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My granddaughter lost her first baby tooth this past week. Such a growing-up milestone! When your my age, losing a tooth would be a growing-OLD milestone. Not one that I want to experience anytime soon. The new lost tooth, however, does represent a growth process in the physical development of a young child. It might be nice if cognitive and emotional growth developmental milestones gave us a physical reminder of what to do, also. Unfortunately, when a child does not recognize the letters of the alphabet, the adult needs to diagnose where she is functioning to determine what activity would help her develop that skill. Many early childhood teachers have not been equipped with the skills to do a proper diagnosis. Think of how much training a doctor requires to be able to diagnose an illness or a physical developmental stage. As impractical as it sounds, it might be nice if teachers of young children had a similar intensive training as they are charged with the emotional, cognitive and mental health of a child.