Physical Development in Children Age 3-5
This report focuses on the various stages of development that are generally identified in children between the age groups of 3-5. The physical, social, emotional as well as cognitive development skills of the children of that age and the theories associated with the development has been focused in this particular study. A critical analysis of all the developmental stages has been impacted upon within this study with the aid of examples. The identification of the issues as well as the changes in children of that age has been impacted upon within this study in great detail. There are a lot of recommendations based on the issues faced during the developmental stages in order to mitigate the issues associated with the growing stages of the children. A conclusion based on all the findings based on this particular topic has been drawn within this area of study to get a better understanding of the topic and the related issues.
There are a several stages, also known as developmental milestones in the segment of physical, social-emotional and cognitive development of the children in their growing years. The stage of 3-5 years is known as “Early Childhood” (Britto et al., 2017). There are a lot of physical changes that are noticed in children during this stage of growth and development. There is a growth of the limbs and during this phase, children also learn to balance their head and trunk. During this stage the children lose their baby fat and become sleeker along with their development of stronger muscles which is utilized by them to play and work. There is an increase in their height up to 2-3 inches per year during this stage. The girls tend to develop quicker than boys during the phase of early childhood. This stage is also known as the Preschool stage during which time the children are able to develop their motor skills (Black et al., 2017). Some of these examples of children using their motor skills includes hopping, skipping, throwing a ball, and drawing. There are a lot of difficulties that can be noticed in children during this stage, one such problem includes cerebral palsy, spina bifida, fragile x syndrome, and so on.
There are several changes in the segment of social-emotional behavior of children during this stage. They learn to interact with their peers, become self-sufficient during this phase of their lives. During this phase children are able to express their feelings of jealousy or frustration. The children during this phase can also portray their feelings of sadness or have bouts of unexpected anger which is one of the major changes during this phase (Essa & Burnham, 2019). The ability of children to work in groups is mainly forming during this stage of their lives. They also develop a tendency to be affectionate towards other beings such as younger children or other animals. Erikson’s Social-Emotional Theory can be utilized to better explain the psychosocial development of children during this phase. There is a change in the personality of an individual in a predetermined order through 8 stages resulting from infancy to adulthood (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017).
Social-Emotional Changes in Children Age 3-5
Figure 1: 8 Stages of Erikson’s Social-Emotional Theory
(Source: Dunkel & Harbke, 2017)
During each stage there is a crisis that helps an individual to develop positive or negative development of personality. The eight stages includes, “Trust VS Mistrust”, “ Autonomy VS shame and doubt”, “Initiative VS Guilt”, “Industry VS Inferiority”, “ Identity VS confusion”, “Intimacy VS Isolation”, “Generativity VS Stagnation”, and “ Integrity VS Despair”. The third stage which is “Initiative VS Guilt” occurs between 3-5 years. It is focused on self-initiative. Some children may feel a sense of guilt over their self-initiated activities while the others who are motivated may have a strong-initiative in self-directed activities (Orenstein & Lewis, 2021).
There are several cognitive changes that are prominent in children between the age groups of 3-5. There is usually of centration of thought of children this age, which means that their focus are limited to a specific situation or object. This stage ensures that children develop their own unique methods of solving problems and reasoning. Storing information and recalling those data is a part of the development of the memory skills of children between years 3-5. According to the Theory of Cognitive Development of Jean Piaget it has been stated that there are various stages involved in cognitive development in children. They learn through experimentation, observation and interaction (Babakr et al., 2019). Some of the stages associated with this theory includes “Sensorimotor stage”, “preoperational stage”, “operational stage”, and “formal operational stage”.
Figure 2: Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
(Source: Babakr et al., 2019)
This study focuses on the preoperational stage, as it deals with children between the age groups of 2-7 years. During this stage children become more adept at utilizing symbols (Kose & Arslan, 2017). For example they make the utilization of a chair as a car.
Physical Changes: There are a lot of physical changes noticed in children between the age groups of 3-5 years. This is the time during which children develop their loco-motor skills. The development of proper locomotor skills is important for the children of this age group as it helps them to enhance their abilities to tune in to the movement of every other skill. Locomotor skills helps children to advance through various environments and become more flexible. It also enhances the bone and muscle strength of the children (Richter et al., 2017).This aspect in-turn helps them to become more confident and develop a sense of liberty. However, there are certain difficulties that are noticed in the physical changes during this phase. There may be a problem of locomotor disability that may result due to problems in the legs, bones, muscles and joints. Some of the other major issues may include gross motor delays, fine motor delays and so on. These issues may majorly be caused due to the hormonal changes, nutritional deficiencies, genetics, and geographical influences and so on.
Socio-emotional Changes: Socio-emotional changes are also some of the major changes that re noticed in the children between the age groups of 3-5. The socio-emotional changes in a child at this stage is very important as it positively influence their self-confidence, increases their ability to develop sense of empathy, emotional attachment towards other beings (Felfe & Lalive, 2018). This aspect also deals with the aspect of the development of a sense of literacy, numeracy and other cognitive developments among individuals, which in-turn will prove to be important for them in the long-term. There are a lot of importance associated with socio-emotional development in children which includes greater empathy, self-control over impulsiveness, development of a sense of morality, formation of positive self-image, development of deep bonds with others and many more. There are however several issues that may be associated with the development of socio-emotional changes in an individual. There may be issues such as the development of certain phobias, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) along with other problems (Zeng et al., 2017). These issues can be made better with effective counselling from professionals.
Cognitive Development in Children Age 3-5
Cognitive Changes: There is an identification of a lot of cognitive changes as well in children between 3-5 years. Some of the cognitive changes in children of this age group includes logic formation, a sense of sentence construction, identification of numbers, ability to deal with concrete information, ability to understand the concepts of past, present and future, language acquisition, an increased memory and so on (Cumming, 2017). The cognitive changes are important in children between that age group as it enhances their abilities to focus on several aspects, improve the analytical skills, enhances their ability to grasp the lessons provided to them, better understand the cause and effect of a certain aspect, improving comprehension and problem-solving skills, and so on. There are however a lot of problems associated with cognitive development of children. Some problems that may be short term include loss of memory, state of confusion, lack of cooperation and coordination with the teachers and their fellow classmates. Children with proper mental and emotional support at this stage can also develop ever learning disabilities such as a lack of emotional stability, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and so on (Ritblatt et al., 2017).
There are a lot of ways in which the various physical, socio-emotional and cognitive disabilities of the children can be minimized. Some of the methods include:
Physical Development: There are a lot of measures that can be undertaken for the physical development of the children between 3-5 years age. Providing the children with a proper play environment is very important as it allows them to have a physical growth, strengthens their muscles that aid bone development. Stretching out the body parts of children is very important as it aids musculo-skeletal development and increases blood-circulation in the body (Liu et al., 2017). Playing of games which aids physical development is of utmost importance as it involves running, galloping, climbing, cycling and skipping. Ample sunlight is very important for the body of children in this certain age group. There sunlight helps in the generation of Vitamin D in the body which is very important for bone development (Alif et al., 2019). It can help in avoiding musculo-skeletal disorders such as scoliosis, rickets, juvenile osteoporosis, and so on. It is very important to ensure that a regular checkup of the children are conducted so that the adults can have a better knowledge of the physical growth of their children. Proper nutrition is also very important to make sure that there is a proper development of the children.
Psycho-Social Development: Psycho-social development is one of the major aspects associated with the advancing years of a child between the age group of 3-5. The promotion of participation of children in various practices that involves them in cooperative tasks is very important. Encouraging them into such activities by the parents and teachers is of utmost importance. Arranging games that will develop the psycho-social skills of the children is very important as it will ensure that they are more engaged in activities that boost their psycho-social development. The psycho-social issues in children can be improved by professional consultation (Gilmore et al., 2018). This will ensure that the psychological issues among children such as anxiety, ADHD, certain phobias can be mitigated to certain extent. The maintenance of a proper environment both at home and school for the social and psychological development of the children is very important. The stress of the children has to be minimized as much as possible through the inclusion of appropriate teaching methods.
Erikson’s Social-Emotional Theory
Cognitive Development: There are certain measures that can be undertaken to ensure that there is a proper cognitive development of the children. This age group is one of the most vulnerable groups and therefore, has to be handled with a lot of care. The children of these age groups have to be taken to a lot of new places to explore their areas of interest and develop their cognitive abilities. Proper familial interactions as well as structured and informative interactions at schools will ensure that the children develop cognitive abilities (Ahmed et al., 2019). Proper nutrition, right environment are also some of the major aspects that influence the cognitive abilities of an individual. Making children play several games enhances their ability to react to different things differently and develop numeric skills, alphabetical skills and the cognitive skill of memorizing and developing the ability to construct sentences properly. Some of the major cognitive skills can be attained with the aid of these instructions include sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, pattern recognition, enhancement of working memory and so on.
Conclusion
A lot of aspects related to the developmental stages of children has been provided within this report. It has highlighted on the physical, socio-emotional and cognitive development of the children between the age groups of 3-5. The utilization of Erickson’s Social-emotional theory and Jean Piagets’s cognitive development theory has also been impacted upon within this report. An in-depth evaluation of all the stages of development has been impacted upon along with various recommendations for the difficulties faced during the handling of children of 3-5 years of age. Various findings regarding the behavioral aspects as well as physical development of children in their early-childhood has been found from this particular research.
References
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