Week 4. Montante. Ch. 6 & 7. Early & Middle Childhood

Week 4. Montante. Ch. 6 & 7. Early & Middle Childhood

 

 

      Chapter 6 leads into physical and motor development. It explains how boys and girls show about the same rate of growth during these years, but it all differs from child to child. Early childhood are between the ages of 2-6. Growth in early childhood continues at a slower pace than in infancy. Which I see true as each month leading to the first year a baby learns a new skill and each month is something new. In early childhood it is not the same. Yes they will learn something new every day, but it is not tracked month by month. During this stage they grow 12 inches and at least 5 pounds per year. Some of the highlights from this chapter would be the brain development. As their brain is developing they understand new things. They are visible to so many amounts of information that it is astounding to even believe.

    They grow motor skills that are divided into two categories; gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills would be running, climbing, and jumping because they use large muscles. Fine motor skills would be activities using the small muscles of the hands and fingers like throwing a ball or holding a pencil.

    Another highlight would be Piaget’s theory of cognitive development which is the best known theory relating to children’s thinking. During the preoperational period young kids begin to use symbols to signify objects and events in their environment and the relationship among them. For example they become more comfortable with symbols like reading and understand what they just read.

     Early childhood education is as discussed in this chapter because when we think of early childhood we think of their education as well. “Early childhood education tends to reflect a rich mixture of ideas from educational philosophy and educational and development psychology.” Most of my friends who had their kids have their child enrolled in an early childhood education center. I make it easier calling it preschool. I think enrolling in your child in a program like that is important especially for entering kindergarten. I use to be a Para-educator about a year ago and I worked one on one with a kindergarten student. The teacher I was working with told me she would love when a child would have had pervious education at a preschool rather not having it all at. She believed it made it easier for her to teach a child a new skill or expand their skills. I agree to a point where it should not be focused on how a job is easier for me, but what it benefits for the child instead.

Chapter 7 focuses on middle childhood. Middle childhood physical development proceeds at a slower pace than in early childhood. They gain about 2 inches in height and 5-7 pounds in weight. Their brain development forms stronger connections and are able to absorb in more and more difficult cognitive tasks.

     In the chapter it opens up to a few learning disabilities. They are defined in three different components; a minimum IQ level, significant difficulty in a school related area, and exclusion of only sever emotional disorders, second language background, sensory issues, or neurological issues. It then focuses on attention disorders such as ADHD and ADD.

     The third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory is the concrete operational stage. It occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years old. Their thinking at this stage is more flexible than in early childhood. “Children gradually begin to use logical thought processes and are able to reason accordingly with specific, concrete materials, objects, people, and/ or events that they can see and touch.” (pg. 160)

   
     An interesting figure in chapter 7 is figure 7.6 on page 163. It shows Conservation Tasks. I remember watching a YouTube video about this back when I was taking psychology 101. What I found very interesting was how children responded with this. Like the numbers, the pennies that are spread apart compared with the nickel’s that are closer together. Children would pick the pennies because it looks longer so it must has more. I did try this when my god-brother was younger and he did not fall for it, but his 7 year old sister did. I found it very interesting that it actually worked when I tested it out.