authorised or lawfully required; and
• continue inclusive support regardless of whether a diagnosis exists.