The growth of a child occurs swiftly across five domains in their first three years: social, emotional, cognitive, motor, and language. While the stimulation required to reach any developmental milestone varies from domain to domain, some general caregiving practices are recommended to facilitate a conducive and nurturing environment for the child. Some of these practices include:

Viewing Child as a partner in any interaction: This happens when the caregiver aptly responds to the sounds and the actions of their child—by imitating them, or helping them complete the sounds they make. Termed as positive emotional exchanges on account of the effect they have on the child, these responses tell the child that the caregiver is as interested in knowing them as they are in knowing the caregiver.

Observing Preferences of the child: Children, like adults, develop their set of preferences as they start to grow. These are expressed in the gestures and movements of the child in the everyday, and should be caught by the caregiver. Adjusting to a child’s preference gives them a perceived sense of control—and becomes the first step to the sense of autonomy they come to enjoy later as an adult.

Finding out what brings child pleasure: In line with viewing the child as a partner in any interaction, and observing their preferences, a caregiver must also find what action, sound brings the child the most joy, or pleasure. Repeatedly engaging in activities that bring child pleasure help strengthen the connection between the caregiver and the child.

Interact, Engage with the child predictably: Once a caregiver finds out what does and doesn’t work for their child, they should interact with the child in a similar fashion. This helps the child develop a sense of familiarity with the caregiver, and enables them to implicitly identify their role and functions in the interaction and/or engagement.

Together, the above practices constitute a caregiving form and method referred to as ‘responsive caregiving’: “a parenting, and caregiving practice that is nurturing and responsive to an individual child’s temperament and needs.” It is known to lead to healthy relationships between the caregiver and the child, and can be a determinant of how confident children are in social settings as they start speaking to people outside family, and how driven they are in their scholastic pursuits as they begin schooling.

A study conducted in the rural areas of Pakistan in 2019 found positive child outcomes at the end of twenty-four months of child’s growth to be strongly correlated to responsive caregiving practices followed by their mothers in the same period. The socio-emotional development quotient was specifically found to be high in children whose mothers could follow the responsive caregiving technique in the first 24 months—exhibiting its viability and success in a south-asian cultural context.

The development of a child in their first three years cuts across five domains: namely social, emotional, cognitive, motor, and language. Development under any domain in the first three years is reflected by the milestones a child comes to achieve—say the ability to walk under motor, the ability to recognize colours under cognitive, and so on. 

The domains encompass the different kinds and forms of capacities developed by a child in their first three years.  Motor domain comprises “physical growth; the development of sensory systems, including vision and hearing; development of the ability to use the musculoskeletal system for gross motor skills that involve large body movements as well as fine motor skills that require precision and the controlled production of sound for speaking.”

Social and emotional domains entail “the ability to understand and manage emotions and behaviour; to make decisions and achieve goals.”

The cognitive realm included the abilities of infants and toddlers “to derive implicit theories to explain the actions of objects and the behaviour of people; these theories forming the foundation for causal learning and more sophisticated understanding of the physical and social worlds.”

The domain of language, and by extension, literacy includes “knowledge and skills in such areas as vocabulary, syntax, grammar, phonological awareness, writing, reading, comprehension, and discourse skills.”

While apparently disparate, the different capacities under these domains develop simultaneously in the space of the first three years, and require a responsive caregiving approach for the developmental outcomes to be met in time.