Early Childhood Period of Development

Early childhood refers to the children who are between the ages of three to eight years of age.
During the period of early childhood children are grow in their use of gross motor skills. Which
have to do with the use of their large body parts. In early childhood children who are between the
age of three and six progress in the use of their large body parts by hopping, galloping, and
skipping. Eventually, upper and lower body skills combine into more effective actions (Berk,
2013). Children in this stage should attain the ability to manipulate object with the use of their
fine motor skills. Fine motor skills refer to the smaller body part, such as the hands. Children are
able to unbutton a shirt, feed themselves, and are able to hold a pencil to write.

In early childhood children are more verbal. Three to four year olds by now have attained the
ability to Answers simple Who? What? Where? and Why? questions (NIDCD, n.d.).
When reading a book, the child should be able to answer main questions regarding the reading.
At this stage, children have also learned to speak to parents and peers using sentences that are
clear and provide details. Children love to talk during this stage and have so much to say.

During the period of early childhood children should attain the ability to think using the theory of
mind. The theory of mind is a persons theory of what other people might be thinking. To have
theory of mind, children must realize that other people are not necessarily thinking the same
thoughts that they themselves are (Berger, 2006). This cognitive development happens at
around the age of four years old. A second cognitive development children make use of
transductive reasoning. transductive thought involves seeing a relationship between two things
that are not actually related (Leigh,2015). An example of this might be that if an object is round
it must be a ball or if it is squared it must be a box.

Two social emotional milestones for this developmental stage are; cooperating with other
children and becoming more independent from parents. Two moral reasoning/self regulation
milestones for this developmental stage are; being able to understand that their actions with have
an effect on other children and understand between good and bad.

A social factor that may influence development in this milestone is parent interaction. If children
do not interact with their children, they will not allow children to build a sense of security and
may develop trust issues.

A cultural factor that may influence development in this milestone is cultural stereotypes. When
families have cultural stereotypes children often also have them. This may prevent them from
making friends based on the stereotypes and cause them to have appropriate social development.

A sign of that might signal atypical development in this period of development may be any sign
of delay. Some additionl signs that there might be an abnormality in the childs development can
be; withdrawal, lack of understanding reality, and not being able to express emotions. All of
these areas of development if not meet can signal that the child may have a disability or delay in
cognitive development.

During this period of development children are a lot of fun to work with. Parents can do many
things to help them develop properly and to promote growth. Parents can help their children
learn by taking the time to do fun activities with them. Parents can sign the alphabet together, go
on a scavenger hunt, read together, and they may also take children to visit places such as a
museum. All these activities will promote learning and will give parents a chance to bond with
the child as well. A second play based activity for this milestone can be to create an obstacle
course for the child to further develop their large motor skills. The child may be asked to run
through a tunnel, jump over a box, climb an apparatus, and then tag the next person.
References

Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

Kathleen Stassen Berger (2006). The Developing Person: Through Childhood and Adolescence.
New York, NY: Worth Publishers

NIDCD. (n.d.). Speech and Language Developmental Milestones. Retrieved from