The Pre-School Growth Stage: Autonomy, Self-Concept, and Self-Trust
The psychosocial development stage for children aged between 2-5 years is referred to as the pre-school growth stage where the child starts to discover the environment around them. During this stage, the baby establishes a sense of autonomy through association with different members of the family including relatives and friends. The child identifies himself/herself as a person and develops a favorable self-concept. At this stage, children begin to realize that they are authors of their own actions. Initially, the child does not deliberately act upon the world but react to it, for the instant the child does not suck when it intends but rather when stimulation is provided. At this stage self-trust and self-belief start to show up. At this stage, the parent is advised to be less protective of the child. The level at which parents protect the child will affect the ability of the child to realize autonomy.
Psychosocial development is a process of continuous interaction between the child and the surrounding. During this stage, the child acquires social attitude, relevant skills and also several changes occurs in their body. The psychosocial development is mostly predisposed by environment and physical growth. Body and brain changes assist in determining the identity of the children and their association with each other. Intellectual development is an essential feature because it helps a child to gain the ability to handle challenges (Newman, & Newman, 2017). As it can be observed in the case study, Julie can be able to effectively communicate her needs by way of interacting with caregivers. Erikson theory is of great importance in understanding the stages of psychosocial development. According to the theory, the characteristics of understanding psychosocial development may include; life history, current development stage, historical and cultural factors, and physical weakness and strength. Erikson enumerated stages that depict how children increase psychomotor control, increase brain functioning and develop physically as their complexity increases cognitively (Berk, 2017).
Physical and cognitive changes assist the children to grow psychosocially, form independent identities and associate with others effectively. According to Erikson theory psychosocial development begins during the stage of trust versus mistrust. At this stage, a child needs love and security from the guardians and parent so as to create a sense of trust and develop a favorable self-security for own self and others. The predicament of autonomy versus shame and doubt psychosocial development occurs at the age of 1-3 years. During this stage, there is the development of a sense of self-concept through interactions with family members and friends (Blatt, & Bless, 2013). When an individual demonstrates disreputable behavior in future which he or she could correct in development stages is a clear inference of the psychosocial development. For instance, when a child receives adequate toilet training between the age of 12 months and 3 years, he or she will develop a sense of self-recognition and favorable self-concept. Self-recognition helps the child to fully identify himself or herself with peers, which improves peer relations and reduce humiliation (LeBlanc, et al 2012). As a result, the child will eventually develop a sagacity of voluntary control and satisfaction. Without appropriate toilet training during the early stage, a child might have complications later in life such as being stingy, mistrust, growing to be a rigid person or being unable to develop a sense of self-awareness. Parents and peers play key parts in the psychosocial development of any child. Children are able to acquire traits of life like social-emotional skills, problem-solving skills, and language through the communication with peers and parents. Parents are able to notice unusual behavior in the child through with the child. For instance, in the case scenario, Victoria was able to notice that Julie did not acquire the toilet training skills like other children. (McLeod, 2013)
Environmental Factors and Psychosocial Development
A number of autonomous features of environmental and psychosocial factors exist which affects child psychosocial development. Theories have been developed to clarify how aspects within the child and the environmental impacts on the child development and growth. The theory outlines different levels of environment that a child interacts with which include mesosystem, macrosystem, ecosystem, and microsystem. The factors which affect child psychosocial development are; health of the child, physical environment and emotional bonds (Cherry, 2017).
The health of a child which can be determined through nutrition status is very important for the development and well-being of the individual child. The child who has unhealthy conditions generally experiences a delay in psychosocial developmental characteristics and in most cases, they portray different development cycle as compared to others. The psychosocial disorders which are shown by unhealthy child include; lack of sleep and delayed motor in a child. These conditions may result from poor cleanliness levels and parents experiencing difficulties when trying to access hospitals. Improving nutrition, promote a clean environment, and preventing illness are important steps to take in ensuring an enhanced psychosocial development (Sharma, & Cockerill, 2014).
An essential factor that improves a child’s psychosocial development of provision of the favorable environment. Parents need to establish a conducive environment so that the children can develop better and desirable skills which will be helpful in future endeavors. Parents and caregivers need to offer chances which will allow children to discover the environment that is outside their home and within their homes. Positive and comfortable home environment will help the child to effectively concentrate on his or her studies for a better outcome. Noisy and crowded environment adversely affects the personality of the child and should be avoided at all cost by the parent and guardians. Vygotsky’s developed a theory which revealed that community plays an important part in social relations, hence, the setup of the community ought to be favorable in order to ensure that children acquire the necessary cultural values (Turns, & Kimmes, 2014).
At birth, the child encounters with the home setting environment for the first time in their life. Emotional stimulations which the child experiences through feeling and seeing are likely to form the child’s personality. The bond that is established between the children and parents determines how children will express their love and fear. Emotional bonds between child and parents ought to be stable so that the child can feel important and valued at home. Parents and children relationship can be improved through spending more time together and parents showing love to the children at all times. Children may fail to interact effectively with others due to lack of emotional bond with their parents (Keenan, Evans, & Crowley, 2016).
Implications for Nursing and Midwifery Practice
Understanding Psychosocial development is important for nursing students because it gives a perception to search for approaches that can be used to enhance child growth and development. The nurse can provide an innovative care plan to improve the situation, in case he encounters a child with developmental challenges. It is necessary for a nurse student to familiarize themselves with the psychosocial development because it will them to provide sufficient child development guide to the parents and guardians to help them face psychosocial development challenges (Lerwick, 2013).
Conclusion
Psychosocial development is an essential part of life which entails several changes in the child. Psychosocial development is essential because it assists a child to deal with issues of every stage in life. Success in psychosocial development will lead to the virtue of persistence, which is seen in styles of making a decision, the courage to initiate activities, projects and ideas initiation, and leading others that the child exhibit later in life. The unresolved conflicts at this age lead an individual to be ruthless and he or she becomes less passionate, uncaring and exploitive. Therefore parents should be willing to take necessary corrective measures against their children so that they propagate desired behaviors and discourage the unwanted behaviors.
References
Berk, L. (2017). Development through the lifespan. Pearson Education India.
Blatt, S. J., & Bless, R. B. (2013). A Dialectic Model of Personality Development. Development and vulnerability in close relationships.
Cherry, K. (2017). Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Psychology. Psychosocial Theories. Päivitetty, 14, 2017.
Keenan, T., Evans, S., & Crowley, K. (2016). An introduction to child development. Sage.
LeBlanc, A. G., Spence, J. C., Carson, V., Connor Gorber, S., Dillman, C., Janssen, I., & Tremblay, M. S. (2012). A systematic review of sedentary behavior and health indicators in the early years (aged 0–4 years). Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 37(4), 753-772.
Lerwick, J. L. (2013, August). Psychosocial implications of pediatric surgical hospitalization. In Seminars in pediatric surgery (Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 129-133). WB Saunders.
McLeod, S. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved August, 9, 2013.
Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2017). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.
Sharma, A., & Cockerill, H. (2014). Mary Sheridan’s from birth to five years: Children’s Developmental Progress. Routledge.
Turns, B. A., & Kimmes, J. (2014). “I’m NOT the Problem!” Externalizing Children’s “Problems” Using Play Therapy and Developmental Considerations. Contemporary Family Therapy, 36(1), 135-147.
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