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Early Childhood development (2nd birthday - sixth birthday) - Coggle…
Early Childhood development (2nd birthday - sixth birthday)
Physical Development
Growth
Early childhood is categorised by slow and steady growth and although the rate is variable, height increases by about 6 cm per year and weight by around 2.5 kg.
Bones continue to lengthen and ossify resulting in the increased height. Body proportions also change ad the limbs and torso become more proportionate to the head and body fat decreases.
Brain growth slows down in the 2nd year and reaches 75% of adult size by age 3 and 90% by age five.
Changes to systems --> First set of teeth is completed by the third year.
Motor skill development
Large muscles develop extensively, particularly leg and arm muscles which lead to motor skill development continuing at a rapid rate.
Gross motor skills increase and walking style becomes more fluid and refined. A child can climb stairs but will need to place both feet on each step until the end of early childhood.
Kicking, catching and throwing skills improve and the child may learn how to skip. Coordination improves allowing the child to pedal and steel a tricycle and fine motor skills progress as the child can manipulate buttons on clothing hold crayons and use scissors. Because of these activities left or right-handedness start to appear.
Social Development
Relationship and communication skills
Family remains the primary social contact and is responsible for many achievements a child makes in relation to social development. A child begins participating in a range of family routines and communication skills and acceptable social behaviors increase as a result.
As young children frow they need opportunities to learn and socialise with other children. A child may attend a playgroup, kindergarten or childcare center and, this provides many oppourtunities to further develop social skills. It also helps the childs independence and they mat want to start doing things by themselves.
Behaviors and social roles
Many social skills are learnt about sharing and taking turns through play this may occur with sibling and parents at home or with other children in childcare.
An infant also begins to learn culturally acceptable behaviors such as listening to parents and other caregivers. Social roles are also imitated such as pushing a pram.
Behaviors such as eating with a knife and fork are established during early childhood but they will be revived over time. Children at this age like to be accepted by others and may be attention seeking.
Play is still an important aspect of development although it is more advanced than infancy children may have a friends they particularly like to play with or have an imaginary friend.
Emotional Development
Experiencing a range of emotions
Emotional development continues to occur at a fast pace during early childhood and play often given them a way to express their feelings.
Children take pride in their achievements and may want to show them off to everyone. As
a result of enjoying positive feedback from others, they may become jealous when another child receives attention
Learning appropriate ways of expressing and communicating emotions
A child will begin to develop a sense of empathy and may care for people however, their ways of dealing with emotion is still at its early stages and children may use physical violence to express their frustration.
Play often gives children a way of expressing their feelings. Children's moods can change quickly during this stage and they often do not have the skills required to control their feelings
Developing self concept
Children begin to develop identity that will continue to form for years to come. They learn to see themselves as being separate from others and begin to associate certain things with themselves such as ownership of a toy.
Intellectual development
Language
Learning new words and how to use language occurs fairly rapidly during this stage as a key part of a child's intellectual development. By the age of five a child knows 1500 - 2500 words.
Knowledge memory and attention
As an interest in the world around them increases children begin to question many aspects of their environment and ask the caregivers "why" and like to share their knowledge with others about colours, objects and animals.
As attention span lengthens and knowlege of language increases children can remember to follow basic instructions, in the first years of early childhood a child can classify objects based on one aspect.
Benefits of types of play
Physical Play
Muscle and bone development
Nerve connections
Fine and gross motor skills, strength, coordination and agility
Self-esteem and confidence, fitness, stress management
Discovery play
Collecting information through senses, trial and error, thinking and problem solving.
Creative and pretend play
Imagination, language, characteristics of objects, fine motor skills, self esteem and empathy
Social Play
Independence, language, expressing emotions, self control, appropriate behavior, conflict resolution, communication skills, sharing, sense of self, social roles and behavior, cooperation
Manipulative play
Concentration, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, creativity
Thought patterns and problem solving.
Children in this lifespan stage may learn to write basic letters and read basic books. They can also count to 10 or 20 although this is often memorized without understanding the formation of numbers.
Abstract thought and prediction of the outcome of events is still difficult and children are more comfortable thinking about objects they have already encountered.