EARLY CHILDHOOD
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Physical Changes
● Body Growth and Change.
- Growth in height and weight is the obvious physical change that characterizes early childhood.
- Unseen changes in the brain and nervous system are no less significant in preparing children for advances in cognition and language.
● Height and Weight.
- The average child grows 2 ½ inches in height and gains weight between 5 and 7 pounds a year during early childhood.
- Growth patterns vary individually, though. Girls are only slightly smaller and lighter than boys during these years, a difference that continues until puberty.
● Brain.
- Although the brain continues to grow in early childhood, it does not grow as rapidly as in infancy. By the time children reach the age of 3 years of age, the brain is three- quarters of its adult size.
- By age 6, the brain reached about 95 percent of its adult volume. Thus, the brain of a 5-year- old is nearly the size it will be where the child reaches adulthood.
- Myelination is the process by which the nerve cells are covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells, which increases the speed at which information travels through the nervous system. From 3 to 6 years of age, the most rapid growth in the brain occurs in the frontal lobes.
Motor Development
● Gross Motor Skills.
- At three years of age, children enjoy simple movements, such as jumping, hopping, jumping and running back and forth, just as the sheer delight of performing activities. Children become increasingly adventuresome as their gross motor skills improve.
● Fine Motor Skills.
- At age 3 years of age, although children have the ability to pick up the tiniest objects between their thumb and forefinger for some time, they are still somewhat clumsy at it.
- By age 4 years of age, children’s fine motor coordination has improved substantially and become more precise.
- By age 5 years old, children’s fine motor coordination has improved further.
● Nutrition
- Good nutrition is essential during childhood, as it is a time of rapid growth, development and activity.
- The child’s life should be centered on activities, not meals. Other nutritional concerns include malnutrition in early childhood and the inadequate diets of many children living in poverty.
- Childhood obesity contributes to a number of health problems in young children.
- Malnutrition in young children from low- income families.
- One of the most common nutritional problems in early childhood is iron deficiency anemia, which results in chronic fatigue. This problem results from the failure to eat adequate amounts of quality meats and dark green vegetables.
- Young children from low- income families are the most likely to develop iron- deficiency anemia.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Cognitive theories of early childhood development were: Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s.
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
● Preoperational Stage.
- Piaget’s second stage, lasting from about2 to 7 years of age, during which children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings and symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action; stable concepts are formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism is present and magical beliefs are constructed.
● Operations.
- In Piaget’s theory, these are reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they formerly did physically. Preoperational thought is the beginning of the ability to reconstruct in thought what has been established in behavior. Divided into two substages:
The Symbolic Function Substage.
- Piaget’s first substage preoperational thought, in which the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present (between about 2 and 4 years of age).
Egocentrism.
- The inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s (salient feature of the first substage of pre-operational thought).
- Represents cognitive bias
Animism.
- The belief that inanimate objects have life-like qualities and are capable of action.
The intuitive thought Substage.
- Piaget’s second substage of preoperational thought, in which children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions (between 4 and 7 years of age). Piaget Called this substage intuitive because young children seem so sure about their knowledge and understanding yet are unaware of how they know what they know. That is, they know something but know it without the use of rational reasoning.
Centration.
- The focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of others.
Conservation.
- In Piaget’s theory, awareness that altering an object’s or a substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.
- The beaker test is a well-known Piagetian test to determine whether a child can think operationally- that is can mentally reverse actions and show conservation of the substance.
Vygotsky’s Theory – socio-cultural context
The Zone of Proximal Development.
- Vygotsky’s belief in the importance of social influences, especially instruction, on how children’s development. This is the term for tasks too difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered with the assistance of adults or more- skilled children.
● The lower limit of the ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently.
● The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor.
Scaffolding.
- It literally means changing the level of support.
- Over the course of teaching session, a more skilled person adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the child’s current performance.
Language and Thought According to Vygotsky.
- Children use speech not only for social communication, but also to help them solve tasks. He further believed that young children use language to plan, guide and monitor their behavior. This use of language for self- regulation is called private speech.
Theory of Mind.
- Refers to the awareness of one’s own mental processes and the mental processes of others.
- Studies of the theory of mind view that the child “a thinker who is trying to explain, predict and understand people’s thoughts, feelings, and utterances”.
Developmental Changes.
- Children’s theory of mind changes as they develop through childhood. Some changes occur quite early in development.
- From 18 months to 3 years of age, children begin to understand three mental states:
● Perceptions.
By age 2 years of age, children recognize that another person will see what’s in front of her own eyes instead of what’s in front of the child’s eyes, and by the 3years of age, they realize that looking leads to knowing what’s inside the container.
● Emotions.
- The child can distinguish between positive (for example, happy) and negative (sad, for example) emotions. A child might say, ‘Tommy feels bad”.
● Desires.
- All humans have some sort of desires. But when do children begin to recognize that someone else’s desires maybe different from their own? Toddlers recognize that if people wants something, they will try to get it. For instance, a child might say, “I want my mommy”.
Language Development
● Young Children increase their grasp of language rules system. In terms of phonology, most young children become more sensitive to the sounds of spoken language. Berko’s classic experiment demonstrated that young children understand morphological rules.
● Preschool children learn and apply rues of syntax and how words should be ordered. In terms of semantics, vocabulary development increases dramatically during early childhood. (semantics)
● Young children’s conversational skills improve, they increase their sensitivity to the needs of others' conversations, and they learn to change their speech style to suit the situation.
● Parents and teachers need to provide children a supportive environment for them to develop literacy skills. Children Should be active participants and be immersed in a wide arrange of interesting listening, talking, writing and reading experiences.
Early Childhood Education
The Child- Centered Kindergarten.
- Education that involves the whole child by considering both the child’s physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development and the child’s needs, interests and learning styles.
It honors three principles:
each child follows a unique developmental pattern;
young children learn best through firsthand experiences with people and materials and;
play is extremely important in the child’s total development. It is closely attuned to the developmental status of 4 and 5 year old children.
Montessori Approach.
- An educational philosophy in which children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities and are allowed to move from one activity to another as they desire.
- The teacher acts as a facilitator rather than a director. The teacher shows the child how to perform intellectual activities, demonstrates interesting ways to explore curriculum materials, and offers help when the child requests it.
c. SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Emotional and Personality Development
● Initiative vs. Guilt. (3rds stage of erik Ericksons)
- By now, children have become convinced that they are persons of their own; during early childhood, they begin to discover what kind of person they will become.
- They identify intensely with their parents, who most of the time appear to them to be powerful and beautiful, although often unreasonable, disagreeable, and sometimes even dangerous. On their own initiative then, children at this stage exuberantly move out into a wider social world.
- The great governor of initiative is conscience. Their initiative and enthusiasm may bring them not only rewards but also guilt, which lowers self- esteem.
Self- understanding and Understanding others
● Self-understanding.
- The child’s cognitive representation of self, the substance and content of the child’s self- conceptions.
- In early childhood, young children think that the self can be described by many material characteristics, such as size, shape, and color. They distinguish themselves from others through many physical and material attributes.
● Understanding others.
- Children also make advances in their understanding of others in early childhood.
- At about 4 and 5 years old, children not only start describing themselves in terms of psychological traits, but they also begin to perceive others in terms of psychological traits.
- Thus, a 4 year old might say, “My teacher is nice.”
Emotional Development
- The child’s growing awareness of self is linked to the ability to feel an expanding range of emotions. Young children like adults, experience many emotions during the course of the day. Their emotional development in early development allows them to try to make sense of others’ emotional reactions and to begin to control their own emotions. (terrible dues)
- Self- conscious emotions. During the early childhood years, emotions such as pride and guilt become more common. They are especially influenced by their parents’ responses to children’s behavior. For example, a young child may experience shame when a parent says, “you should feel bad about biting your sister”.
Moral Development
● Moral Development.
- Development that involves thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people.
● Moral Reasoning:
- Piaget concluded that children go through two distinct stages of moral reasoning in how they about morality.
○ Heteronomous morality. (divine like rules)
- The first stage of moral development in Piaget’s theory, occurring from approximately 4 to 7 years of age.
- Justice and rules are conceived off as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people.
- From 7 to 10 years of age, children in a transition showing some features of the first stage of moral reasoning and some stage of the second stage, autonomous morality.
● Autonomous Morality.
- In Piaget’s theory, displayed by older children (about 10 years of age and older).
- The child becomes aware that rules and laws are created by people and that in judging an action, one should consider the actor’s intentions as well as the consequences.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Physical Changes
Body Growth and Change.
Growth in height and weight is a significant physical change that characterizes early childhood, which generally spans from ages 2 to 6. This period is marked not only by visible changes such as size increase but also by critical, unseen changes within the brain and nervous system that are essential for cognitive and language development.
Height and Weight.
On average, children grow approximately 2 ½ inches in height and gain between 5 and 7 pounds a year during early childhood. This growth can vary widely among individuals. Notably, girls during this period remain only slightly smaller and lighter than boys, a trend that persists until puberty, with implications for physical and social development.
Brain.
While the brain continues to grow during early childhood, its rate of growth is slower compared to infancy. By the age of 3, the brain has reached about three-quarters of its adult size and by age 6, it reaches approximately 95 percent of its adult volume. This rapid growth is crucial as it lays the foundation for advanced cognitive functions.
Myelination is a vital process occurring during this time, involving the insulation of nerve cells with fatty layers called myelin. This enhances the speed of information transmission across the nervous system, with significant growth observed in the frontal lobes from ages 3 to 6.
Motor Development
Gross Motor Skills.
At age three, children begin to enjoy various simple movements such as jumping, hopping, and running. These activities are not only pleasurable but also build fundamental gross motor skills. As children become more confident in their abilities, they exhibit increasing levels of adventure and risk-taking in physical activities, which are crucial for their overall physical development.
Fine Motor Skills.
At three years of age, children can pick up small objects using their thumb and forefinger, albeit with some clumsiness. By four years old, their fine motor skills improve substantially, enabling them to perform tasks with greater precision. By age five, children display further refinement in their coordination, vital for tasks such as writing and using utensils.
Nutrition
Proper nutrition is essential during early childhood as it coincides with a time of rapid growth and high levels of activity. Children should be encouraged to engage in various physical activities rather than centering their schedule predominantly around meals. Nutritional disparities, especially among children living in low-income households, can lead to malnutrition, with one of the most prevalent issues being iron deficiency anemia, which affects energy levels and overall health.
Furthermore, childhood obesity has become a significant public health concern, linked with long-term health risks. Therefore, maintaining a balanced diet that includes sufficient quantities of quality meats and dark green vegetables is crucial for healthy growth.
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive Theories of Early Childhood Development.
The cognitive theories central to understanding early childhood development are predicated on the work of notable figures such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage:
Preoperational Stage: Lasting from approximately ages 2 to 7, this stage is characterized by children's burgeoning ability to represent the world through words, images, and drawings. At this stage, cognitive processes begin to expand beyond mere sensory experiences and physical interactions.
Operations.
Operations in Piaget’s theory refer to reversible mental actions that enable children to think about something mentally that they could only physically manipulate before. This marks a significant cognitive leap, as children begin to reconstruct understood behaviors in their minds.
Piaget divides this stage into two substages:
The Symbolic Function Substage:
This initial substage (ages 2 to 4) allows children to mentally represent objects not present.
Egocentrism: characterized by the inability to see the world from perspectives other than their own, leading to cognitive bias in understanding.
Animism: the belief that inanimate objects possess life-like qualities, underscoring children's rich imaginative play and understanding of the world.
The Intuitive Thought Substage:
From ages 4 to 7, children exhibit a nascent form of reasoning, often demanding explanations for everyday phenomena without understanding the underlying logic.
Centration: the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation while neglecting others.
Conservation: refers to the understanding that changing the appearance of an object does not alter its fundamental properties (e.g., volume, mass). Significant tasks, such as the Beaker Test, demonstrate if children can grasp conservation concepts.
Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory.
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
Vygotsky emphasized social influences on development through the concept of ZPD, which refers to tasks too challenging for children to complete independently but can be accomplished with guidance. This developmental theory stresses the critical role of social interaction in cognitive advancement.
Scaffolding.
Scaffolding refers to the support provided by more knowledgeable individuals, which gradually diminishes as the child becomes more proficient, effectively tailoring educational experiences to the child’s evolving capabilities.
Language and Thought According to Vygotsky.
Vygotsky contended that children's use of speech goes beyond simple communication, serving also as a tool for problem-solving and self-regulation. This so-called private speech illustrates children's cognitive processes at work.
Theory of Mind.
Theory of mind encompasses children's understanding of their mental processes and those of others. Research indicates that this awareness develops as children attempt to interpret and predict the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of those around them, eventually aiding in social interactions.
Language Development
During early childhood, children's grasp of linguistic structures, such as sounds (phonology) and word ordering (syntax), matures significantly. Classic studies, such as Berko’s experiment, showcase children’s understanding of morphological rules.
Additionally, vocabulary expansion is pronounced, and conversational skills flourish as children learn to adjust their speaking styles to meet social expectations. A supportive environment—rich with responsive communication and literacy activities—is essential for fostering these critical skills.