Cognition
Cognitive development involves how children think and gain their knowledge of their world around them through learning factors and genetics.
Areas of cognitive development mainly focus on
. Language development . Memory . Intellegence . Reasoning
When born infants begin to learn to use their senses to explore the world around them. Most newborns can follow and focus on moving objects, typically they can also see all colours and tell the difference between the pitch and volume of sound.
At six months old are when babies begin to understand how the world around them works and when they imitate sounds and enjoy hearing their own voice. Babies can now also recognise their parents and have a fear of strangers, At the age of six months the infant will be able to tell apart inanimate and animate objects
Neurological and brain development
The brain begins to form quite early starting from prenatal life.
Babies will develop quickly as they start to become aware of what is happening around them. Babies will be aware of physical sensations like hunger and will start responding to things like physical stimuli like a smile.
The first three years of children’s lives are important in different ways as this is the
sensitive time for brain development. What a child experiences at this time shapes how the brain builds connections which will allow them to develop the life long skills like communicating and how to solve problems and building their relationships.
Research has shown that everyday moments in a child’s life such as being showing affection and play time helps them build strong and healthy brains.
When a child is three years of age their brain is 80% of adult size going up to 90 % by age 5.
Speech, language and communication
Children vary in their development of speech and language skills
For the first three years of life the brain is developing and maturing and is the most intense time for picking up speech and language skills.
First signs of communication happen when an infant learns that crying will bring comfort, food and companionship. Newborn babies will begin to recognise important sounds in their living environment like the sound of their mother’s voice or their main caregiver. As the baby continues to grow they will begin to sort out speech sounds that compose the words of their language.
By 6 months of age most babies recognise basic sounds of their native language.
Physical
Physical development is biological changes that children will undergo as they age. Important features that determine the progress of their physical development include physical and brain changes and their development of reflexes and motor skills.
Male babies are in general a little longer and heavier than female babies
Physical play has advantages for children, it helps them with
. Improving hand and eye co ordination . developing fine motor skills . developing gross motor skills . playing co-operatively . develop spacial awareness
Swimming can also be good exercise for children
Personal, social and emotional
Children’s social and emotional development involves their experiences and how they express and manage their emotions.
Starting from birth children learn who they are by how they are treated. A loving environment and relationships give children a sense of safety and comfort and gives them confidence. Children in positive surroundings teach young children how to form friendships, deal with challenges and teaches them to communicate their emotions .
Albert Bandura thought up the social cognitive theory and the idea simply behind it. Bandura thought that children learn through observing others and putting that in into their learning and their own actions this is what as known as modelling.
2.2 Explain ‘holistic’ development
The holistic development of a child addresses the physical, emotional , intellectual and relational features of a child’s life. It is important holistically to know that children learn things at different phases like developing motor skills and walking and talking, no two
children are alike and their development will vary.
It is important for practitioners to know and understand the stages of development so they can be aware if any children are not developing at the stages that they should. Routine assessments of children and regular monitoring will help practitioners see any delays the children may have and also might need to organise certain activities to help promote the areas of the development the children are showing delays in.
The holistic approach is usually based on letting children to explore their environment and is not focusing on trying to get children to memorise facts and learn things by committing them to memory. A practioner doing this can focus on development of children and see how each area of development is connected to others. Practitioners can see this through things like a child’s language and how it connects to reading and writing and their social development.
As each area of development is as seen as connected a child who maybe struggling with things, that may have an impact on other areas of their development so practitioners can use special screening programmes that are designed to detect any areas of difficulty that children may be having.
2.3 Explain biological and environmental factors which influence children’s development
The environment a child will first experience should be safe and nurturing. the first environment the child’s home since they were born will help form their personality. A bond between parent and child will help them learn and understand things and also how to express feelings. The environment a child is in should be welcoming and somewhere they can be stimulated and feel excited.
Parents will be their children’s first teacher so it is important that they provide an environment that is encouraging and stimulating to help develop the child’s skills
There is a nurture theory of child development which believes environment has a bigger influence on a child’s development than their genetics. The way a child is treated and what chances they receive in their life will contribute to a healthy development which will help them get the best chances to achieve their goals.
Child care practitioners can help a child like playing which will give lots of opportunities for them to interact and talk to adults as they are participating in activities that are interesting and stimulating.
Children should have access to both indoor and outdoor areas so they can get a good mix of planned and structured activities. Research has shown play is vital in children’s learning and also promotes the areas of their development.