About me

                           Introduction

Hello, my name is Fathimath nausha. I am pre-school teacher since 2014. Becoming a teacher has always been my dream. After the secondary education, I took an Early Childhood Education course and decided that working with young children is my passion. I like to help others learn and achieve their goals. I want to be able to be a positive impact on our younger generations. While doing this blog I got lots of information about Child development process/periods, challenges in child development, Pre-natal development, Development in infancy: physical, cognitive and socio-emotional, and Socio emotional development of young children. Child development refers to the sequence of physical, language, thought and emotional changes that occur in a child from birth to the beginning of adulthood. During this process a child progresses from dependency on their parents/guardians to increasing independence. Early child development sets the foundation for lifelong learning, behavior, and health. The experiences children have in early childhood shape the brain and the child's capacity to learn, to get along with others, and to respond to daily stresses and challenges.

Child development process / periods

1.  Child development process / periods

Stages of Development

Developmental milestones cover a range of behaviors and transformations in a child’s faculties and personalities. Social norms and institutions, customs, and laws also influence these stages. There are three broad stages of development: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. They are defined by the primary tasks of development in each stage.

Developmental milestones cover a range of behaviors and transformations in a child’s faculties and personalities. Social norms and institutions, customs, and laws also influence these stages.

There are three broad stages of development: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. They are defined by the primary tasks of development in each stage.

Early Childhood (Birth to Eight Years)

Growth and development are most obvious during the first year, when a helpless newborn dramatically transforms into a moving, “talking, walking” whirlwind with a mind of her own. During this first year, parents likely will be marking development through development of obvious skills.

· In the first year, expect some socio-emotional development, when attachment formation becomes critical, especially with caregivers. Life functioning, personality, and relationships are shaped by the quality or lack of emotional attachment formed early in life.

· By 3 years a child doubles her height and quadruples her weight. She has mastered sitting, walking, toilet training, using a spoon, scribbling, and sufficient hand-eye coordination for play. She should be able to speak and understand between 300 and 1,000 words.

· Between 3-5 years – the preschool years – a child is growing rapidly and beginning to develop gross- and fine-motor skills. Physical growth slows and body proportions and motor skills become more refined. By five, her vocabulary will have grown to about 1,500 words, and she should be speaking in sentences of 5-7 words.

Middle Childhood (Eight to Twelve Years)

By eight, your child should be are able to understand some basic abstract concepts, including time and money. Her cognitive skills, personality, motivation, and interpersonal relationships will undergo refinement. You will be amazed watching her social circle grow and become more complex – with both children and those senior to her. The primary developmental task of middle childhood is integration – development within the individual and the social context. Physical development is less dramatic than in early childhood or adolescence. Until puberty, growth is fairly constant.

Adolescence (Twelve to Eighteen Years)

Adolescence is a time of diverse, confusing, even frightening changes due to significant physical, emotional and cognitive growth, new situations, responsibilities, and people. Frequent mood swings, depression, and other psychological disorders are common. Though usually attributed to hormones, your child will react to the challenges and struggles; expect fluctuating or inconsistent behaviors that will even out with time and maturity. 

During adolescence, expect your teen to experience accelerated periods of growth (while they are eating you out of house and home). Height can increase up to 4 inches and weight 8-10 pounds per year, although for some “late bloomers” a huge increase in height and weight can happen within a year – especially with boys. Adolescence is an important period for cognitive development, marking a transition in ways of thinking and reasoning about problems and ideas. Your teen will gain the ability to solve more abstract and hypothetical problems, but it is also a significant step toward independence and emotional development. Adolescents often rely on their peers, rather than family, for direction and emotional support (Rojas, 2018).

Theories and research Child Development Theories

                     Methods and challenges in child development: theories and research

                                            Child Development Theories

When child development experts talk about the study of development, they have in mind some fundamental theories of development that were codified by brilliant clinicians and scientists well before we had the technology to correlate them to brain development. Roughly speaking, these theories can be categorized as emotional, cognitive and moral. Erik Erikson developed the most common theories of emotional development. Jean Piaget developed the most common theories of cognitive development. And, Lawrence Kohlberg developed the dominant theories of moral development.

Let’s look at Erikson first.

Erikson saw the world as a series of age-matched developmental crises, and he conceptualized these crises as binary and competing values. He didn’t think of the crises as bad things; rather, each crisis represented an opportunity to move forward.

Infancy, for example, is characterized by Trust (a positive value) versus Mistrust (a negative value). Adolescence is a battle between Identity Formation (good) versus Role Diffusion (bad). According to Erickson, if these binary crises are not successfully negotiated—if an infant, for instance, can’t trust the adults of the world to keep him warm and fed and held—then that infant will grow up with a fundamental lack of trust, and at some point, will have to actively address this issue. These ideas actually stem directly from the psychoanalytic notions that Sigmund Freud put on the map, namely that past experience influences future feelings and behaviors.

Jean Piaget

Piaget was more interested in how kids change the way they think about the world; that’s why he is considered the father of cognitive development.

Piaget watched how kids figure things out. He noticed that when kids are teeny, they do lots of touching and tasting. From this, he decided that very young kids learn about their new world by doing simple experiments. What does that cat feel like? How does the side of the table taste? After that, he felt that children moved onto a more binary view of the world. He noticed that school-aged kids rarely abstract; in today’s world, for example, four fouls is an out every single time in first grade. He decided, therefore, that young school-aged kids are focused primarily on a black-and -white view of the world.

But then he noticed that as that first grader moves through elementary school, her views of the world change; at first, four fouls are an out every single time. By second grade, four fouls is an out because those are the rules that are used to keep the game fun. By third grade, four fouls is an out, but that rule doesn’t have to be; in fact, by third grade, lots of energy is used in discussing the possible variations in the rules.

Piaget categorized the way kids make sense of the world like this:

Preoperational (ages 2-7) – Lots of gray matter, much less white matter

Concrete Operational (ages 7-11) – White matter starts to connect in linear patterns

Formal Operations (ages 11+) – Gray matter decreases as white matter flowers

Kohlberg, Lawrence Philosophy of  Moral Development:

Generally speaking, Kohlberg felt that moral development was characterized first by a more or less amoral stage: you want what you want regardless of right or wrong. In fact, little kids don’t even understand the concept of right versus wrong. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to get angry at a 2-year-old for cheating—they don’t, and can’t, understand the concept of cheating. However, after around age 3, kids start to appreciate right and wrong, but they do so as a function of external punishments.

 As kids age, Kohlberg noted, they move through different views of the concepts of right and wrong. They might start with a fear of punishment, but then they move to a desire for approval. Slowly, they make their way from external drivers of what to do to internal notions of what constitutes the right thing to do.

Kohlberg called the final stages of moral development “post conventional.” By that he meant that people at these stages were deciding what to do as a function of their own internal compasses, and not as a function of how they ought to behave because of the conventions of their society (Steven schlozman, n.d.).

Pre-natal development

Pre-natal development: it’s importance

Pre-Pregnancy and prenatal care can help prevent complications and inform women about important steps they can take to protect their infant and ensure a healthy pregnancy. With regular prenatal care women can: Reduce the risk of pregnancy complications. During each prenatal stage, environmental factors affect the development of the fetus. The developing fetus is completely dependent on the mother for life, and it is important that the mother receives prenatal care, which is medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and the fetus. 

Prenatal development refers to the process in which a baby develops from a single cell after conception into an embryo and later a fetus. The average length of time for prenatal development to complete is 38 weeks from the date of conception. During this time, a single-celled zygote develops in a series of stages into a full-term baby. The three primary stages of prenatal development are the germinal stage, the embryonic stage, and the fetal stage. 

a. Germinal Stage: 

The genetic material of the sperm and egg then combine to form a single cell called a zygote and the germinal stage of prenatal development commences. The zygote soon begins to divide rapidly in a process called cleavage, first into two identical cells called blastomeres, which further divide to four cells, then into eight, and so on. 

b. Embryonic Stage: 

This stage lasts from implantation until about 8 weeks from the time of conception (or the 10th week of pregnancy). This is the most important time of prenatal development because the embryo is developing the foundations for a healthy baby. A process (gastrulation) leads to the formation of three distinct layers called germ layers: the ectoderm (outer layer), the mesoderm (middle layer), and the endoderm (inner layer). For example, the ectoderm eventually forms skin, nails, hair, brain, nervous tissue and cells, nose, sinuses, mouth, anus, tooth enamel, and other tissues. The mesoderm develops into muscles, bones, heart tissue, lungs, reproductive organs, lymphatic tissue, and other tissues. 

c. Fetal Stage: 

The fetus becomes more active, and the mother can sometimes begin to feel fetal movements at this stage. Weeks 21–24: The fetus reaches approximately 28.5 cm. The fetus's bones are developed but not yet hardened. Weeks 33–36: The fetus reaches approximately 41–48 cm. In a healthy fetus, all organ systems are functioning.

Development in infancy: physical, cognitive and socio-emotional

 Development in infancy: physical, cognitive and socio-emotional

Normal development refers to learning and mastering skills in four categories – physical, emotional, mental and social. Although separately categorized, they are all linked, and occur simultaneously at each stage: 

Physical includes broad motor skills such as include rolling over, standing, walking, running, and sitting; as well as being able to maintain balance, change positions, etc. Physical also includes using fingers and hands to clutch, eat, draw, dress, play, write, etc. 

Emotional skills include how she reacts to events and occurrences around her. Does she giggle and laugh at the silliest things, or is she distant? As she matures, does she learn to deal with events, or does she get frustrated and angry? 

Mental, or cognitive skills include thinking, learning, understanding, problem-solving, reasoning, and remembering. Much of this will be revealed in academic settings, such as preschool and beyond. 

Social skills have to do with personal interactions, developing and maintaining relationships with family, friends, and teachers; cooperating, and being sensitive while responding to others. Does she withdraw at parties? Does she enjoy large gatherings or being around a small group of friends, and how does she navigate and interpret the social world around her? (Rojas, 2018)

Socio emotional development of young children

Socio emotional development of young children: how you to address developmental Issues.

To understand human growth and development, healthcare professionals need to understand and learn about 2 areas: (1) knowledge of milestone competencies, for example, growth in the motor, cognitive, speech-language, and social-emotional domains and (2) the eco-biological model of development, specifically, the interaction of environment and biology and their influence on development.

Social-emotional development covers 2 important concepts of development including the development of self or temperament and relationship to others or attachment. 

The social-emotional development begins with parental bonding to the child. This bonding allows the mother to respond to the child’s needs timely and soothe their newborn. The consistent availability of the caregiver results in the development of "basic trust" and confidence in the infant for the caregiver during the first year of life. Basic trust is the first psychosocial stage described by Erickson. This allows the infant to seek for parents or the caregiver during times of stress, known as the attachment. 

Even before acquiring language, babies learn to communicate through emotions. One may argue that learning emotional regulation and impulse control may determine later success in life more than IQ. There is a rapid growth in social and emotional areas of the brain during the first 18 months of life. 

During the second half of infancy, emotional information from the lower limbic system moves up and becomes part of the babies' consciousness. Frontal lobe activity increases and myelination of the limbic pathways also begin during this time. With this gain in the limbic system, a caregiver's soothing and consistent response to the child's emotions develops into the child’s attachment to the caregiver, usually the mother. 

In healthy children, social-emotional stages develop on an expected trajectory and monitoring these milestones is an imperative part of preventative health supervision visits. The caregiver’s sensitive and available supportive role is imperative to establish attachment and the skill set that follows. 

Around 8 months of age, joint attention skills develop. An infant will look in the same direction as the caregiver and follow his gaze. Eventually, he will look back at the caregiver to show that they share the experience. 

Between 12 to 18 months, the infant learns to explore his environment by support from a caregiver. By 12 months of age, proto-imperative pointing emerges, in other words, the infant requests by pointing at the object of interest and integrates it with eye contact between the object and the caregiver. 

Around 12 months of age, the child takes part in interactive play like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. He uses gestures to wave bye-bye and communicate his interests and needs. At around 15 months of age empathy and self- conscious emotions emerge. A child will react by looking upset when he sees someone cry or feel pride when applauded for doing a task. The child imitates his environment, helps in simple household tasks and explores the environment more independently. 

Around 18 to 24 months he learns to pretend-play such as talking on a toy phone or feeding a doll and plays next to or in parallel with another child. He may imitate other child’s play and look at him but he cannot play in a cooperative, imaginative way with another child yet. During preschool years he learns to manipulate his subjective emotions into a more socially accepted gesture. He uses a “poker face”, exaggerate or minimizes emotions for social etiquette. For example, he will say thank you for a present he didn’t like. The child refers to himself as “I” or “me” and possessiveness “mine” and negativism “no” emerge. 

By 3 years of age, the child engages more in interactive play, masters his aggression and learns cooperation and sharing skills. He can play with 1 or 2 peers, with turn-taking play and joint goals. Imaginative and fantasy play begin like pretending to be a cat and role-play skills develop. The child, however, cannot yet distinguish between reality and imagination and it is common to be afraid of imaginary things. They master this skill to differentiate between real and imaginary around 4 years of age. They enjoy playing tricks on others and are worried about being tricked themselves. Imaginary scenarios and play skills are developing and become more complex. They can play with 3 to 4 peers, with more complex themes and pretend skills. 

Issues of Concern 

The inability to reach age-appropriate milestones can be a manifestation of psychosocial disturbance and needs further exploration. Examples of early childhood social-emotional disturbance include autism, reactive attachment disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, bullying, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, among others (Fatima Malik, 2020).

Final Note

The baby is born and every day something new and exciting happens. Not just seemingly major events, like rolling over or taking that first brave step, but other tiny things that may not seem like milestones. Smiling, cooing, even crawling out of the crib – these seemingly random acts all fall into a timeline that marries up with the stages of your child’s development. There are three broad stages of development: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. They are defined by the primary tasks of development in each stage. When child development experts talk about the study of development, they have in mind some fundamental theories of development that were codified by brilliant clinicians and scientists well before we had the technology to correlate them to brain development. Roughly speaking, these theories can be categorized as emotional, cognitive and moral. Erik Erikson developed the most common theories of emotional development. Jean Piaget developed the most common theories of cognitive development. And, Lawrence Kohlberg developed the dominant theories of moral development. Pre-Pregnancy and prenatal care can help prevent complications and inform women about important steps they can take to protect their infant and ensure a healthy pregnancy. With regular prenatal care women can: Reduce the risk of pregnancy complications. During each prenatal stage, environmental factors affect the development of the fetus. The developing fetus is completely dependent on the mother for life, and it is important that the mother receives prenatal care, which is medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and the fetus. The social-emotional development begins with parental bonding to the child. This bonding allows the mother to respond to the child’s needs timely and soothe their newborn.