Child Development Simple But Effective Guidance

child development

Child Development Simple But Effective Guidance

The most important thing you do to prepare children for success in school and in life is to help them develop the social and emotional skills they will need to build relationships, solve problems, and manage their emotions all are included in Child Development. These skills are even more important than cognitive skills like early literacy and math.

What is Child Development?

Child Development is the study of how children become capable adults. It focuses on all of the things that happen to children. Psychologists, paediatricians, and other doctors study child development to learn about what makes a child healthy and happy, and how parents can improve their parenting skills. These experts often disagree about what is important to a child’s development. However, there are many things that most professionals agree are important for children’s development. These include:

  – A nurturing environment in which the family takes care of a child’s physical and emotional needs

  – Positive social interactions with people who care about and play with the child

  – Opportunities to learn new things or skills and discover what they can do well

  – Good nutrition and healthcare

Child psychologists (also called child development specialists) use their expert knowledge to help parents understand their children better. They can also help figure out why a child might be having problems learning or behaving properly.

what are the 5 stages of child development

The 5 stages of child development The growth of a child takes place in different stages, which are classified according to the cognitive and physical developments that occur. Each stage is characterised by distinct behaviours and children should be encouraged to develop their skills at each level so that they grow up to be independent and responsible adults.

The 5 stages of child development include:

1) Infancy (0-2 years)

The first two years are a special kind of hell. It is an excruciatingly boring time, and your brain feels like it’s been filled with lead. But the same thing happens to you as happens to everyone else: your brain grows very fast during infancy, and some parts of it don’t even finish growing until you are about three.

One part of the brain that doesn’t grow much during infancy is your ability to control your own attention. The most obvious way of showing this is that infants can spend their days sleeping for six or seven hours at a stretch, but still wake up at night hungry and cranky.

2) Early childhood (3-8 years)

Early childhood is a time of dramatic change. In the first few months, infants learn to smile, lift their heads, and rollover. By age two, children can walk, run, and climb stairs. They also have begun to talk.

By their third birthday, most children are able to dress themselves, play simple games, and feed themselves. As they get older, children become more independent from their parents and spend more time playing with other children.

3) Middle childhood (9-11 years)

The middle childhood stage is marked by the development of abstract thinking skills. Many children at this age are excited by math problems, magic tricks, and other ways of outsmarting the world. These children can be quite humorous as they attempt to make sense of the world around them. They can also be quite sensitive and get easily upset when things don’t go their way. The 9- to 11-year-old is often interested in organizing groups for social purposes and may develop a few close friendships.

4) Adolescence (12-18 years)

The beginning of adolescence is marked by an increase in independence from parents and a separation from the parent-child dyad. Children begin to take on adult roles and develop new behaviours such as leadership and cooperation with peers, which indicate maturity. Children also become more interested in the opinions and beliefs of their peers during this time.

As with other developmental stages, puberty can be divided into early, middle, and late stages. The middle stage of puberty occurs between the ages of 11 and 14 for girls and between the ages of 12 and 16 for boys. This stage is characterized by rapid growth, sexual maturation, increased social interactions with peers, and increased awareness of personal identity.

Also Read: How does money affect human behavior

Teenagers are exposed to many new pressures that can lead to stress including schoolwork, social activities, body changes related to puberty, sports, jobs or part-time work outside the home, household chores, or caring for brothers or sisters.

5) Early adulthood (19-25 years)

Early adulthood is the period of life between 18 and 25 years of age when an individual moves out of adolescence. Not all people are ready to move out of their parent’s home at this time or want to. Some young adults remain in school, while others begin working full-time and enjoying a greater degree of financial independence.

During this stage, people develop a sense of self and personal identity. They learn who they are as individuals and how they fit into the larger world around them. This is also a time when young adults explore their romantic relationships and sexuality, including sexual orientation. 

Child development theories

Lists of child development theories can be found in many books, and a search for “child development theories” will produce many different lists. These lists are usually fairly long and include a number of theorists with conflicting views. It is certainly possible that there is no single theory to explain all aspects of child development.

Another problem with these lists is that some theorists are included on the basis of their research into child development, whereas others are included because they have had a significant impact on education. This means that some theorists may be included on both accounts, while others may be included because they have influenced educational practice only, even though their work was not specifically concerned with children. For example, Jean Piaget’s views on cognitive development are well-known in education and psychology, but he did not study children or publish his findings until his own children were grown up. Another example is Lev Vygotsky, whose work is frequently cited in education journals but rarely in developmental psychology ones.

As a first approximation, you could say that there are two kinds of theories of child development. One says that children develop largely as a function of their experiences: they’re shaped by their environment. The other says that they develop mostly as a result of innate factors: they’re born with most of the important stuff already in place.

Also Read: How does money affects your emotions?

These two theories are not really separate. They both have to be true, in the same way, that you have to know both the shape of the lens and the location of the object to predict where the image will be. But there is still a large spectrum between them, and it’s useful to think about humans as being at one or the other extreme, just to make things clear.

The environment theory is obviously true; no one on either side disputes it. You could make an intelligent human being almost any way you wanted just by controlling what happened to them during childhood. So, long as you started with a fertilized egg and had enough time and money. The question is whether we think humans are closer to one end or the other of this spectrum, and how much we think this matters.

Child development Jobs

A Child Development Associate (CDA) helps in the development of children and enhances the knowledge, skills, and abilities of children. These professionals are responsible for developing a healthy relationship with the parents, children and other teachers. They strive hard to provide a healthy environment to the children and encourage them to learn new things.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of a Child Development Associate include:-

  • Providing healthy meals to the children
  • Looking after their hygiene
  • Observing their overall developmental changes
  • Interacting with them on daily basis to know about their interests and dislikes
  • Taking care of their safety during play time, nap time, snack time etc.
  • Encouraging them for different activities such as physical activities, sports etc.

Educational Qualifications

 The educational qualifications required for this position are as follows:

  • A high school diploma or GED is often preferred by most of the employers. However, you can also get higher education in childcare development or any related field from an accredited institution.
  • You must complete at least 120 hours training in a childcare setting along with 480 hours of practical experience in childcare settings under a qualified supervisor.

Child development jobs are available in public and private elementary, middle and high schools in areas such as teaching, counselling, administration, athletics and coaching. Those interested in higher education may be interested in becoming a professor of child development at a college or university.

Child development centre

The goal of the child development centre is to nurture children from ages 0 to 9. The centre exists to provide a place for children to learn and grow.

The centre creates a safe and welcoming environment for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary-aged children. Children are provided with opportunities to try new experiences and reach developmental milestones. The centres are staffed by qualified teachers and teaching assistants who provide proper supervision at all times.

The Child Development Centre (CDC), in partnership with the community, will provide a quality early learning environment to support the growth and development of children and families. The philosophy child development centre is based on three fundamental principles

  1. That each child is unique, competent and capable of learning.

2. That parents are the child’s first teachers.

3. The culture and language of every child and family should be respected and valued.

As advocates for children, CDC supports policies that respect the dignity, worth, rights and diversity of all children. It also supports practices that:

• Contribute to positive self-esteem for all children

• Provide a safe nurturing environment in which all children thrive

• Promote inclusion of all children into the community

• Promote practices that foster independence and self-sufficiency among families with young children;

• Respond to each child’s individual needs; are respectful of parental authority; encourage full participation of each family member in daily activities; and promote healthy social interaction among peers.  

Nature vs Nurture child Development

The nature versus nurture debate involves the extent to which particular aspects of behaviour are a product of either inherited (i.e., genetic) or acquired (i.e., learned) characteristics. Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception, e.g., the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual.

Nature is commonly defined as biological heredity, especially in reference to behaviour or the mind, while nurture is most often defined as environmental influences, including both learned and experiential factors. Behaviorists look at both nature and nurture as influencing human development. Some psychologists take an extreme view and suggest that individual characteristics are almost entirely due to environmental influences, while others suggest that differences between individuals have a genetic basis. The majority view among psychologists is that both nature and nurture play important roles; this view is known as interactionism or emergencies.

Child development and malnutrition 

The most important impact of malnutrition on child development is on cognitive development. Nutrients are essential for brain growth, and deficiencies in zinc and iron can adversely affect mental development. For example, iron deficiency affects the development of the frontal lobes, which are involved in planning, judgment, and abstract thought. Studies have shown that children suffering from iron deficiency have impaired motor skills and speech and language delays. Cognitive impairment due to malnutrition during the first two years of life is irreversible.

Zinc is required for the synthesis of enzymes involved in brain function, as well as for the production of myelin sheaths around nerve cells. Zinc deficiency has been associated with delayed psychomotor development, reduced ability to learn and retain information, and diminished short-term memory function in young children.

Stunting associated with poor nutrition during the first two years of life is also associated with lower IQ scores later in childhood. In a study from Brazil involving over 1,000 5-year-olds (Pollitt et al., 1979), stunted children scored significantly lower on tests of intelligence than non-stunted children from similar socio-economic backgrounds.

FAQ

1. Are child development classes hard

Child development classes are not as hard as you might think but there are some things that will make them harder to get through and if you do these things it will make the class easier. The first thing is to be sure that you are prepared for each class and show up to all of the classes.

2. How does child development impact resilience?

One study linked the timing of head injuries to the speed of recovery. Another found that more years of education make people more resilient after a car accident. Scientists have been looking at how child development affects resilience since the 1950s, but it has always been hard to make progress because there are so many confounding variables like their emotional intelligence, Linguistic Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, Naturalistic intelligence, etc.

3. Which child development theory is best?

Each theory uses a different lens to look at development. Some theories emphasize nature or biology, and some emphasize nurture or environment. Some theories are very general and try to explain all aspects of development while others focus on specific areas such as social or cognitive development.

4. Why child development is important?

The most effective way for a species to increase its numbers is for its members to have children. If you have more kids than your rivals, your genes will be passed on, and your descendants will have more kids than their rivals as well.

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