Discuss about the Child Development for Social and Emotional Skills.

 

Although each child is unique, and the physical and cognitive development of any child is expected to be different from the rest, there are certain milestones that are required to be accomplished by a toddler, regardless of his age and his nature. The first milestone is his physical development, as by the time, a toddler turns two years, he must be able to walk on his feet. More importantly, he can also engage himself in more flexible activities, such as he can walk up and down the stair, exert some force and kick a ball, and go down the slide as well. His social skills are developed by the time he turns 1 and a half years old, and he can understand more than he can utter words. As a toddler, he can speak at least several single words, even though some are less distinct than others. The social skills of the child also develop, and yet his ability to choose a partner to engage with or to interact with, is limited (Ortega, 2006). He cannot independently choose whom to interact with, and often looks up other people to learn about social preferences.  As far as his cognitive development is concerned, he may lack concentration, but he develops memory. As a result, he must be able to pick up a few words and use them later.

It is highly important for the early child educators to have sufficient knowledge regarding the milestones in the toddler development, as this will help them understand if the child has achieved the milestones or is he lagging behind in terms of his social and cognitive development. This will help them to understand what to be expected out of a toddler in terms of his skills and abilities, and in case he lags behind, which steps shall help in his development. For instance, in case a child educator finds that a toddler is not exhibiting the expected cognitive development as the rest of his age, he may design new activities for him, or send him for counselling. 

As far as the physical development of a child is concerned, several factors such as heredity, nutrition level of the food offered, health of the mother in her prenatal period, as well as the socio-economic status of the toddlers play an important role in determining their physical development (Hamlin et al., 2007). On the other hand, as far as the emotional development of a child is concerned, factors involved affecting the same include family structure, the level of engagement of the parents with the children, family relations, the nature of play activities the child is engaged in, and the intelligence level of the child.

In order to gather necessary and relevant information required for understanding the physical and cognitive development of the toddler, questions to be asked to the parent are as follows:

1. Is the average height or average weight of the immediate as well as the extended family members of the child average or below average?
2. What kind of food does the child eat at his age, and how many times a day is he fed?
3. Has the child in the recent past suffered from any infectious disease that may have impeded his growth for a temporary period?
4. How often is the toddler allowed to play outside?
5. How many members in the family are employed?
6. Who does the toddler spend his time with?
7. How often do the parents engage and interact with the child in a day?
8. Do DHA, protein and essential minerals, along with supplementary food form an important part of the diet of the child?
9. Does the child engage in pretend play activities?
10. Who does the child spend most of his time with?

However, I would refrain from asking a few questions to the parents as well. For instance, a child educator should not bluntly ask if the child is coming from a dysfunctional family or not, or what exactly is the cultural belief of the parents. Although a dysfunctional family can affect the emotional and social skill development of a child or his parents’ ethnic norms may lead to insufficient and unscientific nutrition, asking these questions may harm the sentiments and dignity of the parents (Berger, 2003). Similarly, asking the income level of the parent can be a better option than asking the exact amount of family income.

The child educator must report to the parents as soon as he identifies signs of developmental delay in the toddlers. These signs may involve difficulty of the child in receptive language, or with expressive language, his inability to vocalize even when provoked,  or does not interact much with his play mates. Other signs may include he does not engage in symbolic play, he cannot hold a pen or turn the page of a book, or he walks on toes only (Bittles et al., 2006). On noticing these signs of developmental delay, the child educator should approach the parents and inform them about these (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). However, this may cause parental panic and anxiety, and hence it is recommended that the educator investigates the case history of the child well, before communicating it to the parents. For example, a premature child may exhibit slower development than a normal child.

The child development theorists that I would think to include in my dream team are as follows:

Jean Piaget for his Psychosocial theory of Development as he is the first theorist to explain the role child-society interaction plays in determining effective socio-cognitive development of a child.

JohnWatson and B.F Skinner for their Behaviourist theory of Development as these two theorists for the first time stated that the environment in which a child grows up, plays a far more important role in determining his growth and development rather than his heredity.

Next, I would choose Uri Bronfenbrenner for his Ecological theory of Child Development. This is because he stated that only nature (heredity factors) cannot facilitate effective growth of a child, and similarly, nor can only nurture (learning environment and parental assistance) lead to proper cognitive and social development of a child. The collaboration of both can only facilitate desirable growth of a child.

Albert Bandura, the founder of the Social Learning Theory of Development will also be there in my list, as he emphasized the importance of parental involvement in the development of  a child. His theory stated that a child considerably learns from the actions of his role models- parents, and hence child-parent interaction is absolutely mandatory.

Reference List:

Berger, K. S. (2003). The developing person through childhood and adolescence. Macmillan.

Bittles, A., Bower, C., Hussain, R., & Glasson, E. (2006). The four ages of Down syndrome. European Journal of Public Health, 17(2), 221–225. Retrieved from: https://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/2/221.long.

Commonwealth of Australia. (2012). KidsMatter Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative: Literature review, component 2: Developing children’s social and emotional skills. Retrieved from:https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/sites/default/files/public/C2%20Literature%20Review%20Published.docx

Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature, 450(7169), 557-559.

Virués-Ortega, J. (2006). The case against BF Skinner 45 years later: An encounter with N. Chomsky. The Behavior Analyst, 29(2), 243-251.