Age appropriateness

Age appropriateness, describes people behaving as predicted by their perspective timetable of development. The perspective timetable is embedded throughout people's social life, primarily based on socially-agreed age expectations and age norms. For a given behavior, such as crawling, learning to walk, learning to talk, etc., there are years within which the behavior is regarded appropriate. By contrast, if the behavior falls out of the age range, it will be considered age-inappropriate. Most people adhere to these age norms and are aware of whether their timing is "early", "delayed", or "on time".

Age appropriateness is considered essential for children's skills development. Children's motor, cognitive and social skills are formed through several development stages. Looking at a child's functional development involves observing whether or not the child has mastered certain developmental milestones and expectations for their age. Lack of exposure to age-appropriate activities and experiences in a specific stage is thought to prevent a child from gaining the skills necessary for their current and thus their next stage of development.

There are various sanctions associated with age inappropriateness, ranging from social isolation, damage to physical health and cognitive development, and forming of improper behaviour.

Children develop physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally in largely predictable patterns. Physically, for example, most babies develop the skill of walking when they are about one year old. They usually develop the social and mental skills needed to play peekaboo by the age of 8 months. Being able to do these things at the usual developmental time is age-appropriate.

Sometimes age-inappropriate behaviors and beliefs indicate a developmental disorder. For example, babies and toddlers do not understand the concept of a fictional character, such as Elmo, being different from a real person, but most children understand this concept by the time they are four years old. It is age-appropriate and developmentally normal for young children to believe in Santa Claus, and equally age-appropriate and developmentally normal for them to stop believing in Santa Claus by the time they are eight years old or so. However, believing in Santa is age-inappropriate for older children and teenagers; the few who do often have autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Age-appropriate social skills and communication with peers can be interpreted in terms of cause and effect. Insufficient sets of age-appropriate social skills result in difficulty establishing social relations, and lack of social ties can worsen the underdeveloped set of social skills.

Students prefer to associate with those similar to them in various dimensions, such as age, gender, race, educational attainment, values, interests and/or beliefs, etc. This phenomenon is termed homophily. Therefore, normal students with age-appropriate social skills are more likely to gather together, building up friendships and cohesive groups within peers.

Students with special needs, especially those with autism spectrum disorders and serious behavioural disorders, experience severe obstacles in social participation, which involves building up friendships or relationships, contacts or interactions, social self-perception, and being accepted by classmates.