Final answer:
Early childhood covers the age range from 1 to 5 years, split into toddlerhood (1-3 years) and preschool years (3-5 years). During this time, children achieve significant developmental milestones such as walking, talking, and refining motor skills.
Step-by-step explanation:
The age range for early childhood typically spans from the end of infancy, around the first birthday, to just before the beginning of middle childhood, which is around age five. This phase of development is categorized into two parts: toddlerhood, which is from ages one to three, and the preschool years, which cover ages three to five. During toddlerhood, a child learns to walk and talk, shows rapid growth, and experiences significant cognitive and psychosocial development. By the preschool years, children continue to develop physically and cognitively, improving motor skills like pedaling a tricycle, and they can use language more complexly, sometimes with a vocabulary of up to 1,500 words.
Important Milestones in Early Childhood:
- Around age one, toddlers begin to take their first steps and speak simple words.
- By age three, many toddlers can run and climb steps, begin scribbling with crayons, are learning to feed themselves, and are starting to use the toilet.
- Between ages three and five, children refine their motor skills, develop the ability to create more complex shapes and letters, and increase their language and social skills significantly.