INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD

Infancy and early childhood

Infancy and early childhood

Introduction

Early childhood is a time span of development that spans the ages from 3 to 5 years, between the end of the toddler years and the start of first grade. It is the time of child's life when the base is prepared for personal, linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional natural forces that will elaborate all through life. Yet there is an unmistakable value to early childhood that makes it one of the most intriguing and winning time of human development.

Child Development

Every child is unique in his own way, while the development of the child is through different phases. There are 5 areas of development of a child:

Emotional and Social Development

It involves how to react in different situations of joy so showing happiness. Children make friends at different stages of life (Morford, 2000). They interact with others and follow them. A baby playing with a toy and smiles towards it shows that he recognizes it.

Cognitive Development

Cognition is our mind development how we learn in different situations and resolve our problems and issues related to them. For example, visiting a different place 2 months old baby will explore his surroundings.

Speech and Language Development

During this phase, a child learns and understanding different languages. For example, a child learns to say mother and father initially and differentiating between words.

Fine Motor Skill Development

It includes the ability of a child to use his hands like moving things from one place to another and picking up small objects as a young baby does with their toys.

Gross Motor Skill Development

It is the child's ability to use his large muscles such as forcing himself to sit and trying to stand with support. These are the initial stages of child development. Development takes place throughout different phases of life. Development takes place when a child is exposed to different environments. Learning is the change in behavior during which a child develops different abilities and skills to overcome different situations. The positive understanding of the environment can help a child in quality and productive learning.



Families affect on the development of infants and young children

The family is the basic unit of all societies. The force that influences family life is the fast pace and nature of social change. The development involves an adjustment within the family, the roles and responsibilities. Children are the first to benefit or suffer from these changes. Families play a prominent role in the development of children. The initial period of their life is very crucial as children learn during this time and family in which the child is developed has a huge impact on the child life (Lemma, 2007). There are numerous obstacles, which can sway, development of child and parents should make sure that the children should treated just as it can affect their life a lot. These are also risk components involved which are split up into biological risk and ecological risk which can affect the child ...