Preschool Stage of Development Essays

Preschool Stage of Development Essays Preschool Stage of Development Essay Preschool Stage of Development Essay Essay Topic: A Dolls House The Preschool Stage of Development ECE 332: Child Development Marilyn Gomez May 30, 2011 Abstract â€Å"The years from 3 through 5 are often referred to as the preschool years† (Henniger, pg. 107). Preschool is a place where the setting is geared towards mimicking a regular school setting but exposes the young child for the first time to a school. Preschool takes away some of the stress of strictly learning academics and focuses on developing the childs skills in cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language developments. Preschool encourages children to personally and individually meet their milestones of development. The Preschool Stage of Development In looking at the stages of a preschool development, the characteristics/milestones must be defined. There are some activities that can be provided that will enhance a preschooler’s cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language developments. A detailed explanation of the activities will give the reasoning to how and why the activities will enhance a child’s development. â€Å"Every child grows and develops at his or her own pace. Still, child development tends to follow a fairly predictable path† (MFMER, 2010). In language skills, children in the age group of 3 through 5 years old learn from 250 to 500 or more words. Answer simple questions, and understand rhyming words. They can speak sentences of three to four words through compound and complex sentences. In social skills, children in preschool can become more imaginative, cooperate, make friends, share, express feelings, show affection, ask why questions, become more independent, begin to make impressionable markings, count numbers, recognize letters of the alphabet, and can problem solve with teacher guidance. In physical skills, children in this age group can kick, jump, run, and maneuver tricycles, walk up and down stairs without falling, keep balance, hop on one foot, manipulate hand toys like cube links or legos, can dress and undress dolls/or themselves, and can use scissors to cut paper. In Henniger’s text the characteristics described are meant as a guide to understanding the patterns of stages in the development of preschoolers (pg. 107). For the physical aspect of preschoolers, children begin to lose their baby fat and can ride tricycles at the age of 3. Hopping, skipping, and drawing stick figures are achieved at the age of 4. Tying a bow knot and riding a bicycle is achieved at that age of 5. For the cognitive aspect of preschoolers, children learn the basic names of color and ask â€Å"why? † questions at the age of 3. Understanding concepts of three and show curiosity to learning how things work are achieved at the age of 4. Understanding the meaning of calendar use and sorting objects by colors and shapes are achieved at the age of 5. For the social-emotional aspect of preschoolers, children begin to imitate an adult during play and learn about stereotypes of sex roles at the age of 3. Working in groups of two or more and having special friends are achieved at the age of 4. Recognizing hurt feelings, expressing their feelings and enjoying group games are achieved at the age of 5. For the language aspect of preschoolers, children learn three to four word sentences and use past tense correctly through their conversations at the age of 3. Playing with words/rhyming, and using talk to solve problems or conflicts are achieved at the age of 4. Knowing about 5,000 words or more and dictating a story from a book or imagination is achieved at the age of 5. One activity that will enhance a child’s cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language development is the process of making scrambled green eggs from the Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham story. Children will have an opportunity to learn about the process of making eggs to eat. The children will use their fine motor skills to crack an egg and scramble their eggs in a mixing bowl. They will have an opportunity to ask questions and answer questions like â€Å"what will happen when we crack the egg? † â€Å"What does the egg look like? Is it in a circle shape or an oval shape? What colors do you see on the outside of the egg and what color is the egg when the inside comes out? How does the egg feel before it is cracked? How does it feel when it is cracked open? † Children will have an opportunity to share their thoughts with their peers for social and language development. Their ideas can be charted onto a poster board. Children will feel confident in making their own scrambled eggs and sharing their findings with their peers and parents. Children will be able to predict what will happen when the green food coloring is added into the egg mix. Children will also be encouraged to think of what will happen when the egg mix is poured into a hot skillet. â€Å"Will the water soluble egg stay in its water context or will it become solid? † Language will be enhanced through learning different words by placing them with content of what is happening. An example of this would be solid, liquid, hard, slimy, and smooth, cracked, like, and dislike. Rhyming words would also increase the child’s vocabulary while reading the book of Green Eggs and Ham like in a house with a mouse, a goat on a boat, on a train while it rains, in a box with a fox, and here, there, anywhere. This activity will enhance the child’s development because the child will be a part of the making of the activity. They will show a curiosity to learning and will have hands on experience. The activity will encourage children to trust in themselves and will build self esteem in what they are doing. It will make them feel a part of the group. Their cognitive development will be challenged when they are encouraged to answer questions or ask questions. Their motor skills development in fine motor will be challenged when they are encouraged to whisk the egg to mix the yoke and the food coloring. Their social development will be encouraged when they display â€Å"energetic interactions with peers. Many preschoolers show social initiative when an interest in reaching out to others, making social contacts, and trying out social behaviors† (Trawick-Smith, pg, 298). The social development will be through the interactions with peers while making green eggs. Their emotional development will be encouraged as they become courageous in mixing the eggs with confidence and receiving acknowledgment of success when they are finished mixing the eggs. Their language development will be encouraged through literacy and rhyming songs. A second activity that will enhance a child’s cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language development can be through creating an activity with frogs. By a Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming can be the story that is used for creating the frog activity. The activity will be a multiple play area activity. Children will be encouraged to discuss about frogs. Questions like â€Å"where do frogs live? How do they feel? What do they look like? And what do they eat? Children will be encouraged to answer the questions as well as encouraged to ask questions. Children will be encouraged to look at a picture of the life cycle of frogs. They will learn the vocabulary words like amphibians, tadpoles, polliwog, young frog, adult frog, smooth, lumpy, leap, forward, croak, and snatch. They will be encouraged to participate in a frog relay race. They will use their gross motor skills to bend down like a fro g and leap up and forward using their legs. Children will be encouraged to socially interact with their peers while they play in the leap frog relay race. Those children who are standing by watching will encourage the two contestants and the two contestants will learn to feel emotionally confident to leap throughout the race. â€Å"Children who are nurtured, encouraged, and accepted by adults and peers will be emotionally well adjusted† (Trawick-Smith, pg. 298). This activity will enhance the child’s development because the children will be learning through play. They will learn how to bring a story to life and create games that are influenced by a story. Their cognitive development will be encouraged through the ongoing questions throughout the story and the game. Their motor development will be encouraged through the practicing and learning of leaping with their legs and jumps up and forward. Their social development will be encouraged throughout the day with their peers and acknowledgment from the teachers. Their emotional development will be encouraged as they successfully finish the race and getting recognition from their peers. â€Å"Children are elated when they feel liked by peers and emotionally crushed when they imagine that no other child in the whole world wants to play with them† (Miller, pg. 59). Children must feel that they are accepted by those around them. This will enhance their social and emotional development. Their language development will be encouraged and enhanced when they learn the many different words that are associated with the story about the frog. A third activity that will enhance a child’s cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language development is using their hands. This activity can be accompanied with the book My Hands Can Do So Many Things. Children will be encouraged to think of ways and things to do with their hands. Asking questions and encouraging children to ask questions like â€Å"how do you fold your hands? How do you wash your hands? Can you count with your hands? Can you tie a bow on your shoe? Can zip a zipper? Can you button a button? What are some things you can do with your hands? What things you should not do with your hands? Children will be encouraged to work on their fine motor skill developments with interacting with dressing boards. They will practice on zipping, buttoning, tying, and snapping buttons. They will be encouraged to develop their social skills by working with older peers for scaffolding or zone of proximal development. Cognitive scaffolding refers to temporary support provided by a more skilled person to assist learning in children. Children’s cognitive activities develop through interaction with older, more experienced individuals who teach and guide them† (Rathus, pg. 152). Children will be encouraged to develop their emotional skills by expressing their feelings and getting the opportunities towards successfully completing a task like zipping a z ipper or buttoning a button. Children will learn more language development with their peers as they communicate and interactively talk to their peers as they learn how to tie their shoe. This activity will enhance the child’s development because the children will learn that their hands can do many things and that their hands are used for manipulating objects to their desires and wants. They will learn to cognitively think of using their nice hands and keeping their hands to their own body. They will increase finger and hand strengths while practicing with the activities of the dress boards. They will socially interact with older peers and build trust with those peers and teachers. They will enhance their confidence and independence. They will learn to express their desires and feelings when they need to resolve a conflict that may arise when they are practicing their fine motor skills. In conclusion, teachers and caregivers must understand the milestones/characteristics of a preschooler in order to recognize if the child will need any further assistance or special recommendations. There should be developmentally appropriate activities set up to enhance a child’s cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and language developments. This way, children will be provided an opportunity to achieve a goal and master a skill. Reference Henniger, M. (2009). Teaching young children: An introduction (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Miller, D. (2010). Positive child guidance (6th ed. ). Wadsworth, California. Rathus, R. (2011). Cdev: Student edition. Wadsworth, California. Trawick-Smith, J. (2006). Early childhood development: A multicultural Perspective (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Mayo Foundation Clinic Staff (2010). Child development chart: Preschool milestones. Retrieved on May 24, 2011 from mayoclinic. com/health/child-development/MY00136