Children learn best when they can explore, interact and be creative. They need healthy relationships with loving adults to develop trust and empathy.
Educators need to have a broad knowledge of how children learn. This includes learning progressions and pedagogical knowledge of the subject areas they teach. They also need to understand children’s cultural assets and how they influence their learning.
Social and Emotional Development
UNESCO believes that children have a right to quality early childhood education and care (ECE) as part of the universal goal of access to education. It promotes and supports child development through education, training of teachers and community members, family support, research and advocacy.
It helps develop young children’s social-emotional skills by providing them with caring relationships and positive experiences. It also encourages them to develop self-esteem and a sense of responsibility, as well as respect for themselves and others.
When children have strong SEL competencies, they are better able to manage emotions and make friends, develop caring relationships, and resolve conflicts peacefully. Children can practice SEL skills at home and at school by having parents and teachers model and reinforce SEL behaviors. Parents can also help by showing kids how they manage their own emotions, such as when a parent has to go to work and leave the children at home. They can teach children techniques like deep breathing and meditation to cope with their own stress.
Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the growth and change in children’s intellectual/mental abilities. It encompasses their understanding, thinking and problem-solving. It is a process that occurs through life, with significant milestones occurring during the early childhood and middle childhood years.
The first stage of cognitive development is the Sensorimotor stage (ages 0 to 2 years). Infants and toddlers use their sense and motor skills to manipulate objects and learn about their environment. They develop object permanence, the concept that an item continues to exist even if it cannot be seen. They also establish causality, such as the cause-and-effect relationship between shaking a rattle and producing sound or crying and receiving attention from their parents.
During the Pre-operational stage (2 to 7 years), kids use mental representations for symbolic thought and begin to imitate. They also become less egocentric, and understand that others can have different thoughts and opinions. They master simple time concepts and counting, as well as shape recognition.
Physical Development
As children grow and develop, they need to engage in physical activities that help them use and control their bodies. Physical development is also important for cognitive and social-emotional development because it helps children explore their environment and learn about objects in the world around them.
Physical development includes both gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills involve the coordination of large muscle groups, such as those in the legs and arms. Fine motor skills, on the other hand, involve the coordination of smaller muscle groups, such as those in the fingers and hands. Fine motor skills are needed for tasks that require precise hand-eye coordination, such as writing and drawing.
As a program manager, you may be called upon to respond to concerns from direct-care staff or parents about a child’s physical development. This lesson will help you understand how to assess these concerns and identify strategies to support physical development. Complete the What Would You Do activity to practice responding to scenarios related to this topic.
Self-Discipline
Children need to learn self discipline if they are to be successful adults. It is an important skill that can be taught through positive parenting techniques, such as limits, consequences and logical rewards for desirable behaviours. Bedtimes, chores and school schedules can become opportunities to teach children the benefits of responsibility and self-discipline.
Children who learn to control their behaviour are able to function more independently in society. They can then focus on learning new skills and developing their creativity.
Children need to feel secure and safe to develop good character qualities like self-discipline. Physicians should encourage parents to provide good behavioural models, set clear and consistent rules and be supportive without encouraging the use of abusive techniques. For example, physicians can advise that a child who screams at a classmate for no apparent reason should be told to try a quieter approach or even go to another classroom. Likewise, teachers who ask an aggressor why they picked on the victim and model concern for the victim can help students understand that bullying is not acceptable.