CHAPTER II GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

 

CHAPTER II

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

 

      Concept and principles.

      Developmental tasks and developmental hazards.

      Theories of development

·      Piaget’s theory of intellectual development

·      Erickson’s theory of psycho social development

·      Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

      Developmental characteristics with special reference to childhood and adolescence

·                     Physical and motor development

·                     Cognitive development

·                     Language development

         Norm Chomsky

         Vygostsky

·                     Emotional development

·                     Moral and social development

      Role of teacher in fostering development of the learner

 

CONCEPTS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The terms growth and development are often used interchangeably. Growth refers to quantitative changes in size which include physical changes in height, weight, size, internal organs, etc. Growth involves changes in body proportions as well as in overall stature and weight. The term growth thus indicates an increase in bodily dimensions. But the rate of growth differs from one part of the body to the other.

Development refers to qualitative changes taking place simultaneously with quantitative changes of growth. It may be defined as a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes. The term progressive signifies that changes are directional, that they lead forward rather than backward. Orderly and coherent suggest that there is a definite relationship between the changes taking place and those that precede or will follow them. Development represents changes in an organism from its origin to its death, but more particularly the progressive changes which take place from origin to maturity. This entire process and phenomena, where an entity, physically grows, physiologically evolves, to attain mental growth and maturity is collectively referred to as Development. 

According to L.D. Crow & Crow (1962), growth refers to Structural and physiological changes and development is concerned with growth as well as those changes in behaviors which result from environmental situations.

Actually a person has developed if he is physically healthier or has more sensors motors Skills so that his physical conditions are conducive to greater personal effectiveness. Thus by improving his sensorimotor skills and thereby utilizing better the capacities he has received from about two decades of growth, a person can develop even after physical growth stops. Physical growth is quantitative in nature and is usually measured in inches and pounds or their equivalents.

Development has four basic elements

1. Growth

2. Maturation

3. Experiences

4. Social transmission (learning through language, Schooling or training by parents) their development and learning.

Growth 1. Quantitative Concept     2. Change in the quantitative aspect come into the domain of growth     3. The term growth is used in purely physical sense referring to an increase in size, length , height and weight.   4. Growth is one of the parts of developmental process.   5. Growth described the charge which take places in, particular aspects of the body and behaviours of the organism.   6. Growth does not continue throughout life.   7. The change produced by growth are the Subject of measurement.   8. They may be quantified  and are observable in nature.     9. Growth may or may not  bring development, A child may grow by becoming fat but this growth many not bring any functional improvement or development.

Development 1.Quanlitative Concept   2. It indicates the changes in the quality or character rather than in quantitative aspects.   3. Development implies overall Change in shake, form or structure resulting in an improved working or function.   4. Development is a wider, and comprehensive term. It refers to overall changes in the individual .   5. Development describes the change in the organism as a whole.     6. Development is a continuous process. It goes from womb to tomb. It does not end with the attainment of maturity. 7. Development, as said earlier implies improvement in functioning and behaviour.   8. They may be qualitative charge which is difficult to measure directly. They are assessed through Keen observation in behavioural situations.   9. Development is also possible  without growth as in the cases of some children who do not gain in terms of height weight or size but they do experience functional improvement or development in physical, social emotional or intellectual aspects.

 

PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT

 (a) Principle of continuity

Development follows continuity. It goes from womb to tomb and never ceases.

(b) Rate of growth and Development is not uniform

 It proceeds more rapidly in the early years of life but slows down in the later year of childhood. Again at the onset of puberty, there is sudden rise in the speed of growth and development but it is not maintained for long. Therefore, at no stage the rate of growth and development show steadiness.

 

 

(d) Uniformity of Pattern

It follows a definite sequence of pattern and is somewhat uniform in the off springs of a species. For example, the motor development and language development in all children seem to follows a definite sequence.

(e) Development Proceeds from General to Specific Response

In all Phase of a child’s development, general activity precedes specific activity. His responses are of a general sort before they become of so specific response. In language development the child learns general word before specific.

(f) Principle of Integration

It is the integration of whole and its part as well as of the specific and general responses that makes a child develop satisfactory in the various dimension of his growth and development.

(g) Principle of Inter-relation

The growth and development takes place in various dimensions like physical, mental, social etc. and these are interrelated and interdependent.

(h) Development is Predictable

With the help of the rate of growth and development of a child it is possible for us to predict the range in with his development is going to fall

(i) Principle of Developmental Direction

Cephalic-caudal as well as proximo-distal”

As per the principle of cephalic-caudal development, the development, the development proceeds in the direction of the longitudinal axis, first the child gain control over his head and arms and then on his leg on that he can stand.

According to the proximodistal tendency of the development, it proceeds from the center to the periphery. In the beginning child exhibits its control over the large fundamental muscles but afterward due to growth and development of smaller muscles he can  exhibit more movements that are refined e.g. Central over the arm and the hand.

(j) Development is Spiral and not Linear

The child does not proceed straightly on the path or development with a constant or steady pace. Actually he makes advancement during a particular period but take rest in the following period to consolidate his development. In advancing further, therefore, he turn back and then moves forward again like a spiral.

(k) Growth and Development is a Joint Product of Heredity and Environment

Child at any stage of his growth and development is a joint product of heredity and environment. The forces of heredity and environment directly or indirectly influence his growth and development in any dimension at all times.

(i) Principle of Uneven Tempo of Growth and Development

Growth and development is continuous yet rate of development is not uniform. At earlier stages it is quick and slows down in later year of infancy and at the stage of puberty there is sudden rise in growth and development.

(m) Principle of Unique Development

All children will first sit up crawl and stand before they walk. But the individual children will vary in regard to time or age at which they can perform these activities.

(n) Principle of Interaction of Maturation and Learning

Growth and development happen as a result of both maturation and learning, maturation refers to changes in a developing organism due to the unfolding and ripening of abilities, characteristics, traits and potentialities present at birth, learning denotes the changes in behavior due to training and/or experience, Maturation and learning interact.

Thus, each child is a changing, growth and developing organisms.

 

 

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS (STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

Any development process proceeds through some stages and each stage of development has its characteristic Psychologists have separated human life span into stages or periods and identified specific changes that may be expected during each stage. The transition from one stage to next is gradual rather than sudden. They are

Age groups	Stage of development	Schooling stage
Birth to 2 years	Infancy
2 years to 6 years	Early childhood	Pre-primary
6 years to 12 years	Later childhood	Primary
12 years to 18 years	Adolescence	Secondary and senior secondary
18 years to 40 years	Young adulthood	College or job
40 years to 65 years	Mature adulthood
over 65 years	Aged adulthood

 

I. Infancy

Development starts from the birth of the child and goes up to death. Infants, during the first two weeks, are called neonates.

• They usually have wrinkled, blotchy red skin and a large head. The neonate's head is closer to eventual adult size than is the rest of the body. They sleep for about 18 to 22 hours a day, wake up when hungry and sleep again as soon as they are fed.
• Within a few days they begin recognizing their mother's voice and develop a relationship with parents. Accepted and loved babies develop a sense of trust too. Emotions starts in them like jealousy, anger, love, sympathy and friendliness
• From three months they start babbling.
• Motor ability: By the sixth month the slow and awkward grasping of early months gives way to well-coordinated movements. By the age of nine months a normal baby can creep. Motor ability develops from the head, down to the toes.
• Also, the infant has more motor control of the head than of the lower muscles. The progression of motor control follows this pattern first the head, then shoulders, arms and abdomen and finally the legs and feet.
• The growth and motor ability develop from the central axis of the body outwards. Trunk and shoulder movements occur earlier than separate arm movements. Control over the hands and fingers come last.
• Motor development is thus heavily influenced by biological maturity. Practice is certainly necessary for full development of the biological potential. In activities like walking, early practice is a key ingredient in maintenance and further development.
• Capable of discriminating between sweet and sour tastes. Taste is the most highly developed of all the senses at birth.
• A response to different smells has been observed within two hours of birth.
• Some babies respond to sound almost immediately after birth, whereas others may take a few days to gain this sense. This difference is a result of the time it may take for the amniotic fluid to drain out the newborn's hearing mechanisrn. However, neonates even when three days old, show a marked preference for the mother's voice over the voices of others. By about one year of age, babies can associate the sounds with objects and thus they begin to utter their first words such as dada, mama or bye-bye. The baby at 12 months is able to produce approximately 30 to 50 words and by 18 months, 400 words.
• Vision develops more slowly than many of the other senses. Responses to light and darkness are functional. Neonates can focus their eyes to a distance of eight to ten inches. The nursing newborn can certainly see the mother's face. Some infants as young as one month old can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces.
• During the first two years babies play alone. They explore their surroundings, handle toys and start uttering some word combinations.

From birth, infants demonstrate their uniqueness and their variability. Researchers agree generally that babies have different personality styles and these differences increase over the first few months of life. Parents have a profound influence in shaping their children's personality.

 

II. Early Childhood period

Early childhood, between two and six years is generally referred to as the preschool period. They refine their previously learned skills and evolve new ones for relating themselves with other people. Thus the child progressively develops as a social being in his own right.

• By the time a child is three years old, positive emotions likes love and affection are shown. Their emotions get an outlet through play. Their need for socialization grows.
• Mental/intellectual development is characterized by the rapid expansion of cognitive abilities. Children become more curious and eager to seek information, keep it in order and use it.
• Sensory motor processes largely dominate development during infancy, a significant transition occurs (after two years of age) towards more abstract.
• By six years old, they have developed cognitive skills. Processes of reasoning, drawing inferences and problem-solving increases.
• Language development begins with howling, babbling and iteration.
• A major developmental task for a child during the first six years of life is to acquire gender identification.

a.                biological factors

b.               social factors

c.                Environmental factors are shaping the gender identity among children.

• The cognitive development theory claims that children first come to categorise themselves as male or female and then attempt to acquire those patterns of behaviour that fit their gender category.

 

III. Later Childhood During this period (6-12 years of age)

• Physical growth is initially slow.
• Intellectual development

         In this Memory and the problem-solving ability improve

         They become capable of comparing themselves with others with respect to intellectual, athletic and ' social skills.

·         They generally select playmates of their own sex and play together in groups. This period is often referred to as gangage.

• They develop an understanding of the meaning of rules.
• Their moral development takes place as they accept the rules and standards of their friends and teachers. This is the primary school stage.
• They develop their intellectual capabilities through information processing. Piaget calls it the period of concrete operations. He refers it as concrete because children are bound by immediate physical reality; they develop the power to reason simultaneously by the whole and by the part at this stage.
• Children acquire the ability to order objects in a series according to some abstract dimension, such as size, weight, brightness or smell.
• The primary school years are a time of rapid growth in social development. They assess the status of the people they encounter from their behaviour (walking, eating, reading, playing), their emotional state (happy, sad, angry), their roles (teacher, parents) and their social context (religious place, school, home). In other words, children form a perception of and about people. They describe people largely in terms of external, readily available characteristics.
• Children continue to grow in the strength, speed and coordination needed for motor skills. They climb trees, walls, etc. They develop precision in athletic ability.

 

IV. Adolescence

Adolescence is very crucial stage of development. The period of transition from childhood to adult is called adolescence. Biological, physical, social, cognitive development takes place during the adolescence stage. The major changes that take place at this stage of development are discussed below.

Physical development

• By the age of seventeen in girls and eighteen in boys, the majority of them have reached 98 per cent of their final height. They suddenly catch up with adults in physical size and strength.
• The rapid development of the reproductive organs occurs which signals sexual maturity.
• Adolescents are often extremely sensitive and perceptive about their own physical appearance and that of their friends.
• In early adolescence, most relationships with the opposite sex take place in groups. It is known as the trial period for adolescents to collect the ideas and experiences with which to form the basic attitudes about sex roles and sexual behaviour. They can examine their own and others stereotyped images of the opposite sex.

·         Adolescents tend to select friends who are from same social class, interests, moral values and social maturity.

·         Identities are not fixed. They undergo continual shaping and reshaping over the course of the life span. Adolescence poses identity tasks that seem play an important part in successful transition to adulthood.

Cognitive development

• An expansion in capacity and style of thought broadens adolescents’ awareness, imagination, judgement and insight. These enhanced abilities lead to a rapid accumulation of knowledge that enriches the adolescent's life.
• Adolescents show an increase in ability to plan and think ahead.
• They learn to examine objects, events or phenomena and consciously develop their thinking ability.
• they begin to challenge everything, to reject old boundaries and categories.
• become more creative and thinkers.

 

V Young Adulthood

There is no fixed age when adolescence is complete. The responsibilities of adulthood include important decisions like choosing a career, a life partner etc.

• Young adulthood begins with setting goals and aspirations.

• Individuals in their twenties are ambitious and striving.
• Early thirties as the time of re-assessing.
• By the late thirties adults settle down and become more satisfied.

 

VI. Mature Adulthood

• The individual starts feeling sense of dissatisfaction during the forties.
• A physical decline in the form of wrinkles, thickening waistlines, and greying and thinning hair start appearing.
• The changes are often termed middle life transition, middle-age revolt, mid-career crisis or middle-age slump.
• In women hormonal changes of menopause generate anxiety and depression.

 

 

 

VII Aged Adulthood

• Aging is a process which causes loss of vitality. Aged adults are more concerned about their health and death. Their visit to doctors is more frequent.
• They gradually lose their sense of meaningfulness in life.
• Some develop interests in social service and spend their time in financial planning, reading, traveling, visiting religious places and enjoying nature.

 

DEVELOPMENTAL HAZARDS

Even when the developmental pattern is progressing normally, hazards in some areas of development interfere with the normal pattern. Some of these hazards are environmental in origin while others originate from within. Hazards affect the physical, psychological, and social adjustments in the child. They change the developmental pattern by producing a plateau in which no forward movement occurs or they cause a regression to a lower stage. When this happens, the child encounters adjustment problems and is said to be ‘poorly adjusted’ or ‘immature’.

1.   Hazards during the prenatal period

• Maternal stress is hazardous to prenatal developmental, is that it upsets the normal functioning of the maternal endocrine system.

2.      Hazards Associated with Birth

• Due to the birth process itself.
• Some of the hazards are physical, some are psychological, and some are both physical and psychological.
• Prematurity
• unfavorable parental attitudes

  3. Hazards in Physical Development

• Illness
• Poor prenatal environment
• nutrition is poor, before and after birth

4. Hazards in Motor Development

Motor development means the development of control over bodily movement through the coordinated activity of the nerve centers, the nerves, and the muscles. This control comes from the development of the reflexes and mass activity present at birth. Until this development occurs, the child is helpless.

• Awkwardness
• Delayed motor development

5. Hazards in Speech Development

Speech is the motor-mental skill. Speech development is very complicated, owing to the fact that it involves both comprehensive of what others say and the ability to speak

·         impact of speech on children's personal and social adjustments is even greater than the impact of the motor development. This is because speech has a greater influence on children's social adjustments than their skills. The kind of social adjustments children make affect their personal adjustments.

6. Hazards in Emotional Development

Emotions play an important role in determining what kind of personal and social adjustments children will make, not only during childhood but also as they become adolescents and adults.

·         Children are deprived of a reasonable share of pleasant emotional experiences, especially curiosity, joy, happiness, and affection.

·         deprivation of affection during the earlier months and years of life can be hazardous to the individual's physical, mental, emotional, and social development.

7. Hazards in Social Adjustments

Social Adjustments means the success with which people adjust to other people in general and to the group. It is an extremely difficult area of development during the childhood years. There are many possibilities of developing unfavorable attitudes and behavior patterns. It could be prevented or quickly corrected if they are spotted in time.

 

      Theories of development

·      Piaget’s theory of intellectual development

·      Erickson’s theory of psycho social development

·      Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

JEAN PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Jean Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence using naturalistic observation of his own three babies and sometimes controlled observation too. Cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, and then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment. The goal of the theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant, and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypotheses. 

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His cognitive development suggests that intelligence changes as children grow. A child's cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge, the child has to develop or construct a mental model of the world. Cognitive development occurs through the interaction of innate capacities and environmental events, and children pass through a series of stages. Piaget's stages are

All children go through the same stages in the same order (but not all at the same rate).

Piaget’s Four Stages

Stage	Age	Goal
Sensorimotor	Birth to 2 years	Object permanence
Preoperational	2 to 7 years old	Symbolic thought
Concrete operational	Ages 7 to 11 years	Logical thought
Formal operational	Adolescence to adulthood	Scientific reasoning

 

The Sensorimotor Stage    Ages: Birth to 2 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

• The infant learns about the world through their senses and through their actions (moving around and exploring its environment).
• A range of cognitive abilities develop. These include: object permanence; self-recognition; deferred imitation; and representational play.
• During this stage the infant does not yet have a mental picture of the world stored in its memory therefore it does not have a sense of object permanence. If it cannot see something then it does not exist. This is why you can hide a toy from an infant, while it watches, but it will not search for the object once it has gone out of sight.
• During the development of 12 months, the main achievement during this stage is object permanence - knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema) of the object.

• Towards the end of this stage the general symbolic function begins to appear where children show in their play that they can use one object to stand for another.
•  Language starts to appear because they realize that words can be used to represent objects and feelings.
• The child begins to be able to store information that it knows about the world, recall it and label it.

The Preoperational Stage    Ages: 2 - 7 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes

• Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery.
• During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one thing, such as a word or an object, stand for something other than itself.
• A child’s thinking is dominated by how the world looks, not how the world is. It is not yet capable of logical (problem solving) type of thought.
• Infants at this stage also demonstrate animism. This is the tendency for the child to think that non-living objects (such as toys) have life and feelings like a person’s.
• By 2 years, children have made some progress towards detaching their thought from physical world. However have not yet developed logical (or 'operational') thought characteristic of later stages.
• Thinking is still intuitive (based on subjective judgments about situations) and egocentric (centred on the child's own view of the world).
• There is no concept about weight, length, number, time, volume, reversibility etc.

The Concrete Operational Stage   Ages: 7 - 11 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

• During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events.
• Children begin to understand the concept of conservation, understanding that, although things may change in appearance, certain properties remain the same.
• During this stage, children can mentally reverse things
• During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel.
• The stage is called concrete because children can think logically much more successfully if they can manipulate real (concrete) materials or pictures of them.
• Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. This means the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world).
• Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.

The Formal Operational Stage Ages: 11 above

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

• Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas formal operations are carried out on ideas. Formal operational thought is entirely freed from physical and perceptual constraints.
• During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas
• From about 12 years, children can follow the form of a logical argument without reference to its content. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts, and logically test hypotheses.
• Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems with many possible solutions. E.g. if asked ‘What would happen if money were abolished in one hour’s time? they could speculate about many possible consequences.
• This stage sees emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and hypotheses when faced with a problem.

Piaget's Theory Differs From Others in Several Ways

Piaget's (1936, 1950) theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.

• He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment.
• Children’s ability to understand, think about and solve problems in the world develops in a stop-start, discontinuous manner (rather than gradual changes over time).
• It is concerned with children, rather than all learners.
• It focuses on development, rather than learning information or specific behaviors.
• It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, ideas, etc.

Schemas

Schemas are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us to form a mental representation of the world. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based. Piaget claimed that knowledge cannot simply emerge from sensory experience; some initial structure is necessary to make sense of the world. Newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas, even before they experience the world. These neonatal schemas are the cognitive structures underlying innate reflexes. These reflexes are genetically programmed into us.

For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter (dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget, therefore, assumed that the baby has a 'sucking schema.'

Similarly, the grasping reflex which is elicited when something touches the palm of a baby's hand, or the rooting reflex, in which a baby will turn its head towards something which touches its cheek, are innate schemas. Shaking a rattle would be the combination of two schemas, grasping and shaking.

Piaget defined a schema as "a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning." Piaget called schema as the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge. A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world. In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas.

For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child's sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an enormous dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously existing schema to include these new observations.

The Process of Adaptation

Jean Piaget viewed intellectual growth as a process of adaptation (adjustment) to the world. This happens through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration.

Assimilation

Piaget defined assimilation as the cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding. Overall beliefs and understanding of the world do not change as a result of the new information. This means that when you are faced with new information, you make sense of this information by referring to information you already have learned previously and try to fit the new information into the information you already have.

For example, a 2-year-old child sees a man who is bald on top of his head and has long frizzy hair on the sides. The toddler shouts “Clown, clown”

          Accommodation

Psychologist Jean Piaget defined accommodation as the cognitive process of revising existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding so that new information can be incorporated. This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.In order to make sense of some new information, you actual adjust information you already have (schemas you already have, etc.) to make room for this new information.

For example, in the “clown” incident, he understands that even though his hair was like a clown’s, the man was not a clown.

With this new knowledge, the boy was able to change his schema of “clown” and make this idea fit better to a standard concept of “clown”.

Equilibration

Piaget believed that all human thought seeks order and is uncomfortable with contradictions and inconsistencies in knowledge structures. In other words, we seek 'equilibrium' in our cognitive structures.

Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. An unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation). Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds. Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process as we do not like to be frustrated and will seek to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (accommodation). Once the new information is acquired the process of assimilation with the new schema will continue until the next time we need to make an adjustment to it.

Educational Implications

• Piaget's theory is based upon biological maturation and a stage, the notion of ‘readiness’ is important. Readiness concerns when certain information or concepts should be taught. According to Piaget's theory children should not be taught certain concepts until they have reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development.
• Assimilation and accommodation require an active learner, not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be taught, they must be discovered.
• Within the classroom learning should be student-centered and accomplished through active discovery learning. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning, rather than direct tuition. Therefore, teachers should encourage the following within the classroom:
• Focus on the process of learning, rather than the end product of it.
• Using active methods that require rediscovering or reconstructing "truths."
• Using collaborative, as well as individual activities

Sensori motor Period: Activities for Infants and Toddlers

• Provide a rich stimulating environment
• Allow the child to play with toys that squeak when squeezed. (ex: rubber duck) At first when the child squeezes the toy, they will be surprised by the sound and why it happened. However, after some time the child will realize that by squeezing the toy they are the one causing the noise. This gives an example of cause-and-effect relationships: if I squeeze the duck, it will squeak. 
• Another example of a toy is a rattle; when the baby shakes a rattle it makes noise. 

Preoperational Period: Activities for Toddlers and Early Childhood 

·         Hands on activities should also be facilitated at this time.

·         Encourage children to play with toys that change shape (ex: playdoh, sand, clay, water) because this will help them move towards the concept of conservation.

·         Children need physical, hands on practice with facts and skills needed for development.

·         Use cut-out letters to build words.

·         Avoid lessons that are very different from the child's world. And steer away from using workbooks or paper and pencil activities very often.

·          Use concrete props and visual aids whenever possible.

·          Make instructions relatively short, using actions as well as words.

·         Give children a great deal of hands-on practice with the skills that serve as building blocks for more complex skills like reading comprehension.

·          Provide a wide range of experiences in order to build a foundation for concept learning and language.

Concrete Operations: Activities for Middle Childhood

·         Give children the chance to manipulate objects and test out ideas

·         Do simple experiments, with participation of the students

·         Avoid dealing with more than three of four variables at a time

·         Reading selections should have a limited number of characters

·         Experiments should have a limited number of steps

·         Students should have practice classifying objects and ideas on complex levels

·         Have students group sentences on a piece of paper

·         Use analogies to show the relationship of new material to already acquired knowledge. 

Formal Operations: Activities for Adolescents 

• Teachers should continue using strategies and materials as in concrete operations stage.
• Use charts and illustrations, as well as incoporate new more sophisticated graphs and diagrams
• Give step by step explanations and materials
• encouraged to work in groups in school to explain and discuss hypothetical topics.
• Students should also be encouraged to explain how they solved a problem. Students could work in pairs, one is the listener, while the other is the problems solver. The problem solver works the problem out loud, while the listener checks to see that all steps are followed and seem logical.
• Teachers should try to teach broad concepts, rather than just facts.
• Use materials and ideas relevant to the students

 

ERIK ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist centered on psychosocial development. He believed that people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. These conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high but so is the potential for failure.

If people successfully deal with the conflict, they emerge from the stage with psychological strengths that will serve them well for the rest of their lives and develop a sense of mastery, which is sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality.  If they fail to deal effectively with these conflicts, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy in that aspect of development.

The stages are given below

Psychosocial Stages: A Summary Chart
Age	Conflict	Important Events	Outcome
Infancy (birth to 18 months)	Trust vs. Mistrust	Feeding	Hope
Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)	Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt	Toilet Training	Will
Preschool (3 to 5 years)	Initiative vs. Guilt	Exploration	Purpose
School Age (6 to 11 years)	Industry vs. Inferiority	School	Confidence
Adolescence (12 to 18 years)	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Social Relationships	Fidelity
Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years)	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Relationships	Love
Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Work and Parenthood	Care
Maturity (65 to death)	Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Reflection on Life	Wisdom

 

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Occurs between Birth and 2 year of age and is the most fundamental stage in life.
• An infant is utterly dependent, upon adult caregivers including food, love, warmth, safety, and nurturing.
• If a caregiver fails to provide adequate care and love, the child will come to feel that they cannot trust or depend upon. Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting contribute to feelings of mistrust in the children under their care.
• Failure to develop trust will result in fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable.
• Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.
• No child is going to develop a sense of 100% trust or 100% doubt. Erikson believed that successful development was all about striking a balance between the two opposing sides.
• When this happens, children acquire hope, which Erikson described as openness to experience tempered by some wariness that danger may be present.

 

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

• during early childhood and is focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control.
• The Role of Independence: They are starting to perform basic actions on their own and making simple decisions about what they prefer. By allowing kids to make choices and gain control, parents and caregivers can help children develop a sense of autonomy.

Eg. Potty Training

Control over food choices, toy preferences, and clothing selection.

• Success during this stage of psychosocial development leads to feelings of autonomy; feel secure and confident.
• failure results in feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
• achieving a balance between autonomy and shame and doubt would lead to will, which is the belief that children can act with intention, within reason and limits.

 

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt

• During the preschool years.
• Children begin to assert their power and control over the environment through directing play and other social interactions.
• Successful at this stage feel capable and able to lead others.
• Those who fail to acquire these skills are left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt, and lack of initiative. Children who try to exert too much power experience disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.
• When an ideal balance of individual initiative and a willingness to work with others is achieved, the ego quality known as purpose emerges.

 

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority

• During the early school years from approximately ages 5 to 11.
• Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities.
• Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a feeling of competence and belief in their skills
• Those who receive little or no encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers will doubt their abilities to be successful.
• Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.
• Successfully finding a balance at this stage of psychosocial development leads to the strength known as competence, in which children develop a belief in their abilities to handle the tasks set before them.

 

Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion

• During the often turbulent teenage years.
• Develop a sense of personal identity which will continue to influence behavior and development for the rest of a person's life. Identity refers to all of the beliefs, ideals, and values that help shape and guide a person's behavior. Our sense of personal identity is shaped by our experiences and interactions with others, and it is this identity that helps guide our actions, beliefs, and behaviors as we age.
• Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.
• Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and feelings of independence and control.
• Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will feel insecure and confused about themselves and the future.
• Completing this stage successfully leads to fidelity, which Erikson described as an ability to live by society's standards and expectations.

Erikson placed a particular emphasis on the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction and becomes a central focus during the identity versus confusion stage of psychosocial development. According to Erikson, our ego identity constantly changes due to new experiences and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others. As we have new experiences, we also take on challenges that can help or hinder the development of identity.

 

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation

• early adulthood
• Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people.
• Successful resolution of this stage results in the virtue known as love.  Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.
• Erikson believed that a strong sense of personal identity was important for developing intimate relationships. Studies have demonstrated that those with a poor sense of self tend to have less committed relationships and are more likely to struggler with emotional isolation, loneliness, and depression.

 

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation

• During adulthood
• Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people.
• Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, Those who are successful during this phase will feel that they are contributing to the world by being active in their home and community
• Failure results in shallow involvement in the world. They feel unproductive and uninvolved in the world.
• Care is the virtue achieved when this stage is handled successfully. Being proud of your accomplishments, watching your children grow into adults, and developing a sense of unity with your life partner are important accomplishments of this stage.

 

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

• during old age
• Is focused on reflecting back on life. At this point in development, people look back on the events of their lives and determine if they are happy with the life that they lived or if they regret the things they did or didn't do.
• Success of well lived at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom and they were ready to face the end of their lives with a sense of peace. They feel proud of their accomplishments and get a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death.
• While failed persons feels fearful that their lives will end without accomplishing the things they feel they should have.​ They results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Erikson's theory differed from many others because it addressed development throughout the entire lifespan, including old age.

 

KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Theory of Moral development by Kohlberg was created while studying psychology at the University of Chicago, the theory was inspired by the work of Jean Piaget and a fascination with children's reactions to moral dilemmas. He wrote his doctoral dissertation at the university in 1958, outlining what are now known as his stages of moral development.This theory has six identifiable developmental stages. These six stages where broken into three levels: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. His theory is based on constructive developmental stages. People can only pass through these levels in the order listed. Each new stage replaces the reasoning typical of the earlier stage. Not everyone achieves all the stages.

 

The 3 levels of moral reasoning include

LEVEL 1 - PRECONVENTIONAL MORALITY

Preconventional morality is the first stage of moral development and lasts approximately age 9. At the preconventional level children don’t have a personal code of morality, and instead moral decisions are shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules. Authority is outside the individual and children often make moral decisions based on the physical consequences of actions.

For example, if an action leads to punishment is must be bad, and if it leads to a reward is must be good.

Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation. The child/individual is good in order to avoid being punished. If a person is punished, they must have done wrong.

Stage 2. Individualism, Instrumentalism, and  Exchange

              OR Self-interest orientation   ( What's in it for me?)

At this stage, children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have different viewpoints.

 

LEVEL 2 - CONVENTIONAL MORALITY

Conventional morality is the second stage of moral development and is characterized by an acceptance of social rules concerning right and wrong. At the conventional level (most adolescents and adults) we begin to internalize the moral standards of valued adult role models.

A social system that stresses the responsibilities of relationships as well as social order is seen as desirable and must, therefore, influence our view of what is right and wrong.

Authority is internalized but not questioned, and reasoning is based on the norms of the group to which the person belongs.

Stage 3. Good Interpersonal Relationships. (The good boy/good girl attitude)

The child/individual is good in order to be seen as being a good person by others. Therefore, answers relate to the approval of others.

Stage 4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality)

The child/individual becomes aware of the wider rules of society, so judgments concern obeying the rules in order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt.

 

LEVEL 3 - POSTCONVENTIONAL MORALITY

Post conventional morality is the third stage of moral development, and is characterized by an individuals’ understanding of universal ethical principles. These are abstract and ill-defined, but might include the preservation of life at all costs, and the importance of human dignity.

Individual judgment is based on self-chosen principles and moral reasoning is based on individual rights and justice. According to Kohlberg this level of moral reasoning is as far as most people get. Only 10-15% are capable of the kind of abstract thinking necessary for stage 5 or 6 (post-conventional morality). That is to say, most people take their moral views from those around them and only a minority thinks through ethical principles for themselves.

Stage 5. Social Contract Orientation. The child/individual becomes aware that while rules/laws might exist for the good of the greatest number, there are times when they will work against the interest of particular individuals.  The issues are not always clear-cut. For example, in Heinz’s dilemma, the protection of life is more important than breaking the law against stealing.

Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principles. (Principled conscience)

People at this stage have developed their own set of moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law. The principles apply to everyone. E.g., human rights, justice, and equality. The person will be prepared to act to defend these principles even if it means going against the rest of society in the process and having to pay the consequences of disapproval and or imprisonment. Kohlberg doubted few people reached this stage.

 

      Developmental characteristics with special reference to childhood and adolescence

·                     Physical and motor development

·                     Cognitive development

·                     Language development

         Norm Chomsky

         Vygostsky

·                     Emotional development

·                     Moral and social development

      Role of teacher in fostering development of the learner

 

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Physical development is the most readily visible child development domains. In all developmental domains, the brain is promoting exploration and movement. Parents play an important role in all of the developmental domains. They can provide guidance and support through a process known as “scaffolding”.  Providing objects to encourage a baby to reach and grasp, holding the hands of a toddler while they take a few steps, teaching potty training, help a child with buttoning and zipping clothing, helping them learn to ride a bike and playing catch are just a few examples of how parents provide scaffolding to help children develop physical abilities. Parents should promote a healthy lifestyle for their children.  This includes helping them to get adequate sleep, eat a well-balanced diet and stay active physically.  

Physical Developmental Milestones

Infant (0 to 18 m)

Toddler (18 m - 3y)

Preschooler (3y - 5y)

School Age (6y - 12y)

Teens (13-18)

Birth to Six Months Gross (Large)

• Lifts head and chest when on the stomach.
• Rolls from back to side or side to back.
• Rolls completely over from back or stomach.
• Sits with support.
• Holds head erect.
• Can raise him/herself up on forearms (while on tummy) and hold head up
• Rolls from back to tummy (by 4-6 months)
• Fine (Small) Motor Skills Reaches for objects.
• Holds objects for short periods of time before dropping them.
• Usually responds to objects or faces as they move Plays with fingers, hands, and toes Holds and manipulates objects; sucks on everything

 Six to 12 Months Gross

• Progresses from sitting steady when supported to sitting without support.
• Crawls on hands and knees.
• Pulls to standing position.
• Walks with help.
• Stands alone.
• Learns to crawl, stand up and walk Sits without support (by 8 months)
• Begins to cruise and eventually walk
• Develops eye-hand coordination Fine (Small)
• Places objects in a container.
• Picks up medium and large objects.
• Changes objects from one hand to another.
• Plays with two toys; one in each hand.
• Points with fingers.
• Transfers toys from hand to hand
• Sees almost everything with good vision
• Develops eye-hand coordination

12 to 18 Months

• Stands alone.
• Walks without support; starting and stopping with control.
• Walks backward with a pull toy.
• Runs stiffly.
• Squats down to pick up an object and stands up.
• Climbs up stairs; creeps down backward one at a time.
• Climbs out of the crib and playpen.
•  Can throw a ball
• Walks well
• Can walk while holding an object
• Fine (Small) Motor Skills Turns several pages of a book at one time.
• Scribbles on paper with crayon.
• Releases ball with slight thrust.
• Picks up small objects between thumb and forefinger.
• Can open a small box. Holds a spoon with a fist. Feeds self with fingers.
• Holds and drinks from a cup.
• Picks up small objects with pointer finger and thumb Can build a tower of cubes

 

Up to 3 years

·         Walks up and down stairs unassisted, using alternating feet; may jump from bottom step, landing on both feet

·         Can momentarily balance on one foot

·         Can kick big ball-shaped objects

·         Needs minimal assistance eating

·         Jumps on the spot

·         Pedals a small tricycle

·         Throws a ball overhand; aim and distance are limited

·         Catches a large bouncing ball with both arms extended

·         Shows improved control of crayons or markers; uses vertical, horizontal and circular strokes

·         Holds crayon or marker between first two fingers and thumb (tripod grasp), not in a fist as earlier

·         Can turn the pages of a book one at a time

·         Enjoys building with blocks

·         Builds a tower of eight or more blocks

·         Enjoys playing with clay; pounds, rolls, and squeezes it

·         May begin to show hand dominance

·         Manipulates large buttons and zippers on clothing

·         Washes and dries hands; brushes own teeth, but not thoroughly

By age 6

·         Gains greater control over large and fine motor skills; movements are more precise and deliberate, though some clumsiness persists

·         Enjoys vigorous running, jumping, climbing, and throwing etc.

·         Span of attention increases; works at tasks for longer periods of time

·         Can concentrate effort but not always consistently

·         Has fun with problem-solving and sorting activities like stacking, puzzles, and mazes

·         Enjoys the challenge of puzzles, counting, and sorting activities, paper-and-pencil mazes, and games that involve matching letters and words with pictures

·         Recognizes some words by sight; attempts to sound out words

·         Increased functioning which facilitates learning to ride a bicycle, swim, swing a bat, or kick a ball

·         Able to trace objects

·         Folds and cuts paper into simple shapes

·         Can tie laces, string (like shoes)

 

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Childhood period

Children aged 6 to 12 years old develop the ability to think in concrete ways. These are called concrete operations. These things are called concrete because they’re done around objects and events. This includes knowing how to:

• Combine (add)
• Separate (subtract or divide)
• Order (alphabetize and sort)
• Transform objects and actions

From Birth to 3 Months

The first 3 months of a child's life are centered on exploring the basic senses and learning more about the body and the environment.

During this period, most infants begin to:

·         Demonstrate anticipatory behaviors, like rooting and sucking at the site of a nipple or bottle

·         Detect sound differences in pitch and volume

·         Discern objects more clearly within a distance of 13 inches

·         Focus on moving objects, including the faces of caregivers

·         See all colors of the human visual spectrum

·         Tell between tastes, from sweet, salty, bitter, and sour

·         Use facial expressions to respond to their environment

From 3 to 6 Months

·         begin to develop a stronger sense of perception. At this age, most babies begin to:

·         Imitate facial expressions

·         React to familiar sounds

·         Recognize familiar faces

·         Respond to the facial expressions of other people

From 6 to 9 Months

·         Gaze longer at "impossible" things such as an object suspended in midair

·         Tell the differences between pictures depicting different numbers of objects

·         Understand the differences between animate and inanimate objects

·         Utilize the relative size of an object to determine how far away it is

From 9 to 12 Months

·         Enjoy looking at picture books

·         Imitate gestures and some basic actions

·         Manipulate objects by turning them over, trying to put one object into another, etc.

·         Respond with gestures and sounds

·         Understand the concept of object permanence, the idea that an object continues to exist even though it cannot be seen

From 1 to 2 Years

·         Identify objects that are similar

·         Imitate the actions and language of adults

·         Learn through exploration

·         Point out familiar objects and people in picture books

·         Tell the difference between "Me" and "You"

·         Understand and respond to words

From 2 to 3 Years

·         Identify their own reflection in the mirror by name

·         Imitate more complex adult actions (playing house, pretending to do laundry, etc.)

·         Match objects with their uses

·         Name objects in a picture book

·         Respond to simple directions from parents and caregivers

·         Sort objects by category (i.e., animals, flowers, trees, etc.)

·         Stack rings on a peg from largest to smallest

From 3 to 4 Years

·         Ask "why" questions to gain information

·         Demonstrate awareness of the past and present

·         Learn by observing and listening to instructions

·         Maintain a longer attention span of around 5 to 15 minutes

·         Organize objects by size and shape

·         Seek answers to questions

·         Understand how to group and match object according to color

From 4 to 5 Years

·         Create pictures that they often name and describe

·         Count to five

·         Draw the shape of a person

·         Name and identify many colors

·         Rhyme

·         Tell where they live

How to help Kids Reach Cognitive Milestones

Parents are in a unique position to help shape how their children learn, think, and develop. In the home, parents can encourage their children's intellectual abilities

·         By helping kids make sense of the world around them.

·          Parents can help the child touch and explore the item as well as saying what the object is.

·         Try to have patience with young children who seem to have an endless array of questions about each and everything around them.

·         Parents can also pose their own questions to help kids become more creative problem solvers.

Adolescence

Ages 12 to 18 is called adolescence. These age groups do more complex thinking. This type of thinking is also known as formal logical operations. This includes the ability to:

• Do abstract thinking. 
• Reason from known principles. 
• Consider many points of view. 
• Think about the process of thinking. 
• Some children may be able to use logical operations in schoolwork long before they can use them for personal problems.
• When emotional issues come up, they can cause problems with a child’s ability to think in complex ways.
• The ability to consider possibilities and facts may affect decision-making. This can happen in either positive or negative ways.
• Uses more complex thinking focused on personal decision-making in school and at home
• Begins to show use of formal logical operations in schoolwork

• Begins to question authority and society's standards
• Begins to form and speak his or her own thoughts and views on many topics.
• A child in middle adolescence:
• Has some experience in using more complex thinking processes
• Expands thinking to include more philosophical and futuristic concerns
• Often questions more extensively
• Often analyzes more extensively
• Thinks about and begins to form his or her own code of ethics
• Thinks about different possibilities and begins to develop own identity
• Thinks about and begins to systematically consider possible future goals
• Thinks about and begins to make his or her own plans
• Begins to think long-term
• Uses systematic thinking and begins to influence relationships with others
• Uses complex thinking to focus on less self-centered concepts and personal decision-making
• Has increased thoughts about more global concepts, such as justice, history, politics, and patriotism
• Often develops idealistic views on specific topics or concerns
• May debate and develop intolerance of opposing views
• Begins to focus thinking on making career decisions and their emerging role in adult society

How you can encourage healthy cognitive growth

• Include him or her in discussions about a variety of topics, issues, and current events.
• Encourage child to share ideas and thoughts
• Encourage teen to think independently and develop his or her own ideas.
• Help child in setting goals.
• Challenge him or her to think about possibilities for the future.
• Compliment and praise teen for well-thought-out decisions.
• Help him or her in re-evaluating poorly made decisions.

 

 

DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF ADOLESCENCE

Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. It includes some big changes to the body, and to the way a young person relates to the world. Physical, sexual, cognitive, social, and emotional changes happen during this time can bring anticipation and anxiety for both children and their families. Understanding what to expect at different stages can promote healthy development throughout adolescence and into early adulthood. 

1. Physical development

• In early adolescence, the body undergoes more developmental change than at any other time, apart from birth to two years old.
• The rate of growth is rapid and uneven, with a different pace and rate of change for each individual.
• Physical changes include increases in height, weight, and internal organ size as well as changes in skeletal and muscular systems.
• Puberty occurs in early adolescence, triggered by the release of hormones which lead to the development of primary sex characteristics (genitalia) and secondary sex characteristics (eg breast development in girls; facial hair in boys). The increased hormone production affects skeletal growth, hair production, and skin changes.

·         Many girls may start their period at around age 12, on average 2-3 years after the onset of breast development.

• Physical changes are visible to all and highlight the range and pace of change. This sometimes leads to adolescents feeling more or less mature than others. Physical development growth spurts occur about two years earlier in girls than boys.

 2. Social development

• Adolescent social development is often described as the process of establishing a sense of identity and establishing a role and purpose. It is an outwards sense of oneself.
• Body image is a key factor in developing a sense of self and identity, especially for girls, and the family and increasingly peers play an important role assisting and supporting the adolescent to achieve adult roles.
• Risk-taking is a natural part of the adolescent journey.
• Social development and emotional development are closely intertwined as young people search for a sense of self and personal identity.
• They argument with their parents as they struggle for more independence. 

·         They may spend less time with family and more time with friends. They are very concerned about their appearance, and peer pressure may peak at this age.   

3. Emotional development

• The way a person thinks and feels about themselves and others, their inward thoughts, is key to their emotional development.
• Developing and demonstrating individual emotional assets such as resilience, self esteem and coping skills is heightened during adolescence because of the rapid changes being experienced.

·         Things are right or wrong, great or terrible, without much room in between.  It is normal at this stage for young people to center their thinking on themselves (called "egocentrism"). 

·         They may start to explore ways of being independent from their family. In this process, they may push boundaries and may react strongly if parents or guardians reinforce limits.

·         They may question and explore their sexual identity which may be stressful if they do not have support from peers, family, or community.

4. Cognitive development

Cognition is the process involving thought, rationale and perception. The physical changes of the brain that occur during adolescence follow typical patterns of cognitive development.

• They are characterized by the development of higher-level cognitive functioning that aligns with the changes in brain structure and function, particularly in the prefrontal cortex region.
• The structural and functional brain changes affect the opportunity for increased memory and processing. They may also contribute to vulnerability, such as risk taking and increased sensitivity to mental illness.

• Do abstract thinking. 
• Reason from known principles. 
• Consider many points of view. 
• Think about the process of thinking. 
• Some children may be able to use logical operations in schoolwork long before they can use them for personal problems.
• When emotional issues come up, they can cause problems with a child’s ability to think in complex ways.
• The ability to consider possibilities and facts may affect decision-making. This can happen in either positive or negative ways.
• Uses more complex thinking focused on personal decision-making in school and at home

• Begins to show use of formal logical operations in schoolwork
• Begins to question authority and society's standards
• Begins to form and speak his or her own thoughts and views on many topics.
• A child in middle adolescence:
• Has some experience in using more complex thinking processes
• Expands thinking to include more philosophical and futuristic concerns
• Often questions more extensively
• Often analyzes more extensively
• Thinks about and begins to form his or her own code of ethics
• Thinks about different possibilities and begins to develop own identity
• Thinks about and begins to systematically consider possible future goals
• Thinks about and begins to make his or her own plans
• Begins to think long-term
• Uses systematic thinking and begins to influence relationships with others
• Uses complex thinking to focus on less self-centered concepts and personal decision-making
• Has increased thoughts about more global concepts, such as justice, history, politics, and patriotism
• Often develops idealistic views on specific topics or concerns
• May debate and develop intolerance of opposing views
• Begins to focus thinking on making career decisions
• Begins to focus thinking on their emerging role in adult society.

 

How you can encourage healthy cognitive growth

• Include him or her in discussions about a variety of topics, issues, and current events.
• Encourage your child to share ideas and thoughts with you.
• Encourage your teen to think independently and develop his or her own ideas.
• Help your child in setting goals.
• Challenge him or her to think about possibilities for the future.
• Compliment and praise your teen for well-thought-out decisions.
• Help him or her in re-evaluating poorly made decisions.

 

 

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Age	Listening	Vocabulary	Sentence	Verbal grammar	Concepts	Questions	Possible implications if milestones not achieved
6-12 months	Attends to sounds and voices Recognises facial expressions and tones of voice	Babbling (e.g. ma-ma, da-da) Takes turns vocalising with others Recognises names of a few objects	No	No	No	No	May have difficulties socialising with parents May affect muscle tone in the face as babbling helps to strengthen the muscles
1-2 years	Responds to familiar requests (e.g. come here) and own name Understands gestures (e.g. wave for ‘bye’)	Babbling (e.g. ma-ma, da-da) Takes turns vocalising with others Recognises names of a few objects	No	No	No	Can understand one key word in a sentence (e.g. Where’s your nose?)	May have difficulties socialising with parents and joint attention May struggle to copy and learn from others due to poor understanding and attention
2-3 years	Follows 2 part instructions (e.g. Go to your room and get your shoes) Points to main body parts, clothing items, toys and food when asked	Names actions (e.g. go, run) By 2 years vocabulary is 250-300 words By 3 years uses 1000 words	Minimum of 2-3 words in a sentence (e.g. Daddy go work Still talks to self in long monologues	Talks about present events Regular Plurals –   e.g. 1 dog, 2 dogs Articles –‘a’ and ‘the’ Progressive –ing – e.g. The boy is jumpingUses Pronouns – ‘you, I, me, mine’ Regular Past Tense – e.g. “I climbed” Possessive ‘s – e.g. “Daddy’s car	Position: on; off; in; out; up; down; under; top; open; shut Size: big; small/little; long Quantity: 1; 2 Other: stop; go/start; loud; quiet; heavy; soft; fast; hot; cold	Understands and asks What and Where questions	May have difficulties socialising with peers and joint attention May struggle to copy and learn from others due to poor understanding and attention May have difficulties following instructions May have difficulties being understood by peers May have difficulties being understood by unfamiliar people May have difficulties expressing wants, needs, thoughts and ideas
3-4 years	Follows 3 part instructions (e.g. point to the cat, the dog and the monkey Understands longer, more complex sentences	By 4 years uses nearly 1500 words	Minimum of 3-4 words Tells you what they are doing Tells you the function or use of an object	Begins to talk about past events Auxiliary ‘is’ – e.g. The girl is skipping Pronouns ‘he/she’ – e.g. “He is running” or “She is drinking”. Connector ‘and’ –e.g. “I want a banana and an apple” 3rd Person Singular – e.g. “He wants the ball”; “It eats grass”; “She reads books”Contracted Negative – e.g. isn’t, doesn’t, haven’t, shouldn’t Contracted Copula – e.g. He’s happy Past Participle –e.g. It’s broken	3 to early 4 years: Position:bottom; behind; first; near Size:short (length) – emerging; short (height) Quantity:3; every; none Other:hard; slow; light (weight); many colours	Understands Who questions Asks What, Why, When and How questions	May have difficulties socialising with peers May struggle to copy and learn from others due to poor understanding and attention May have difficulties following instructions at home, child care, kindergarten May have difficulties being understood by peers May have difficulties being understood by unfamiliar people May have difficulties expressing wants, needs, thoughts and ideas May have difficulties responding appropriately to questions Word finding difficulties causing disfluent speech
4-5 years	Follows the meaning of others’ conversations	Continuing to expand Can generally understand colour and shape words (e.g. red, square) Can sort objects into simple categories (e.g. animals, food)	Minimum of 4-5 word sentences	Talks about past and future events Pronouns ‘his, hers, theirs’ – e.g. “It is his/hers/theirs“ Comparative –er and Superlative -est: e.g. big, bigger, biggest Use of ‘is’ vs ‘are‘ – e.g. “The monkey is eating a banana” vs “The monkeys are eating the bananas”) Past Tense “to be” – e.g. “I was running” and “They were running” Connector ‘because‘ –e.g. The boy was crying because he fell over and hurt his knee” Adverb –ly – e.g. quickly, slowly, quietly Irregular Plurals – e.g. mice, men	Mid-late 4 years: Position: middle; around; away from; between; through; next to/beside; last Size: short (length); short (height); tall; fat Quantity: 4; most; few Late 4-5 years: Position: in front; in a line; corner; middle Size: thin Quantity: 5 (emerging); pair Other: same; different (size); different (function)	Understands How questionsAsks meanings of words	May have difficulties socialising May struggle to copy and learn from others due to poor understanding and attention May have difficulties following instructions at home, kindergarten May have difficulties being understood by peers May have difficulties being understood by unfamiliar people May have difficulties expressing wants, needs, thoughts and ideas May have difficulties responding appropriately to questions Word finding difficulties causing disfluent speech
5-6 years	Follows the meaning of others’ conversations Follows multi-step instructions Vocabulary comprehension increases	Vocabulary comprehension increases	Uses more complex sentences Uses imaginative language in play – likes to pretend and act out stories Tells several attributes about an object	Irregular past tense – e.g. fell, broke, ate	Time: yesterday, tomorrow, morning, afternoon, later	Uses How and Where questions	May have difficulties socialising May have poor attention and concentration May have difficulties following instructions at home, school May have difficulties retelling events May have difficulties following routines May have difficulties being understood by unfamiliar people May have difficulties expressing thoughts and ideas verbally and in written form May have difficulties responding appropriately to questions Word finding difficulties causing disfluent speech
6-7 years	Ideas are shared Follows multi-step instructions	Can classify objects according to more specific traits (e.g. form, colour, use or composition-what it is made of)	Gives short oral reports Uses language at a higher level to make jokes, tease, engage in sarcasm, argue point of view, explain complex situations, talk about movies or past events in detail Develops written language skills and ability to write descriptive paragraphs and stories	Grammar is mature	Position: left; right Other: same; different; season; time of day Can understand the difference between reality and fantasy	Able to make predictions, justify decisions, provide solutions and give explanations	May have difficulties socialising May have poor attention and concentration May have difficulties following instructions at home, school May have difficulties retelling events May have difficulties being understood by unfamiliar people May have difficulties expressing thoughts and ideas verbally and in written form May have difficulties responding appropriately to questions Word finding difficulties causing disfluent speech May have difficulties with reading fluency and comprehension
7-8 years	Can listen for a sustained period of time (e.g. attend to a guest speaker at school)	No specific milestones	Can express their opinion Can retell both imaginary and real events	Uses appropriate grammar in their speech and written work	Can solve problem	Will ask questions to clarify information	May have difficulties socialising May have poor attention and concentration May have difficulties following instructions at home, school May have difficulties retelling events Mayhave difficulties problem solving May have difficulties expressing thoughts and ideas verbally and in written form May have difficulties responding appropriately to questions Word finding difficulties causing disfluent speech May have difficulties with reading fluency and comprehension

 

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

 An important part of child development.

·         to communicate.

·         express and understand feelings

• think and learn
• solve problems
• develop and maintain relationships.
• to understand,
• is the first step in literacy, and the basis for learning to read and write.

How to encourage early language development in children

·         Do a lot of talking together about things that interest your child by waving, babbling or using words.

·         As your child starts coo, gurgle, wave and point, you can respond to your child’s attempts to communicate. For example, if your baby coos and gurgles, you can coo back to them.

·         When your child starts using words, you can repeat and build on what your child says.

·         And it’s the same when your child starts making sentences.

STAGES OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

3-12 months

·         At three months, your baby will most likely coo, smile and laugh.

·          play with sounds and communicate with gestures like waving and pointing.

·         At around 4-6 months, your baby will probably start babbling. Baby will make single-syllable sounds like ‘ba’ first, before repeating them – ‘ba ba ba’.

·         Babbling is followed by the ‘jargon phase’ where your child might sound like they’re telling you something, but their ‘speech’ won’t sound like recognisable words. First words with meaning often start at around 12 months or so.

Listening & Attention

• Startled by loud noises
• Turns towards a familiar sound

Understanding

• Recognises parent’s voice
• Often calmed by familiar friendly voice, e.g. parent’s

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Frequently cries especially when uncomfortable - Makes vocal sounds, e.g. cooing, gurgling

Social Skills 

• Gazes at faces and copies facial movement, e.g. sticking out tongue!
• Makes eye contact for fairly long periods

3 - 6 months

Listening & Attention

• Watches face when someone talks 

Understanding

• Shows excitement at sound of approaching voice

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Makes vocal noises to get attention 
• Makes sounds back when talked to
• Laughs during play
• Babbles to self

Social Skills

• Senses different emotions in parent’s voice and may respond differently, e.g. smile, quieten, laugh
• Cries in different ways to express different needs

6 - 12 months

Listening & Attention

• Locates sources of voice with accuracy 
• Focuses on different sounds, e.g. doorbell, clock

Understanding

• Understands frequently used words such as ’all gone’, ’no’
• Stops and looks when hears own name
• Understands simple instructions when supported by gestures and context

Speech Sounds & Talk 

• Uses speech sounds (babbling) to communicate with adults; says sounds like ’ba-ba, no-no, go-go
• Stops babbling when hears familiar adult voice
• Uses gestures such as waving and pointing to help communicate

Social Skills

• Enjoys action rhymes and songs
• Tries to copy adult speech and lip movements
• Takes ‘ turns’ in conversation (using babble).

 

12 - 15 months

·         At this age, children often say their first words with meaning. For example, when your child says ‘Dada’, your child is actually calling for dad.

·          understand more than they can say.

·          follow simple instructions like ‘Sit down’.

Listening & Attention

• Attends to music and singing 
• Enjoys sound - making toys / objects

Understanding

• Understands single words in context, e.g. cup, milk, daddy
• Understands more words than they can say
• Understands simple instructions, e.g. ‘kiss mummy’, ‘stop’

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Says around 10 single words, although these may not be clear
• Reaches or points to something they want whilst making speech sounds

Social Skills

• Likes being with familiar adults
• Likes watching adults for short periods of time.

15 - 18 months

Listening & Attention 

• Listens and responds to simple information / instructions e.g. ’Ben, put on shoes’, ’Mohammed, give to daddy’ 

Understanding

• Understands a wide range of single words and some two-word phrases, e.g. ‘give me’, ‘shoe on’
• Recognises and points to objects/pictures in books if asked
• Gives names familiar objects to adults, e.g. coat, apple,

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Still babbles but uses at least 20 single words correctly, although may not be clear
• Copies gestures and words from adults
• Constant babbling and single words used during play
• Uses intonation, pitch and changing volume when ‘talking’

Social Skills

• Simple pretend play, but plays alone
• Although becoming independent likes to be near familiar adult

 

18 - 2 years

·         Most children will start to put two words together into short ‘sentences’.

·         understand much of what you say, and you can understand most of what your child says to you.

Listening & Attention

• Focuses on an activity of their own choice but finds it  difficult to be directed by an adult
• Use of child’s name beginning to help them to attend to what an adult says, e.g. ‘Sarah, eat sandwiches’

Understanding

• Understanding of single words develops rapidly during this stage: anything between 200—500 words are known
• Understands more simple instructions, ’Get your bricks’

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Uses up to 50 words 
• Begins to put two or three words together
• Frequently asks questions, e.g. the names of people / objects
• Uses speech sounds p,b,m,w

Social Skills

• ‘Pretend’ play developing with toys, e.g. feeding a doll
• Becomes frustrated when unable to make self understood
• Follows adult body language e.g. pointing, gesture

2 - 3 years

·         speaks in sentences of 3-4 words and is getting better at saying words correctly

·         might play and talk at the same time.

Listening & Attention

• Beginning to listen to talk with interest, but easily distract. 
• Listens to talk addressed to him/her, but finds it difficult if prompts are not provided, e.g. use of name, stop and listen.

Understanding

• Developing understanding of simple concepts including In / on / under , big / little
• Understands phrases like ’put teddy in the box’
• Understands simple ’who’ and ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions but not why.
• Understands simple story when supported with pictures

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Uses 300 words including descriptive language
• Links four to five words together
• Uses pronouns (me, him, she) plurals & prepositions (in, on, under)
• Has problems with speech sounds: l / r / w / y , f / th, s / sh / ch / dz / j

Social Skills

• Holds a conversation but jumps from topic to topic
• Interested on other’s play and will join in
• Expresses emotions towards adults and peers using words, not just actions

3- 4 years

Listening & Attention

• Enjoys listening to stories 
• Still finds it difficult to attend to more than one thing at a time, has to switch attention between speaker and task

Understanding

• Understands questions or instructions with two parts, e.g. ‘get your jumper’ and ‘stand by the door’
• Understands ‘why’ questions
• Aware of time in relation to past, present and future, e.g. Today is sunny and yesterday was rainy.

Speech Sounds & Talk

• Uses sentences of four to six words 
• Uses future and past tense (ed)
• May continue to have problems with irregular words, ‘runned’ for ‘ran, ‘swimmed’ for ‘swam’
• Able to recall and enjoys telling long stories /singing songs
• Has problems saying r, j, ch and sh

Social Skills

• Understands turn-taking and sharing with adults / peers

4 - 5 years

·         expect longer, more complex conversations about your child’s thoughts and feelings.

·         ask about things, people and places that aren’t in front of them.

·         talk about a wide range of topics, and their vocabulary will keep growing. Y

·         show understanding of basic grammar and start using sentences with words like ‘because’, ‘if’, ‘so’ or ‘when’. And you can look forward to some entertaining stories too

Listening & Attention

• Attention is now more flexible -the child can understand  spoken instructions related to a task without stopping the activity to look at the speaker

Understanding

• Able to follow simple story without pictures
• Understands instructions containing sequencing words; ‘first...after….last’
• Understand adjectives: soft, hard, smooth, etc
• Aware of more complex humour, laughs at jokes

Speech Sounds

• Uses well formed sentences e.g. ‘I played with Ben at lunch & Talk time’ but there may still be some grammatical errors
• Easily understood with only a few immaturities in sounds, e.g. ‘th’, ‘r’ & 3 consonant
• Frequently asks the meaning of unfamiliar words

Social Skills

·         Chooses own friends and generally co-operative with peers

·         Able to plan construction and make believe play activities

5-8 years

·         child will learn more words and start to understand how the sounds within language work together.

·         become a better storyteller, as they learn to put words together in different ways and build different types of sentences.

·         These skills also let your child share ideas and opinions.

·         By eight years, child will be able to have adult-like conversations.

 

NOAM CHOMSKY AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Noam Chomsky wrote his famous book, “Language and Mind" in 1972, in which he proposed his famous theories on language acquisition which made it easier to understand the evolution and development of the languages.  In this book Chomsky wrote, “When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the 'human essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man."

According to Chomsky; “language is one characteristic that is unique to humans among all other living beings”.

Chomsky suggests that language is an innate faculty- that is to say that we are born with a set of rules about language in our minds, which he refers to as the 'Universal Grammar'. The universal grammar is the basis upon which all human languages build.

If a Martian linguist were to visit Earth, he would deduce that there was only one language, with a number of local variants. Children do not simply copy the language that they hear around them. They deduce rules from it, which they can then use to produce sentences that they have never heard before. They do not learn a repertoire of phrases and sayings, as the behaviorists believe, but a grammar that generates an infinite number of new sentences. Toddler suddenly change from “I play.” to “I’m playing.” without any formal instruction.

 Children are born, then, with the Universal Grammar wired into their brains. This grammar offers a certain limited number of possibilities - for example, the word order of a typical sentence. Some languages have a basic Subject Verb Object (or SVO) structure -- “The teacher gave a lecture.” 75% of the world's languages such as English, French, and Vietnamese use either this structure or Subject Object Verb (SOV) including Japanese, Tibetan, and Korean; while others prefer Verb subject object (VSO) such as Welsh or Verb Object Subject (VOS) such as Malagasy. Some languages, such as Latin, appear to have free word order, but even here, SOV is very common. OSV is very rare

 

Chomsky on Language Acquisition Theory

Noam Chomsky postulated that the mechanism of the language acquisition is derived from the innate processes. Innate is something which is already there in mind since birth. The theory proposed by Chomsky is proved by the children living in same linguistic community. He thus proposed his theory on language acquisition in 1977 as "all children share the same internal constraints which characterize narrowly the grammar they are going to construct."

He also proposed that

• All of us live in a biological world, and according to him, mental world is no exception.
• He believes that like other parts of the body, language development can also be achieved up to a certain age.
• Language rules are complicated and complex.
• When the child begins to listen to his parents, he will unconsciously recognize the kind of a language he is dealing with and he will set his grammar to the correct one, this is known as 'setting the parameters'.
• The child knows intuitively that there are some words that behave like verbs and others like nouns, and that there is a limited set of possibilities for ordering them within a phrase. This is not information that the child is taught directly by adults, but information that is given for the child to decipher. This set of language learning tools, provided at birth, is referred to by Chomsky as the Language Acquisition Device.
• Another postulate of Chomsky's language acquisition theory is the process of selecting the best grammar that matches with the data available

Chomsky on Generative Grammar

·         According to Chomsky, generative grammar should “render explicit, the implicit knowledge of the speaker."

·         He proposed a set of well-defined rules to generate required sequence of words. Individuals instantly decipher that a certain combination of words make sense and different combination does not make sense.

 

Chomsky on Semantics

·         According to Chomsky, the field of linguistics does not include the study of meaning and reference and the use of language.

·         According to linguistic theory, the concepts of the grammar are not based upon semantics, but linguistic theory should provide an explanation to the semantic phenomenon.

Biological Inheritance of Syntax

Linguist Noam Chomsky challenged old ideas about language acquisition in his first book, "Syntactic Structures," published in 1957.

·         He rejects the notion that all language must be learned afresh by each child. Instead, Chomsky says, normal children everywhere are born with a kind of hard-wired syntax that enables them to grasp the basic workings of language.

·         The child then chooses the particular grammar and language of the environment from the available options in the brain.

Thus, the capacity for language is a biological inheritance and specific languages are then activated largely through the child's interaction with the native environment. It's as if the child's brain is a CD player already set to "play" language; when the CD for a certain language is inserted, that is the language the child learns.

Evidence to support Chomsky’s theory

• Children learning to speak never make grammatical errors such as getting their subjects, verbs and objects in the wrong order. If an adult deliberately said a grammatically incorrect sentence, the child would notice.
• Children often say things that are ungrammatical such as ‘mama ball’, which they cannot have learnt passively.
• Mistakes such as ‘I drawed’ instead of ‘I drew’ show they are not learning through imitation alone.
• Chomsky used the sentence ‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’, which is grammatical although it doesn’t make sense, to prove his theory: he said it shows that sentences can be grammatical without having any meaning, that we can tell the difference between a grammatical and an ungrammatical sentence without ever having heard the sentence before, and that we can produce and understand brand new sentences that no one has ever said before.

 

 

Summary

 Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human language. He claims that certain linguistic structures which children use so accurately must be already imprinted on the child’s mind. Chomsky believes that every child has a ‘language acquisition device’ or LAD which encodes the major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain. Children have then only to learn new vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures from the LAD to form sentences. Chomsky points out that a child could not possibly learn a language through imitation alone because the language spoken around them is highly irregular – adult’s speech is often broken up and even sometimes ungrammatical. Chomsky rejects the idea that human mind is a clean slate at birth and is filled in by experience. He suggested that there are components of mind which are innately determined about languages and other systems of knowledge.

Chomsky’s theory applies to all languages as they all contain nouns, verbs, consonants and vowels and children appear to be ‘hard-wired’ to acquire the grammar. Every language is extremely complex, often with subtle distinctions which even native speakers are unaware of. However, all children, regardless of their intellectual ability, become fluent in their native language within five or six years.

 

VYGOTSKY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions.

According to Lev Vygotsky, a 20th-century Soviet psychologist, language acquisition involves not only a child’s exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. Vygotsky’s influential theory of the "zone of proximal development" asserts that teachers should consider a child’s prospective learning power before trying to expand the child’s grasp of language.

Vygotsky’s theory of language is based on

• Constructivist learning theory, which contends that children acquire knowledge as a result of engaging in social experiences.
• Through social and language interactions, older and more experienced members of a community teach younger and less experienced members the skills, values, and knowledge needed to be productive members of that community
• A child’s intellectual development is crucial to his language development.
• By interacting with his environment, a child develops the ability to develop private, inner speech. "Inner speech is thinking in pure meanings; it is the link between the second signal system of the social world and the thought of the individual,"
• Through the development of inner speech, children straddle the divide between thought and language, eventually being able to express their thoughts coherently to others.
• The language learning process occurs as a result of give and take. Parents and teachers usher a child through a process of guided discovery, addressing her learning potential. Eventually, children internalize language skills.
• Young learners experience language development, they "can reflect better on their own thinking and behavior and reach greater levels of control and mastery over their own behavior,"

 

Primitive Stage

• Is characterized by the infant experimenting with sound production. The coos, ga-gas and babbles emitted have no purpose but to explore the baby's sense of sound.
• The lack of speech during this phase means no verbal thought is taking place. This does not mean the baby has a lack of thought, but rather a lack of relationship with her thoughts.

Naive Stage

The naive stage begins when babies learn to speak. The baby speaks words without grasping their purpose and meaning. When an infant utters "doggy," he could mean "Where is my doggy?" or "I want the doggy now." Over time, the child uses slightly more complex phrases such as "doggie now." These phrases lack an understanding of grammar or structure. The infant determines meaning from the responses others give to his phrases.

Ingrowth Stage

• The ingrowth stage occurs when children start to internalize many of the tasks he learned during the previous phases. For example, he will count in his head as opposed to using his fingers to numerate.
• A need to communicate with others people around him improves his ability to internalize thought and actions.
• Inner speech also shortens during this phase, called predication. Thought sentences will lack a subject, because that subject is already known to the child.

 

According to Vygotsky (1962) language plays two critical roles in cognitive development:

1: It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.

2: Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.

Vygotsky (1987) differentiates between three forms of language:

·         social speech which is external communication used to talk to others (typical from the age of two);

·         private speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to the self and serves an intellectual function;

·   Vygotsky was the first psychologist pointed importance of private speech

·   Private speech is the speech addressed to the self (not to others) for the purpose of self-regulation (rather than communication).'

·   It is the transition point between social and inner speech, the moment in development where language and thought unite to constitute verbal thinking.

·   private speech was the earliest manifestation of inner speech'

·   A revolution in development which is triggered when preverbal thought and preintellectual language come together to create fundamentally new forms of mental functioning.

·   Through private speech, children begin to collaborate with themselves in the same way a more knowledgeable other (e.g., adults) collaborate with them in the achievement of a given function.

·   private speech is overt.

·   "private speech" is a means for children to plan activities and strategies and therefore aid their development. Private speech is the use of language for self-regulation of behavior. Language is, therefore, an accelerator to thinking/understanding.

·   Vygotsky believed that children who engaged in large amounts of private speech are more socially competent than children who do not use it extensively.

·   acts as a tool used by the developing child to facilitate cognitive processes, such as overcoming task obstacles, enhancing imagination, thinking, and conscious awareness.

·   Children raised cognitively and linguistically stimulating environments (situations more frequently observed in higher socioeconomic status families) start using and internalizing private speech faster than children from less privileged backgrounds.

·   children raised in environments characterized by low verbal and social exchanges exhibit delays in private speech development. Vygotsky proposed that private speech diminishes and disappears with age not because it becomes socialized because it goes underground to constitute inner speech or verbal thought”

·   childrens’ private speech usually peaks at 3–4 years of age, decreases at 6–7 years of age, and gradually fades out to be mostly internalized by age 10

·         silent inner speech

private speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a self-regulating function and is transformed into silent inner speech (typical from the age of seven).

inner speech which is covert (i.e., hidden),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

 

Children’s emotional development

Emotional development is a complex task that begins in infancy and continues into adulthood. The first emotions that can be recognized in babies include joy, anger, sadness and fear. Later, as children begin to develop a sense of self, more complex emotions like shyness, surprise, elation, embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride and empathy emerge.

Primary school children are still learning to identify emotions, to understand why they happen and how to manage them appropriately. As children develop, the things that provoke their emotional responses change, as do the strategies they use to manage them.

Very young children’s emotions are mainly made up of physical reactions (eg heart racing, butterflies in stomach) and behaviours. As they grow, children develop the ability to recognise feelings. Their emotions are also increasingly influenced by their thinking. They become more aware of their own feelings and better able to recognise and understand other people’s. Thus, an emotional reaction of a 10-year-old is likely to be far more complex than that of a three-year-old. The experience of emotion includes several components:

·         Physical responses (eg heart rate, breathing, hormone levels)

·         Feelings that children recognise and learn to name

·         Thoughts and judgements associated with feelings

·         Action signals (eg a desire to approach, escape or fight)

Factors influencing emotional development

·         Values and beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate ways of expressing emotions that children learn from parents, caretakers and school staff

·         How effectively children’s emotional needs are usually met

·         Children’s temperaments

·         Emotional behaviours that children have learned through observation or experience

·         The extent to which families and children are under various kinds of stress

Every child is different, Why?

• variations may be due to events that impact on children and families at times, such as severe or chronic illness, trauma, or difficult social circumstances.
• Also by specific family or cultural values and by differences in children’s temperaments. 
• Some families and cultures encourage children to express a range of emotions while other families encourage children not to display certain emotions, such as anger or pride. These differences also influence the ways children learn to regulate their emotions.
• Learning to regulate emotions is more difficult for some children than for others. This may be due to their particular emotional temperament.
• Some children feel emotions intensely and easily. They are more emotionally reactive and find it harder to calm down.
•  Some of these children react to frustration by getting angry. They may act impulsively and find it hard to control their emotions.
• Some children who are emotionally reactive get anxious more quickly and easily than other children. It is often difficult for children with anxious temperaments to develop strategies to manage their fears. They often try to avoid situations that worry them.

Key points for supporting children’s emotional development

Providing effective support for children’s emotional development starts with paying attention to their feelings and noticing how they manage them. By acknowledging children’s emotional responses and providing guidance, parents, careers and school staff can help children understand and accept feelings, and develop effective strategies for managing them. 

Tune into children’s feelings and emotions 

Some emotions are easily identified, while others are less obvious. It involves looking at their body language, listening to what they are saying and how they are saying it, and observing their behaviour.

Help children recognize and understand emotions

• Taking opportunities to talk with children and teach them about emotions helps children to become more aware of their own emotions as well as those of others. 
• Encourage children to feel comfortable with their emotions and provide them with practice in talking about their feelings helps children to further develop ways to manage their emotions. 

Set limits on inappropriate expression of emotions

• It is very important for children to understand that it is okay to have a range of emotions and feelings, but that there are limits to the ways these should be expressed. While acknowledging children’s emotions, it is therefore, very important to set limits on aggressive, unsafe or inappropriate behaviours. 

Be a role model

• Children learn about emotions and how to express them appropriately by watching others especially parents, care takers and school staff. Showing children the ways you understand and manage emotions helps children learn from your example. This includes examples of saying: “Sorry, I lost my temper” (because no parent is perfect!) and then showing how you might make amends

Emotional development in different stages

It is the emergence of the experience, expression, understanding, and regulation of emotions from birth and the growth and change in these capacities throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Infancy

The expression of emotions during infancy promotes

·         smiles and other expressions of joy promote social interaction and healthy attachment relationships with primary caregivers.

·         The expression of sadness encourages empathy and helping behaviour, and the expression of anger signals protest and discomfort. Infants’ unique tendency to experience and express particular emotions and the threshold for expressing those emotions is usually referred to as their temperament or characteristic emotionality.

·         neonatal (nonintentional) smiles are present at birth and that social smiling and emotional expressions of interest appear as early as six weeks of age.

·         By four to five months of age, infants selectively smile at familiar faces and at other infants, and their caregivers begin to share positive emotional exchanges with them.

·         Infants express negative emotions in early infancy, scientists have shown that infants perceive and respond differentially to the negative emotional expressions (e.g., sadness, anger) of others by the age of four months.

·         During the second six months of life, infants gain rudimentary cognitive and memory capacities, they begin to express particular emotions based on context.

·         Emotions begin to emerge dynamically as the infant begins to take a more direct role in emotional exchanges with caregivers. The emotional bond with the caregiver is increasingly important, as infants seek support for exploration and look for signals of danger.

Toddlerhood And Early Childhood

During the toddler period, recognition of the self emerges. As a result,

·         strives to become more independent, and the expression of anger and defiance increases in that struggle for autonomy.

·         Empathetic behaviour and moral understanding develops.

·         By the end of the second year of life, toddlers respond to negative signals from others, and they have specific emotional responses to their own negative actions.

·         The emotions that emerge with a rudimentary conception of the self are often called self-conscious emotions and include shame, embarrassment, guilt, and pride.

·         They distinguish happiness from negative emotions and then begin to distinguish negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear from each other. They begin to recognize these emotions in facial expressions, and then, as they enter middle childhood, they begin to understand situational determinants of emotions.

·         The emergence of emotional self-regulation is particularly important during early childhood and occurs in the context of family and peer relationships.

·         Open expression of positive emotions and warm, supportive relationships between parents and children promote effective emotional self-regulation.

·         Negative emotions in the family like harsh, punitive disciplinary responses increase the experience of distressing and dysregulated emotions that may lead to psychopathology.

·         Children gain emotional understanding and the capacity for empathetic and helping behaviour from well-regulated emotional exchanges with peers.

Middle And Late Childhood

·         stable self-concepts based on the child’s typical emotional experiences emerge.

·         With the increased capacity for self-reflection, children gain an understanding of their self-conscious emotions. As a result, the consistent experience of patterns of self-conscious emotions has an impact on the child’s self-concept. For example, the tendency to experience shame rather than guilt in response to negative transgressions affects the child’s emergent self-esteem and may encourage a tendency to respond with aggression or violence.

·         Begin to understand that a single situation or event can lead to the experience of multiple, mixed emotions.

·         Children also learn emotional display rules as they progress through middle and late childhood. For example, a child learns to look happy even though she feels upset when a friend or family member gives her an undesirable gift. The use of display rules tends to increase as children begin to consider what consequences their actions may have for others.

Adolescence

·         With adolescence comes an additional struggle for autonomy and increased time spent with peers and less time spent with the family.

·         Adolescents become less emotionally dependent on their parents, but this emotional autonomy often emerges after a period of conflict and increased experience of negative emotions.

·         Young adolescents often experience more negative affect than younger children, but the negative affect often decreases during the high school years. However, girls often experience a longer period of elevated negative affect than boys.

·         Adolescents tend to experience more extreme emotions, both negative and positive, than their parents even in response to the same event.

·         They often experience emotional distress in response to ambiguous and imagined romantic exchanges, and their capacity to experience complex and diverse emotions further promotes the development of abstract thinking. As adolescents grapple with increasingly abstract and complex social problems, they often seek a stable peer group as the context for emotional management.

·         Positive peer relationships emerge from the recognition of equality and the tendency to offer emotional support.

·         Adolescents who are not accepted by their peers face numerous risks, including school dropout and delinquency. Even adolescents who are accepted by peers and have close friends often show an increase in negative emotions such as anger and anxiety in the peer context during adolescence. Overall, positive and supportive peer relations during adolescence promote healthy emotional development and mental health as the adolescent enters adulthood.

·         Identity development is important for adolescents as they approach adulthood. When adolescents or young adults are exploring many identity options, they often have high levels of anxiety but show interest in exploring those options. Adolescents who make an early commitment to a particular identity, usually an identity promoted by their family, have low levels of anxiety and do not experience much conflict in their family relationships. Adolescents who are not exploring identity options tend to have low levels of motivation and often appear bored or apathetic. They have poorer peer relationships and are at greatest risk for mental-health problems during adulthood. Finally, young adults who have achieved a stable sense of identity tend to be more empathetic and are more successful at managing their emotions.

 

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN DIFFERENT STAGES

Birth to Six Months

·         Expresses affection.

·         Shows interest in human faces.

·         Stares at strangers.

·         Smiles at familiar faces.

·         Develops attachment to the primary caregiver.

·         Becomes trusting when needs are met; fretful when needs are not met.

·         Shows displeasure when he loses contact with a person.

·         Smiles and babbles at people and toys.

·         Reacts to discomfort and pain

·         Recognizes parent’s voice Makes eye contact

·         Shows affection by looking, waving, kicking and smiling

·         Shows feelings of security when held or talked to

·         Expresses delight

·         May form attachment to one special object

·         Laughs when tickled

·         Builds trust when cries are answered

·         May begin to cling to primary caregiver

 Six to 12 Months

• Becomes more emotionally attached to the caregiver.
• Protests at separation from mother.
• Shows some negative reaction to strangers.
• Seeks approval; doesn’t want disapproval.
• Plays simple games with adults.
• Enjoys being the center of attention.
• Enjoys communicating with others.
• Smiles, pats and plays with her image in a mirror.
• Expresses pleasure and displeasure.
• Enjoys being with other children
• Has an increased drive for independence
• Expresses anger more dramatically
• Has a fear of strangers
• Is aware of social approval or disapproval Performs for others
• Has pride in personal accomplishments

12 to 18 Months

• Is self-centered, demanding, stubborn and self-assertive
• Imitates adults.
• Is inconsistent in expressing emotions.
• May become upset when adults place limitations on activities.
• Expresses anger.
• Engages in parallel play.
• Rolls ball to adult.
• Likes to show off for an audience.
• Shows fear of strangers.
• Is unable to share.
• Responds to simple instructions.
• Takes pride in accomplishments.
• Increases negativism.
• May show fear of storms and animals.
• Is easily distracted.
• Prefers to keep caregiver in sight while exploring his environment
• Demands personal attention
• May reveal stubbornness
• Unable to share Responds to simple requests

18 To 24 Months

• Expresses love and affection openly.
• Seeks approval and praise.
• Is outgoing, friendly and less self-centered.
• Continues to be easily distracted.
• May show need for security object.
• Expresses pride and jealousy.
•  Continues parallel play.
• Is possessive; refuses to share.
• Shows strong positive and negative reactions.
• Shows strong desire for own way.
• May exhibit aggressive actions (hitting, biting, pushing).
• Pulls adults to show something or get help.
• Tests limits set by the caregiver.
• Is possessive
• Begins to show empathy
•  Reveals a sense of trust
• Begins to play next to children
• Shows emotions of pride and embarrassment
•  May dawdle Engages in imaginative play

Two to Three Years

• Becomes less easily distracted.
• Is self-centered, aggressive and temperamental.
• Views situations in terms of their own needs.
• See-saws between independence and dependence.
• Wants to do things for self.
• Desires consistency.
•  Desires approval; feels hurt when disciplined for actions.
•  Is unable to share.
•  Wants to be accepted by others.
• Likes to play with adults and older children.
• Is difficult to understand and control.
• May continue to express negativism.
• Has temper tantrums.
• Resists naps but needs rest.
• Has a strong sense of ownership 
• May begin cooperative play
• May show need for a security object
• becoming more independent

Three to Four Years

• Becomes less self-centered.
• Is sunny and agreeable most of the time.
•  Displays feelings in a more acceptable manner.
• Learns to take turns and share.
• Shows new fears (animals, storms, dark and monsters).
• Makes friends easily and may prefer one over another.
• Engages in cooperative play.
• Tries to please caregivers; desires praise and approval.
• Usually follows requests and can be reasoned with.
• Has strong likes and dislikes.
• Is pleased with self.
•  Expresses anger physically (hitting, biting and pushing).
• Seeks comfort from parents and caregivers.
• Engages in imaginative play.
•  Has an imaginary friend.
•  Enjoys assisting in simple housekeeping and mealtime tasks.

Four to Five Years

·         Struggles for independence

·         Is moody.

·         Doesn’t want to be told what to do.

·         Accuses adults of being bossy and unfair.

·         Feels strong attachment to family and home.

·         Desires approval from parents and caregivers.

·         Brags on parents and home.

·         Enjoys cooperative play and simple competitive games.

·         Is often bossy and inconsiderate.

·         Increases interest in friends.

·         Shares personal belongings.

·         Has difficulty in taking turns.

·         Resents being treated like a baby.

·         Accepts changes in routine.

·         Shows concern and sympathy for others.

·         Expresses regret.

·         Enjoys being with other children

·          Has an increased drive for independence

·         Expresses anger more dramatically Is aware of social approval or disapproval Performs for others

·          Has pride in personal accomplishments

·         Develops sex role identification

·         Begins taking turns and negotiating

Five to Six Years

• Is more cooperative and conscientious.
• Desires support and approval.
• Asks permission and follows instructions.
• Likes to work and play with others.
• Prefers friends own age; usually own sex.
• Has a strong desire to please.
• Is proud of and likes to assist parents.
• May voluntarily help with younger siblings.
• Forms sex-role identity (what it means to be male or female).
• Respects other’s property.
• Expresses anger more verbally than physically.
• Boys quarrel more and use more physical force than girls.
• Engages in elaborate and imaginative role play situations.

Six to Nine Years

• Is more cooperative and conscientious.
• Desires support and approval.
• Asks permission and follows instructions.
• Likes to work and play with others.
• Prefers friends own age; usually own sex.
• Has a strong desire to please.
• Is proud of and likes to assist parents.
• May voluntarily help with younger siblings.
•  Forms sex-role identity (what it means to be male or female).
• Respects other’s property.
• Expresses anger more verbally than physically.
• Boys quarrel more and use more physical force than girls.
• Engages in elaborate and imaginative role play situations.

Six to Nine Years

• Becomes more settled and quiet.
• Worries about many things.
• Shows fear of imaginary creatures (witches, monsters).
•  Is fearful of being alone.
• Girls show more fear than boys.
• Questions adults’ ideas.
• Resents being told what to do.
• Wants adult approval and love.
•  Desires independence.
• Understands right from wrong.
• Wants to be free of guilt.
• Offers excuses for wrongdoing.
• Complains about anything unpleasant.
• Shows increased interest in friends.
• Begins to have boy and girl friendships.
• Desires group acceptance.
• Boasts constantly.
• Tells secrets, whispers and giggles.

Nine to 12 Years

• Becomes less self-centered.
• Becomes excessively moody if puberty begins.
• Quarrels more often.
•  Is sensitive and experiences hurt feelings in social situations.
• Gets along well with others.
• Engages in group activities.
• Enjoys making new friends.
• Shows loyalty to peers.
• Acts and dresses like peers.
• The child may be embarrassed to show affection to family members in front of peers.
• Boys think girls are a nuisance and girls are tomboys.
•  Devises secret codes and practical jokes.
• Resents being teased and criticized.
• Develops a strong sense of right and wrong.
• Is self-conscious of sexual development.
• Exhibits hero worship.

12 – 15 years of age

• Struggle with a sense of identity
• Feel awkward about one’s self and one’s body; worry about being normal
•  Realize that parents are not perfect; increased conflict with parents
• Increased influence of peer group
• Desire for independence
• Has the tendency to return to “childish” behavior, particularly when stressed
• Moodiness
• Rule- and limit-testing
• Greater interest in privacy
•  Autonomy
• Challenge authority, family; anti-parent
• Loneliness Wide mood swings
• Things of childhood rejected
• Argumentative and disobedient
• Peer Group Serves a developmental purpose Intense friendship with same sex
•  Contact with the opposite sex in groups
• Identity Development “Am I normal?”
• Daydreaming
• Vocational goals change frequently
• Begins to develop his or her own value system
• Emerging sexual feelings and sexual exploration
•  Imaginary audience
• Desire for privacy
•  Magnify own problems: “no one understands” 15 – 18 years of age
• Intense self-involvement, changing between high expectations and poor self-concept
• Continued adjustment to changing body, worries about being normal
• Has the tendency to distance selves from parents, continued drive for independence
• Driven to make friends and greater reliance on them, popularity can be an important issue
• Feelings of love and passion Autonomy
• Conflict with family predominates due to ambivalence about emerging independence
• Peer Group Strong peer allegiances – fad behaviors
• Sexual drives emerge, and teens begin to explore their ability to date and attract a partner
• Identity Development
• Experimentation – sex, drugs, friends, jobs, risk-taking behavior

MORALITY

Morality is our ability to learn the difference between right or wrong and understand how to make the right choices. Children's experiences at home, the environment around them, and their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social skills influence their developing sense of right vs. wrong.
During early childhood

• Children also grow in their ability to tell the difference between moral rules, social norms, and personal choices.
• By around age 5, children see that moral rules are intended to prevent "really wrong" behavior that could potentially hurt or take away from others.
• Social norms are rules about socially-defined behaviors that are wrong or right; however, violating these rules will not hurt other people.
• By ages 6 and 7, the ability to differentiate between moral rules, social norms, and personal choices maters and children can take more circumstances and possibilities into account when thinking about the ramifications of different behavior.
• During the Preoperational stage, young children also start to understand that they have a choice between "right" and "wrong" in a tempting situation.
• Children's ability to understand that they can make right or wrong choices leads to more self-control.
• Most children will be able to start delaying self-gratification (i.e. hold off doing things that will feel good in the moment) in order to make good choices. This new moral ability can be cultivated through positive discipline.
• Parents can be sure to highlight children's "good choices" and "bad choices" without labeling the children themselves as "bad" or "good."
• While most facets of child development have internal factors (temperament, genetics, and characteristics) and external factors (environment and social influences), morality is largely developed through external factors.
• Children's environments exert influence on their moral development in many different ways. Adult and peer modeling, family and societal values, religious values and beliefs, and parenting practices can all play a part in shaping morality.
• Some moral behaviors are passed on by way of verbal stories or structured lessons, such as religious parables or classroom teaching activities.
•  Moral behavior is learned through direct observation and imitation. Children carefully watch the behavior of their caretakers, other adults, and older children.

 

Stages of Moral Development in Children

Moral growth in children happens gradually as they grow from infancy to teens and older.

1. Infants

• Infants cannot moralize.
• Their sense of right and wrong depends on their feelings and desires.
• After being provided for nine months in the mother’s womb, a baby expects the nurturing to continue. As a result, their sense of rightness depends on whether or not their needs are met.
• Hunger and loneliness are uncomfortable feelings for your infant and does not feel right.
• Being attended cuddled and fed feels right, while unresponsiveness is scary and wrong.

2. Toddlers 2 to 3 years

• Toddler realizes that others have rights and needs as well. However, he is yet to grasp the difference between right and wrong.
• 2-3 aged toddlers might show empathy-based guilt and moral behaviors. Depending on the actions conveyed by parents, the toddler understands obedience is the norm.
• It is wrong to take away a toy from a sibling only because he might land himself in trouble.
• While he may not understand why hitting someone is wrong, he knows that he will be punished for doing that.
• Follow the rules to avoid punishment.

3. Preschoolers

3 to 5 years

• This is the age when your child internalizes family values.
• Since rules and norms are essential for discipline in the family, they become important for your child too.
• Your child expects older people, or parents, to take charge.
• They understand the role of a “child” and an “adult” and expect maturity to be directed towards them.
• The child recognizes that actions have consequences – “If I do this, this will happen.”
• Positive parental direction makes the child connected, and he behaves well. The unconnected child will do what he feels like, unless and until he doesn’t get caught.

4. Kids

Age: 7-10

After the age of 7, children start questioning if the people who hold authoritative positions, such as teachers and parents, are infallible.

• Develop a strong sense of what he should and should not do. They would want to participate in making rules.
• Children of this age develop a sense of fairness and understand the necessity of rules.
• They understand children have rights as well and they filter rules according to what suits them.

5. Teens

As they get closer to adulthood, children start to develop their own moral values, while questioning and analyzing the ones that their parents set for them.

Age: 11-16

• Adolescent will expand his moral horizon and see rules as a set of social guidelines that benefit all.
• They value rules but also negotiate.
• They become interested in what’s good for the society at large as they develop their abstract reasoning abilities.
• Adolescent will start realizing that the decision he takes affects others around him.
• teen will want to be accepted by peers and may alter or change his values and morals that further that cause.
• The cycle goes from “I do this because I find it right” to “I do this because my family does it” to finally- “I do this because this is right.”

Moral development is not as simple as teaching values to children. It is so complicated that psychologists have come up with theories on them.

How to Teach Moral Values to Children

• Explain the morals that you think are of utmost importance.
• Teach your child how misbehavior affects others and how it might affect him too. For example:“If you are lying, one day no one will believe you”.
• Talk to your child about hypothetical situations where they will have to assess their thoughts and make a choice. Let’s say, “Your friend is getting bullied, what you would do?”
• Teach that good morals have good consequences.
• Make sure that you, as a parent, keep your commitments and promises, and show kindness to your child.
• Be an example yourself or your child is likely to get confused
• Make your child take up some moral development activities.

 

ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN FACILITATING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

• To know approximately at what age behavioral changes take place, and when these patterns are generally replaced by more mature patterns.
• Enables development psychologists, teachers and parents to set guidelines in the form of height-weight scales, age-weight scales, age-height scales, mental age scales, and social or emotional development scales.
• Helps teachers and parents to guide the child's learning properly. E.g. A child must be helped to acquire skills of walking when he is of an age appropriate for this skill. Not providing learning opportunities at the appropriate time would delay the normal development of the child. In social development children are expected to adjust socially to their age-mates. If they are deprived of the necessary learning opportunity, they will not be ready to acquire the necessary skills characteristic or later childhood. When the development pattern is normal, one period prepares children for, and leads them effectively into, the next.
• Helps teachers and parents to prepare the child psychologically for the physical and behavioral changes that would occur as they grow up.
• to make a reliable diagnosis and apply the knowledge of child psychology to better their adjustment with themselves and with the world around them.
• A teacher should know what to expect from the child (student), and what he needs physically, socially and emotionally.
• The routine teacher-taught relationship would not benefit him unless he is dealt with empathetically as a social being, as an individual self, and as a biological organism.
• Proper guidance, rational shifts of treatment, and principles of autonomy should be judiciously applied to ensure smooth passage through the turbulent period of student.
• In order to handle their emotional and social needs.
• To provide explanations and rationale for the beliefs and values of students they would question.
• Students need supportive judgments to do things which provide them self-confidence and self- assurance.
• To secure homogeneous groups in respect of significant abilities and achievements so that curricular and instructional needs can be suitably met.