Developmental Challenges of a Specific Age Group - Essay Example

Theories of Development James Clay Andersen of Wyoming EDST 2450 Theories of Development Developmental Challenges of Preschoolers The six age groups identified by Berger (2010) are infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, adulthood and late adulthood. This paper focuses on the developmental challenges of children in early childhood using cognitive, socio-emotional, psychodynamic theories. This age group comprises of children aged 3-5 years. Children in this age group can also be categorized as preschoolers because this is the age at which most of them attend preschool education. The group was chosen because it is the most distinctive and important stage in childhood and development (Santrock, 2004). The characteristics exhibited by children at this age play a big role in shaping their behavior and personality in the greater part of their childhood. Physical Development At this stage, the children add about two-three inches and five pounds annually, and baby fat drops. They no longer sleep for longer hours during the day compared to infants. Instead, they can acquire sufficient rest during the night and might just take one nap during the afternoon hours. The children’s gross motor skills improve greatly especially if they receive the right amounts of nutritious food, timely immunizations and exercise. They also develop the ability to engage actively in many physical activities like ball games, running, dancing and gymnastics. They are able to ride a tricycle and even skip a rope with help. The children are generally stronger physically than infants, which increases their social interaction especially through play with other children. They are able to engage extensively in various outdoor activities. This improves in gross motor skills and ability to interact with others contributes to the children’s ability to learn. For example, they can participate more actively in indoor and outdoor learning activities. Unlike cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of development, physical development does not pose any particular developmental challenge to preschoolers. The only limitation when working with this age group is their inability to engage in strenuous physical activities. Cognitive Development One of the cognitive theories that can be used to understand cognitive development in children is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. This is a theory that explains how humans acquire, construct and use knowledge. Piaget identified four stages of cognitive growth namely sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Preschoolers fall under the preoperational stage. This cognitive stage is further divided into two substages namely the symbolic sub stage, which comprises of children aged 2-4 and intuitive thought stage, which comprises of children aged 4-7 years. Santrock (2004) explains that the preoperational stage is a cognitive stage marked by qualitatively new types of psychological functions. At this stage, the children are in a position to note the difference between boys and girls, sing a song, recall part of a story, and dress and undress themselves with help. They can use and represent various objects by words, images, and drawings, form stable concepts and magical beliefs like the existence of ogres that eat children who wander at night. However, they are only able to perform physical and non-mental tasks. For example, they count and add figures manually instead of doing it mentally. Children that are at the symbolic sub stage can think of symbols and images but cannot make logical transformation and manipulation of information. They have also acquired language and can participate in pretend play. Their main cognitive weakness is animism in which they believe inanimate objects have lifelike qualities. For example, if they ever stumbled got hurt because of a rock that was on their way, they will believe the rock did hurt them intentionally and will fear going near that rock for fear that it will recognize them and hurt them again. Those that are at the intuitive thought stage are driven by intense curiosity and interest for reasoning. Their main cognitive challenges are centrism and conservation. Centrism is the inability to realize that a given quantity remains the same despite the adjustment in shape, apparent size or container. Conservation is the opposite of centrism. It is the awareness that altering the appearance of substances or objects does not affect its basic properties.Santrock (2004) points out that the children mainly focus on one feature of an object as opposed to the others. This makes it hard for them to believe that changing the appearance of an object or substance does not change its properties. For example, children in the age category may believe that a thin longer glass contains more sand than a short wide glass even after prior conformation that the two contain equal quantities of the substance. Despite this challenge, preschoolers can display some level of conservation when tested on quantities that are too small and this understanding is important for developing conservation for greater quantities. Generally, the main challenge that one will experience while working with preschoolers is egocentrism. Egocentrism can be defined as embeddedness in a person’s own view. It refers to the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in one’s own terms. At this stage, the children do not differentiate between their perception of various things and situations and those of other people. They are not in a position to understand the perceptions of others. Their perceptions are influenced by fantasy/how they would want things to be. Because of this, they always pick and capitalize on their own view of things instead of the actual view. This negatively influences their learning and interactions. For example, they are not receptive to people holding to contrasting views on something they have already formed a personal perception on. An illustration of this is other children or a parent who suggests that the children arrange their construction or play tools different from how they like it. They will oppose such a suggestion immediately. Children at this stage also find it difficult to follow instructions including those that are meant to enhance their learning. They always want to do things their own way not according to the requirements or instructions given. For example, if these children were asked to pick small green flowers, they will pick flowers that they find interesting and those that smell nice. If the same task was given to children aged seven and above, they would have accomplished it as specified. Egocentrism cuts across the entire early childhood period. This can make it hard for teachers and parents to introduce better or different order of doing things in the class. Socio-Emotional Development At this age, the children’s world begins to open. They begin to move from home environment, experience more external interactions and learn things that shape their learning and social interactions. They begin to explore and inquire about the things surrounding them and begin to focus more on people outside the family. At this stage, interactions with parents and other close people are important because they help to define the child’s social world and shape their purposeful behavior, personality, interactions, and their way of thinking. Ego and superego become dominant over id and the children begin making progress in moral development as guided by the values instilled by parents. Identity is the unconscious unorganized part of the human brain, which contains the basic drives. It operates on the pleasurable principle that is defined by avoidance of pain and seeking immediate gratification. Because of this, id cannot be restrained by reality, regardless of undesirable effects. ego is the consciousness developed as a result of social interactions and seeks to satisfy the impulses of id in a realistic manner. The superego is the organized part of an individual and is the censor of the ego. It comprises of the person’s ideals and it punishes misbehavior. It opposes the id because their objectives are conflicting. At this stage, the children develop affinity for same-sex games, and are socialized into appropriate cultural behaviors and gender roles. They become more responsible and model their behaviors after their parent of the same sex. Boys begin developing father-like qualities and girls begin developing mother-like qualities. By age four, they begin developing their own senses of bad, good/right, and wrong. Unlike infants, preschoolers are more able to understand and discuss their emotions and those of other people. For example, they can note and tell if they or other people are sad, angry or happy. They also understand that different people can react to the same thing with different emotions, which makes them conscious of their actions (Bee and Boyd, 2009). Peer interactions at this stage are important for helping the child gain more exposure, confidence and learn more, especially in terms of language and vocabulary. Berger (2010) explains that human development is multidirectional and thus there are several factors that shape human behavior. These factors also can be said to contribute to developmental challenges. The main challenge in the socio-emotional development of preschoolers can be explained through Sigmud Freud’s psychodynamic theory. This is a theory that that explains the forces that drive human behavior. Its focus is the relationship between the conscious and unconscious motivation. It explains the psychodynamics in the relationship between id, ego and superego in the socio-emotional development of young children. Preschoolers are controlled by id, ego and superego but id possess such a challenge to their relationship with others. Under the influence of id, preschoolers can be so impatient and want their desires fulfilled immediately. For example, they might consume an orange before their parent pay for it. Id interferes with social interactions in that it makes preschoolers quick to revenge. They can hit their peers with their toys, pens or school bags when annoyed instead of reporting to the teachers or parents. The effects of id are neutralized by the development of ego and superego and thus the presentation of id is not as strong as that of infants. Another developmental challenge that is experienced when working with preschoolers can be explained by Erick Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development, a socio-emotional theory. This theory explains the various stages of personality development and the main element of this theory is the development of ego. Preschoolers fall under the initiative vs. guilt stage of psychosocial development. This is a stage in which either the child becomes free and acquires the courage to do things out of their own motivation or becomes dominated by a sense of guilt in everything they do and so they cannot do things without directions. At this time, the child begins to assert their influence, power and control over the world around them through their actions, play and social interactions (Bee and Boyd, 2009). This can make the child become over-dominant as they try to make their presence felt in various aspects of life, both among adults and peers. For example, they will always want to lead and control their playgroup. If this is not successfully achieved, it will lead to the appearance of social problems in future. Those that fail to acquire this skill equally experience a developmental challenge. They become dominated by a sense of self-doubt, guilt and lack of initiative. Under this situation, the child becomes withdrawn, non-participative and is not outgoing. It is also difficult to make such children do something on their own. Conclusion This information on physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development of pre-schoolers will be useful in developing my career as a professional. It will help me identify the best ways of guiding and supporting the cognitive, socio-emotional and physical development of young children. This knowledge will increase my career field as a teacher from dealing purely with children at the elementary to early childhood education. Although the information is about preschoolers, some of the children in the first grade of elementary education exhibit these characteristics, especially those aged six years. In addition, some children reach the first grade of elementary education by age five. These children need to be helped to adjust properly to the higher physical, socio-emotional and cognitive requirements of elementary school. Therefore, I can become an educational officer, overseeing the curriculum and activities offered to preschoolers and children in grade one elementary education to ensure that they support their physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development in a way that increases their learning and positive social interactions. References Bee, H. and Boyd, D. (2009).The Developing Child (12th Ed). Boston, MA. Pearson. Berger, K. (2010). Invitation to the Life Span. New York. Worth Publishers. Carlson, Neil R. (2010). Psychology the science of behaviour: The psychodynamic approach. USA. Canada. Pearson. Freud, S. (1910).The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis", American Journal of Psychology 21(2), 196–218. Santrock, J. (2004). Life-Span Development (9th Ed.). Boston, MA. McGraw-Hill College. Read More