Educated people have more opportunities in life, both personally and professionally. They are also likely to live happier and healthier lives than people with lower education levels.
Providing kids with a quality education is the best way to help them realize their dreams and become successful adults. But what exactly does children education consist of?
Social and Emotional Development
The social and emotional development of children is the foundation of their learning. It involves the behaviors they exhibit in their interactions and relationships with others, including adults and other children.
It also includes their ability to understand themselves and how they feel, as well as how they manage and express those emotions. It influences all other areas of their growth — physical, cognitive and language.
This type of development often happens naturally, but many programs are now available to help children develop SEL skills such as self-awareness, responsible decision-making and building healthy relationships. In addition, parents can help by supporting their children’s SEL competencies at home. For example, they might teach their kids to take a deep breath when feeling stressed or encourage them to express their feelings with words or through play. Open communication between teachers and families is key to a child’s success. This helps children feel safe and supported, which is essential for their emotional and social wellbeing.
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development involves changes in how children think. It also includes their ability to recall information and solve problems. Research has shown that children’s cognitive skills are crucial to their future success in school and life.
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget believed that children’s thinking progressed through four discrete stages. The first is the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2. In this stage, kids learn about their environment through exploration and interactions with other people. They are also able to imitate others and use symbolic thought when playing. Kids in this stage are egocentric and believe that everything they do links to themselves.
The next phase is the pre-operational stage, from ages 2 to 7. During this period, kids develop mental representations and start using them in their play. In this stage, kids also begin to understand time and space. Kids can solve simple math problems and learn to recognize shapes. They have a growing vocabulary and can compose sentences of five or more words.
Language Development
Language development is the critical process that enables children to understand their world and express themselves. It lays the groundwork for literacy and supports cognitive, social and emotional development.
The language components typically include speech sounds and patterns (phonetics and phonology), words and their associated knowledge (semantics) and the systems for combining morphemes into sentences to convey meaning (grammar). Researchers have found that early language skills are strongly influenced by the child’s linguistic environment and the quality of interactions with caregivers.
One way to support language development is to read stories with young children and encourage them to talk about the pictures. It is also important to speak clearly and use the child’s native language. Learning a new language has many benefits, such as improving memory and brain function. Bilingual people are better at retaining lists, sequences and names, and are more creative, perceptive and able to concentrate for longer periods of time. They also show greater respect and understanding of other cultures.
Physical Development
Physical development includes the growth of children’s bodies and the improvement of their motor skills. It also supports other developmental domains like social and cognitive development by providing a foundation for learning through exploration.
In infants, physical development relates to cognitive development: Seven-month-olds who push a button on a toy learn that their actions cause a reaction and repeat the action, indicating they are beginning to understand the connections between their movements and their environment. In toddlers, physical and movement activities are linked to mark-making and language skills, and hand muscle strength and pincer control are necessary for preparing for writing.
Physical and motor development reflects biological maturation that is influenced by genetics, nutrition, health, and the environment. It occurs in a predictable order, but the rate of change varies between individuals and across cultures. Children need a range of healthy physical activities to build strong bones and muscles, improve cardiovascular and heart health, and develop their mental agility.