Photograph of a Child and an Adult Children's overall development is closely connected to the development of the brain. Although all aspects of development are interrelated, different areas of the brain contribute to children's development across the different domains. The following are some examples:

Physical development is influenced by the motor cortex or band in front of the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe for hand-eye coordination, and the temporal lobe for hearing.
Social development is influenced by the limbic system, the frontal lobe, the site of reasoning and planning functions, and by the development of language.
Emotional development also is influenced by the limbic system and the frontal lobe.
cognitive development is influenced by the frontal lobe, the site of planning and thinking functions, and by the temporal lobe for development of language abilities.

An example of how brain development guides the cognitive domain is language development. A child learns language when adults talk to her. When she hears the same words over and over, as when an adult reads a favorite book again and again, neurons connect and the child starts to build a vocabulary. And when an adult talks about the story, even more new words are introduced, the child's vocabulary increases and she starts to learn the process of conversation. Hearing words spoken on a television program or videotape, for example, does not have the same benefit for building language skills and vocabulary. The temporal lobe that controls hearing and the parietal lobe that processes word meanings are involved in language development. When loss of hearing and other problems delay language development, these areas of the brain are affected. The interaction in give and take conversation is the key experience that wires the brain to develop language.