Beyond the Early Milestones

We focus a great deal of attention on the developmental milestones of the first six years of life. We watch for the first smile, first steps, first words and the growing ability to play, communicate and learn. But what do we do to support development as our children grow older?

Once the early foundations have been established, there are still countless opportunities to strengthen connections and help the brain organize and integrate new information. Older children continue to learn through movement, sensory experience, curiosity, conversation and meaningful engagement with the world around them.

For our family, travel became one way to extend what our daughters were learning through books. We brought them to historic places and museums where they could see works of art, examine objects from the past and stand where important events had occurred. There is no substitute for walking in the footsteps of people previously encountered only on a page or seeing the geography that shaped their lives and decisions.

Our daughters loved books, and one of our family journeys took us to South Dakota to visit places associated with Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House stories. Traveling across the prairie and seeing the openness of the landscape gave the books a physical setting. Distances, weather and isolation were no longer simply ideas within a story; they became easier to understand through direct experience.

Experiences like these connect reading with sight, sound, movement, place and emotion. New information becomes linked to something the child already knows, creating a richer and more integrated understanding. A story is no longer confined to words but becomes connected to a landscape, an object and a shared family memory.

Development does not end when the early milestones have been reached. The foundation built during the first years becomes the starting point for deeper learning, broader connections and a lifelong ability to make meaning from experience.