The study of the sequential physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes a child undergoes between birth and adolescence or adulthood.

The first detailed scientific study of child development was probably Charles Darwin's Biographical Sketch of an Infant (1877), based on a log he had kept on the development

LANDMARK PUBLICATIONS ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT

1877 Charles Darwin's Biographical Sketch of an Infant, observations on development of his eldest child.

1880 G. Stanley Hall, the "father of child psychology in America," publishes The Contents of Children's Minds.

1914 John Broadus Watson publishes his most important work, Behavior—An Introduction to Comparative Psychology.

1926 Jean Piaget publishes The Child's Conception of the World, followed ten years later by The Orgin of Intelligence in Children.