What is Developmental Domains

Human services professionals are those who work with people in different settings. Their jobs entail helping others cope and/or manage a plethora of issues. Using search terms such as child development, child development theories, domains of development, and developmental domains, the author identified appropriate sources in order to write this chapter. Based on existing literature in the human services fields, the author's goals for this chapter were expounding upon 1) developmental domains, 2) major theories of child development, and 3) the importance of human services professionals studying child development. Developmental domains (physical, cognitive, psychosocial [also known as socio-emotional], and language development) are the areas of growth or change that are part of people's development. There are multiple theories of child development and in this chapter; the author covers the seven major ones. Last but not least, the author provides an overview of the importance of human services professionals studying child development as part of their academic training.