From the moment you're born, you're a learner. Your learning environment might not be a classroom quite yet, but you are growing and developing all the same. Your parents will likely keep track of milestones like your first smile and first steps, but growth and development isn't just a focus for mom and dad; teachers must also understand the connection between students' development and how to work best for their success. In this course, you'll learn about human growth development from infancy through adolescence, including ways to plan for working with students through those stages. You'll learn about different theories of development, as well as how to apply those theories to meet the varying needs of students in your classroom. You'll also learn what can affect a student's development, including health and safety concerns, heredity, and their environment. By continuing to develop a portfolio and participating in field observations, you'll observe children of various ages to see first-hand how teachers make the connection between theory and the classroom.