Development Process Infancy and Early Childhood - Term Paper Example

Infancy is a period in human life that range between births to two years of age while early childhood is the period ranging from three years to eight years of age. On the other hand, early childhood is a stage where substantial physical and mental development takes place meaning it is a stage where children attain mental skills that they use in the rest of their lives (Benson and Haith, 2010). Various growth and development stages during early childhood and infancy have been discussed below. First stage is from birth to three months; at this stage, crucial developments are centered on the way infants explore the basic senses, and learn more about the body and the surrounding. When born, babies show inborn actions such as grasping, sucking and blinking. They respond to lights, darkness and movements of objects and images like to stare at the human face holding them and respond to their facial expressions, see objects clearly, recognize human voice and detect noise, smiling to them, and they start recognizing the human voice. Second stage is from three to six months; during early stages of infancy, development of perceptual abilities is an ongoing process. At this stage, infants start developing a sense of perception whereby they start to imitate and respond to the facial expressions of those around them, and they recognize and reacts to familiar sounds and faces. Third stage is from six to nine months; it is hard to know what infants are feeling or thinking. Therefore, to learn and know the mental processes of infants, researchers have identified creative ways of disclosing the inner brains of an infant. Researchers have come up with theories that, infants at this stage gazes at unknown things for long, for example, their mothers’ clothes or hair and even suspended objects. Children are able to differentiate between sizes and numbers of objects and they understand between living and non-living objects. Fourth stage is from nine months to 1 year; during this period, infants develop more in terms of their physical appearances they begin to sit craw and walk. These physical developments enable infants to explore their environment deeply. They respond with signs and sound, imitate what they see in those around them, love pictures and toys and also they turn objects up and down and try to arrange them. Fifth stage is from one to two years; at this stage, children are seen to develop rapidly in terms of social, cognitive and physical development. Most of their times they observe what adults do hence it is necessary for adults to behave well in the presence of children of this age. Children also understand and respond to words, try to talk like adults, explore to learn, identify the similarity of objects and they can identify familiar people and objects in a book. Sixth stage is from three to five years; during this period, children tend to behave more independently and become more active in learning about their environment, name and match objects, can identify themselves in a mirror. During this period, children also differentiate between the present and the past concentrates for a longer time and ask questions to acquire more information and knowledge about their surroundings. Children also can count numbers, draw shapes of people and can tell where they stay. The last stage is from six to eight years; during this period children understand the world in a more complex way, can tell between right and wrong, shy off, tell their sex and even share with their friends. At this stage, children are aware of their surrounding and can do most of the things on their own. Physical developments are obvious changes are human growth and development whereby during their growth and development, children tend to grow taller, tougher and more responsible. They also use complex objects to carry out their tasks, playing different games, which include softball and riding bicycles. In the physical development, children’s maturity and growth are noticed, brain development, skill acquisition like throwing a ball as well as behaving in the right and wrong way; however Environmental factors influence physical development, for example, diet influences the physical growth and the liveliness of children. Cognitive development can be defined as the regular changes that take place in the reasoning, language, concepts and memory in the growth of children. Children may take time to move from one stage to another due to lack of cognitive skills. Children develop cognitive skills because of circumstances that surround them. This means that circumstances also contribute to the cognitive development of children (Benson and Haith, 2010). Emotional development can be defined as the chances in the way children socialize, cope and feel. During infancy, a strong relationship develops between the infants, their mothers and caregivers. This attachment is due to the care and safety that infants receive from their mothers and caregivers. On the other hand, during early childhood, children continue to expand in terms of their emotions whereby they recognize their fathers and others siblings as part of their lives. Intellectual development can be defined as changes that take place in the brains of children. Throughout infancy and early childhood, children show their intelligence in the way they understand various concepts, this is more applicable to school going children who show their intelligence in class work and studies in general. During infancy, infants show their intelligence through their way of understanding and questioning of their surroundings. Language development can be determined with the way children relate and interact with other children in the society. During infancy, language development is influenced by their mother or caregivers who talk to them frequently meaning a child will imitate how their caregivers and mothers talk, meaning if they have an accent, the infant will grow with that language accent. School going children tend to develop their language skills faster than non-school going children. On the other hand, children who live where other children are will develop their language skills faster than those brought up alone will. Learning on how to read and write are ways of developing in literacy. These developments in human growth are determined by the influence from parents and the surrounding. For example, if the parents encourage their children to read by buying them gifts and congratulating them when they read and write well. Parents should buy more books to their children and encourage them to read and write and test them on what they have read. The surrounding also should encourage children to read and write for their growth in language. Social development can be described as the attachment that exists between children and parents and caregivers. Children develop self – esteem and self-confidence through their relationship and friendship with the outside world. Interpersonal development is defined as ways in which human beings interact effectively with others throughout their lives. During infancy, it is expressed through the relationship infants have with their parents, caregivers and other children. As infants, they socialize be exchanging toys and imitate what the other infant is doing. During early childhood, it is expressed through playing with their friends in the family and neighborhood. They also learn about other peoples’ perspectives through their involvement with them whereby they learn about the ideas of others (McDevitt and Ellis, 2004). In conclusion, these areas are closely interrelated though they seem to define different growth development human life. For example, developments in children’s brains, physical development, pave way for cognitive development like looking at things from different perspectives resulting to helpful social relationships. These developments, on the other hand, depend on the experiences children gained from their families, school, neighborhood and the society. This is because family, culture, social- economic status and other crucial events are extremely shape and influence children’s development. References Benson, J., B. and Haith, M., M. (Ed). (2010). Social and Emotional Development in Infancy and Early Childhood. Waltham, Massachusetts: Academic Press. Benson, J., B. and Haith, M., M. (Ed). (2010). Language, Memory, and Cognition in Infancy and Early Childhood. Waltham, Massachusetts: Academic Press. McDevitt, T. M., & Ellis Ormrod, J. (2004). Educating and Working with Children and Adolescents. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Read More