Continuity vs. Discontinuity: Charlie's Story

jenniferzhou0313
5 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 8 hours ago

Bethany Huang Dec 3, 2025

Scientists have been debating whether children's development is continuous or discontinuous for a long time. A continuous development is a more quantitative process, which means children's abilities and skills improve in a cumulative way like growing taller. In contrast, a discontinuous development is a sudden change in different stages, and each stage shows their new ways of understanding and reactions to the environment. Today, we interviewed a nanny, Diana, and she talked about her opinions about this topic by telling the experiences of Charlie, who is a girl she once worked with.

Interview with Charlie's Nanny: Diana

Overview of Interview Content

Introduction

Can you tell me the child’s age and your relationship to he/her (parent, teacher, caregiver)?

“Charlie is five, and I was her nanny.”

Can you think any skills that your child is gained cognitively (attention, memory , categorization)socially (sharing, cooperation, negotiation), or emotionally (emotion recognition, expression, confidence)

“I guess memory. She has a very good memory skill.”

Can you describe how your child used to struggle with a task?

“I think it's more choosing what to remember. She knows that but maybe she forgets because she is doing something.”

Do you think now he/her can do it more easily?

“Yes. I think that's maybe for most children. I would say when [Charlie] was three and a half, that's when like she really developed, and she can recall things really quickly.”

What are some things you noticed that help your child gain the skill directly or indirectly? (e.g. practice, repeating exploration, instruction)

“I think reinforcement helps, but I feel like she also picks up things pretty quickly.”

Do you think he/she get this skill suddenly or gradually with other small tasks/skills?

“I think gradually. I don't think something just snaps. Maybe some kids would, but for these two I think it's still gradual. But I think with age and maturity; that helps them grasp it a little bit easier."

How does your child solve problems/face challenges compared to early times?

“I think Charlie do the same. [But sometimes] you have to kind of slowly gently push so like I took her to like a farm for her uh as her birthday gift last month i think it was last month she really want to ride this horse mhm she's been talking about it since like the spring so then we finally get there, and she's like 'I don't want to do this anymore.' I was like 'What do you mean like we're here.' And I was like 'No we just have to try we just have to try.' And then finally she's like 'Okay.' And then she went like four times so with her it's like you really have to push her a little bit."

This is a simple summary of every question I asked Diana and her general answer.

Developmental Timeline

A Timeline of Charlie's Developmental Pattern

(NotebookLM, 2019)

0-3 Years Old
At Charlie’s early memory development, she knows things but forgets sometimes because her attention is shifting on different things, and she is more willing to choose what she wants to remember. This situation indicates the relationship between memory and attention in early childhood. Because young kids’ control of attention is still developing, and their ability of holding attention is relatively weak, their memory often changes based on what they are interested in or meaningful.

At 3.5 Years Old

Diana mentioned at three and a half, Charlie’s memory developed obviously: she is able to recall things like events or names weeks ago, as well as doing so very quickly. During this process, Diana mentioned reinforcement is an effective way for Charlie to increase her memory. For example, if she needs to remember some rules in the house, everytime she does them right, she can get the candy she likes. Charlie’s example shows that her attention is also getting better (more effective and efficient) with memory because she can pay enough attention at that time when events happened for encoding and retrieving these memories weeks later. This is also a sign of developing working memory control and executive functioning. Although we can see the 3.5 years old as a milestone, Diana believed it does not mean discontinuity in development.
Different from Charlie, Sedona is her older sister, who has a relatively worse memory than Charlie. For her development, Diana said repeating information from parents or other caregivers is important, especially those things she is not interested in. For example, she is not good at math, and her parents and Diana need to work together to tell her the process of solving math problems again and again to make her remember it, but for doing hair like braiding, she can remember them quickly and well, and apply the measure to her dolls.

After 3.5 till 5

Diana said Charlie is always good at memory, and it continues getting better like what we discussed in the last part. But other skills like problem solving are kind of different. This is an example: Diana took Charlie to a farm for her birthday present. At that time, Charlie really wanted to ride the horses there but she finally did not. From then on she always talks about how she wants to ride horses. And finally they went to the farm again but at this time she said "I don't want to do this anymore." After Diana’s persistent encouragement, Charlie finally decided to try riding a horse. And since then, she loves riding horses. Thus, Diana said that for Charlie, when solving problems, caregivers need to push her a little bit to achieve her goal, and then it helps her build confidence. So when facing challenges in the future, Charlie becomes more confident and she can reach her goals more easily.

Conclusion

Combine the textbook How Children Develop (7th ed.) we learned in Developmental Psychology with this conversation with Diana. This interview with clearly illustrates some textbook’s explanations of continuity and discontinuity in development.

Charlie’s memory development from infancy to age 5 reflects the continuous growth of important processes such as attention control and working memory, which the textbook emphasizes as gradually strengthening across childhood. Her increasing ability to encode and retrieve information, supported by consistent reinforcement from Diana, demonstrates the textbook’s discussion of how both cognitive maturation and stable environments contribute to continuity in individual differences (Siegler et al., 2024).

Then, I'm happy that Diana mentioned both Charlie and her older sister Sedona, which helps us see more about how continuity and discontinuity connect with individual differences. The difference between Charlie and Sedona indicates the textbook’s point that individual differences in cognitive skills exist, but are influenced by interest, practice, and context (Siegler et al., 2024).

Finally, Charlie’s obvious change in memory at 3.5 years old may seen as discontinuous “jumps” within an overall continuous developmental process. I think this "jump" well shows how continuity and discontinuity are not absolute, but work together.

Therefore, we can tell that development is a process that can include both continuity and discontinuity, and it just depends on which aspects of growth is we observed and analyzed.