Each child grows at their own unique pace, socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically (and we break a child’s physical self into two parts gross motor development (large muscle groups) and fine motor development (small muscle groups, typically just the hands). Children, in general, meet up at the same “developmental” place, around the third grade.

There are many contributing factors as to how/why a child develops, the primary ones being: heredity, environment, general health, opportunity, and nutrition. I like to mention expectations as a developmental factor as well. I find it interesting to think about weather or not we are expecting enough or possibly too much from our children socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively as they age. . . . and how we have to incrementally and continually raise our expectations in each area, over time.

Each “growing up” process is unique. No child experiences the same rate and path of development; therefore there is a large range of TYPICAL chronological benchmarks. All areas of development are important. Children are going to have strengths and weaknesses; and both strengths and weaknesses need to be supported. This is where, I like to draw your attention to how siblings, growing up in the same house, same environment are often very different from each other; it is critical to celebrate each siblings “strengths” equally while not comparing them to each other. . . . . inherent in “comparisons” one is always left feeling “less than”. My aim here is to communicate that all areas of development are both inter-related, important, and follow a sequential process (however, childhood is when development occurs most rapidly, and where we establish our life habits)

I’ll also attach a link from the Harvard School of Public Health, for their description of “kids healthy eating plate”; (minimizing/eliminating “processed” food, antibiotics, and pesticides from our childrens diets will benefit their health today, tomorrow, and forever)
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/kids-healthy-eating-plate/

and another interesting read on ways sugar effects children: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/17/4-shocking-ways-sugar-affects-your-kids-health.html