Objective: to identify the perception of primary care health professionals about child development. Methodology: Clipping from an action research carried out with 59 health professionals, seven doctors, ten dentists and 42 nurses who worked in Primary Care in a city in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Data were collected from April to July 2021, through an online questionnaire and analyzed according to Discursive Textual Analysis. Two categories emerged: Child development: acquisition of skills and factors that influence it; Child development: transformations established according to time frames. It is considered that child development translates as the acquisition of skills related to different dimensions of the child, and these are influenced by internal and external factors that will significantly affect the quality of life. It depends on the environment in which the child is inserted, the relationships established and genetics.