Early Childhood Early Childhood DevelopmentDevelopment

Early childhood development is defined as “a set of concepts, principles, and facts that explain, describe and account for the processes involved in change from immature to mature status and functioning”

Development is generally divided into three broad categories:

• physical development• cognitive development• social emotional development.

The developmental period extending from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years. Often called

the “preschool years”

According to Bredecamp and Copple (1997), this period of development is characterized by rapid gross motor development (e.g., jumping, hopping, skipping), refined movement of small muscles for object manipulation, major increases in vocabulary and use of language, abstract representation of mental constructs, and the development of relationships with other young children.

BODY GROWTH

A. Changes in Body Size and Proportions

1. On the average, 2 to 3 inches in height and about 5 pounds in weight are added each year.

2. The child gradually becomes thinner; girls retain somewhat more body fat, whereas boys are slightly more muscular.

3. Posture and balance improve, resulting in gains in motor coordination.

4. Individual differences in body size are even more apparent during early childhood than in infancy.

1. Skills that appear are basic locomotor, ball-handling, fine eye–hand

coordination, walking leads to running, jumping, hopping, galloping, and skipping, climbing.

2. Children are expected to be able to draw simple shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. They should also be able to cut out such shapes as these.

1. Children at this age can be very possessive and have difficulty sharing.

2. Children typically start to develop self-conscious emotions as they start evaluating themselves, instead of purely reacting to caregivers' or other adults' evaluations.

3. As children become increasingly self-aware, more effective at communicating, and better at understanding the thoughts and feelings of others, their social skills increase.

Between 2 to 5 years old, most children have developed the skills to focus attention for extended periods, recognize previously

encountered information, recall old information, and reconstruct it in the

present.