The Four Domains of Development

As you just learned, there are many domains in which children develop from infancy through school age. For this chapter, we are going to discuss four overarching domains: physical, cognitive, social, and emotional. The physical domain has to do with growth and changes in the body; the cognitive domain includes the functions of the brain, intelligence, and language; the social domain looks at how children develop skills for managing interactions with others; and the emotional domain covers internal states, such as feelings and personality.