Section 1)
Development of young children
- The development of a child is very rapid during the first three years. The brain of the child goes under very fast and accelerated growth in these years. This duration of time is a period in which extremely fast development in the aspects of emotional, linguistic, cognitive, motor, and social development. A human child begins to learn many words when it is around 15 to 18 months old (Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development 2017). Very fast learning of language begins in the years when the child joins pre-schooling. The brain is also under constant growth as it grows which is associated with the identification of senses such as feelings, smells, tastes, and sounds. Every time the child utilizes any of the senses, the brain of the child gets a neutral connection. The repetition of many new experiences several times assists in making new connections that pave the way a child feels, thinks, learns, and behaves at current times and also in the future. Children happen to undergo development as a whole; however, the growth is mostly categorized into various domains (Cheeseman & Torr, 2009).
The overall growth of the child is integrated in terms of physical growth, nutrition, dental health, feeding, sleep, character development, perceptual development, and aesthetic development. The establishment of a close and strong relationship between the child and caregiver is the most important way for nourishing the growth of the brain of a child. As per Davies et al, during this period, the brain of the child grows when the caregiver constantly involves the child in playing by speaking, singing, telling, or reading a story to the child (Davies et al., 2013). This nurtures the child by encouraging the child to have healthy food with affection and love. Babies need a lot of attention along with love and care especially during the first three years of life. Having good health and interaction with the caregivers along with providing them with a clean and safe environment plays a significant role in the development, growth, and future potential of the child. In the initial three years, the child needs a lot of affection and care that includes cuddling and holding. Moreover, talking to the child results in; stimulation for the growth of the brain along with the promotion of the development of emotions in the child. Being close to the mother and provided with breastfeeding in demand gives the child a great sense of security regarding emotions (Healthguidance 2017). The child in these years suckles for comfort and nutrition. Such kind of attachment and bonding of the child to his or her mother, father, and other close caregivers assist in the development of the child regarding a wide range of abilities for building and using them throughout life.
- The development of young children may occur in varying sequences and the rates of development or growth are varying for every child. The environmental and other external factors have a significant influence on the growth and development of children which varies from one child to another. This happens to influence the ways that are considered at every stage of a child regarding growth and development. For instance, a baby will begin smiling when it is 6 weeks old (Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, 2017).
If a child is not smiled or talked to during the initial weeks post-birth, the child may not socially smile till much later. On the other hand, a baby that undergoes experiences regarding a lot of communication positively in the initial weeks may get to smile sooner than 8 weeks. Brain development has a very crucial influence on the variation of the development of the child during the initial years. During birth, a baby has almost all the neurons of cells of the brain that will keep developing throughout the entire lifetime (Lee, Cholowski, and Williams 2002). On the other hand, the role of genetics cannot be ignored to be influencing the growth of children. Individual differences in weight and other physical as well as biological features are very much determined by genetics. Most of the differences are because of the genetic factors of the respective families while others to the factors of the environment.
- According to Healthguidance (2017), all the domains of the development of a child are related and interconnected. The various areas such as physical and health development, cognitive development, socio-emotional development, and general competencies of learning are all related to early learning which is an integral part of the development of a child (Healthguidance, 2017). When it comes to cognitive development, it can be stated that children in their initial years engage in a sort of intuitive analysis of the regularities in sounds of speech that they hear which constructing language. They derive implicit concepts for explaining the objects’ actions and the way people behave. Such concepts form the basis for the learning and understanding of the social and physical worlds. This relates to the general competencies regarding learning which relate to reasoning, execution of the function, problem-solving, attention, and memory (Kit, 2008).
The socio-emotional development would also be influenced by cognitive development by having enhanced regulation of emotions, capacities for identifying relatedness, and empathy. As per Lee, Cholowski & Williams, the health and physical development of the child is very closely associated with motor and sensory development and safety which is a very integral part of the development of the child. Having optimum development regarding physical features and health has a direct impact on the enhanced development of cognition and overall learning (Lee, Cholowski & Williams, 2002).
Section 2
Positive environments
- It is very important to create an environment for the growth of children which has a very positive influence on the children’s overall development. Children at this tender age are made to join playschools or kindergartens where they can happily play and have fun as that is the way which helps children at such ages learn and develop cognitive skills. (National Research Council, 2015)
In such cases, the environment of the classrooms in the kindergarten and playschools need to be planned and prepared along with maintained in a very careful way so that all the aspects that are necessary for the overall growth of the children will not be missed out and the learning experience will be enhanced. The play or work environment of the playschool or any place where children are supposed to grow needs to relay two crucial messages which were purposefully designed that are based on how children would learn (Phillips and Shonkoff 2000). According to Phillips & Shonkoff, Creation, exploration, discovery, observation, sustained engagement, and experimentation need to be conducted in very well-designed classrooms for children. The materials that are needed to be chosen have to be selected with purpose and intention (Phillips & Shonkoff, 2000). The entire area needs to be arranged to accommodate and assist the work and play of children along with the schedule for allowing complete access of the children. The childhood classrooms in the early days used to have work or play centers for dramatic play, blocks, creative and art experiences, investigation and science, literacy experiences, mathematical perspective, writing, literary experiences, small and large group activities, water or clay and sand experiences, music making and woodworking (Davies et al., 2013). While establishing the play or work areas, individuals need to make a careful selection of the locations by keeping the purposes, experiences, and materials into consideration. The characteristics like neat or messy, noisy or quiet, small group or private or large group, sturdy or fragile are as crucial as the allocation of the workspace and the traffic flow and, movement through the classroom and centers are to be kept in mind while designing the environment for children. The features associated with designing the environment for the children include the questions regarding planning, aspects of comfort and climate, culture and interests of children, content, and focus of the curriculum, accessibility, and safety of the children. The other factors that are needed to be considered are independence about having proper movement, emotional and social growth along with aspects of physical growth (World Health Organization 2004).
- The way the features support the growth and development of young children are described below:
- Planning questions: To maintain a classroom environment in a well-planned manner, the faculties and parents need to ask themselves the following questions periodically and regularly: Which areas are used mostly or inappropriately, will children be able to be independent in that area, which areas of the room are the sources of irritation for the children because of high demand by many other children.
- Culture and interests of the children: The aspects regarding the culture and interests of the children are to be considered while making the design for the play or work environment. The materials and arrangements that are required to be in the room need to reflect and assisted their skills, family values, interests, and cultures (Lee, Cholowski & Williams, 2002).
- Climate comfort: The climate of the room is meant for play and work the children need to have a climate with suitable equipment and materials which can support the children to resolve problems and interact with each other and the faculties.
- The curriculum content and focus: The science, literacy, language, and other content areas need to be responded to with the creation of a well-defined environment for children (Phillips and Shonkoff 2000). Maintenance of the space dedicated to the children’s work and play needs to be structured with more of the imagination, interests, and needs of the children.
- As per World Health Organization, accessibility, and safety: Safety needs to be a very crucial element in the setting up of the work or play environment for the children. The arrangements of the physical things and materials of the classroom need to reflect a belonging sense. Children must be made to feel the work or play space is more interesting and exciting where they can be able to try various things (World Health Organization, 2004).
- How I and the other individuals would be able to create a positive environment that would support the development of young children is to be considered while designing and structuring the room for the work and play of the children. Individuals like me can create a very positive environment for the children by building very repsio9nsiev and warm relationships which would assist in constructing the firm establishment of the infrastructure for children. Predictable environments in the classroom, routines, and schedules can enhance the independence of the children. These would also influence the ability to anticipate change and the possibility of making effective use of suitable behavior (Lee, Cholowski, and Williams 2002). To have a positive environment in the work or play environment for children, transitions that will be devised need to be specifications associated with the behavior of the children. This would be having an appositive impact on the order of the classroom.
The faculties and individuals can assist positive behavior all along the transition by making plans for them bad alert the children before the occurrence of the transition. Moreover, by collecting simple data about the behavior of the children in the class, individuals can create a very positive environment. This can be done by assessing all the aspects that are required for the children to work and play in a very liberal, manner. Individuals can motivate and encourage the children to make friends and build teams by providing them with a sense of competition in the games. Individuals can use the data that are obtained by the conduction of these assessments and make necessary amendments and fixations in the environment where children work or play.
Section 3
Providing basic needs
Task 3
- Young children have many basic needs which are to be kept in mind while supporting them to live life in a good and appropriate manner. The needs that are required to be met are stated below:
- Stable environment for living: It is the most important need that every child deserves and needs. Many families are forced to move most of the time. These happen in families that have a military background. Providing a stable environment for living fosters a safe and peaceful sense of place that a child will be able to call home. As adults, individuals need to devise ways to provide their children with a stable home that would assist in better growth and development of the child (Lee, Cholowski & Williams, 2002).
- Proper nutrition: It is another important factor that is very crucial for the physical and biological as well as mental growth of children. Children should be provided with healthy food and nutrition that do not include junk snacks and food that prove to be detrimental to the health of the kids. In this case, the difference regarding the wants and needs of the children come into play. For healthy growth of children, they need to be given a nutritious and healthy diet that would consist of calcium, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates (Kit 2008). As adults, individuals need to make young children drink a lot of water. Individuals need to allow the children to eat sweets occasionally; however, care should be taken to ensure that sweets do not become a staple food for the children.
- Structured discipline: Discipline should not be considered as any form of punishment to children. It is more than simple punishment which would make the children be better people in real life. Adults need to make the children follow a disciplined approach to life which would include certain sets of rules which the children have to abide by. It is observed that any child who receives a suitable amount of discipline will comprehend the implications of the actions for which the disciplined rules were set (Lee, Cholowski & Williams, 2002).
- Physical exercise: Physical exercise is a very important need for children as staying physically fit is very much required to be inculcated right from childhood of a person. Many cases have been observed regarding childhood obesity. Such cases are blamed on the technology and advancements that have been devised over the past years. Children should be made to go out and play various outdoor games rather than sitting at home and playing video games and various other games on the computer (Davies, Jindal-Snape, Collier, Digby, Hay, and Howe 2013).
- Adults ensure that children are safe and healthy. They equip the children with the resources and skills for succeeding as adults. Adults also assist in transmitting basic values of the culture to the children. They also offer love, care, appreciation, guidance, acceptance, and encouragement. They also happen to provide the crucial intimate context for the protection and nurturing of the children. This happens as the children develop their identities and personalities throughout their entire life when they keep maturing cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically. During infancy, adults are in charge of feeding, holding, changing, cradling, and soothing the babies. They ensure that the needs of the children are met with great care. This way they achieve a very important task of development of their children. The adults assist in establishing a very healthy parents and child relationship (Cheeseman and Torr 2009). The adults who are not parents but play the role of caregivers and teachers assist in providing education and teachings regarding living a healthy and authentic way of life. It is when infants and young children attach very successfully to their caregivers and parents, the children will learn how to trust the external world through their environment. This further lays the basic work for further emotional, cognitive, and social development. Parents and caregivers who are considered adults are very valuable in assisting young children in learning about the ways to cope with adversity, especially if they counteract prejudice or stigma that are related to the factors like ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, socioeconomic and weight status (Kit 2008).
- Providing basic needs to young children by adults assists in making them feel safe and secure. Provision of basic needs by parents and caregivers helps- in providing psychological and emotional strength to the children that would further help them in being capable of handling life on their own in the future. Receiving basic needs from the adults like parents and caregivers makes every child feel adored and loved which is very important for the emotional growth of any individual. Having a stable place as one of the basic needs, makes every child feel emotionally stable. This would further assist in the development of skills and psychological states of the children. Children would be made to feel comfortable and will be able to develop a sense of belongingness that provides them with security and safety. This also provides more confidence to the children which makes them have proper development. When adults like parents and caregivers provide the children with good, healthy food and nutrition, the children can have proper healthy growth and development physically and biologically as well as mentally. This assist in having optimum growth that supports the child in his or her future to do any kind of work without being restricted to any kind of physical work (Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, 2017). Being fit also assists children in getting rid of unhealthy health conditions and diseases that are nipped in the bud stage. Further, adults also play a great role in providing a good and healthy environment for learning which assists children in gaining more skills and knowledge. This facilitates the children in being successful in their future education and career endeavors. They are supported by the adults in knowing to build more social relationships by making friends that assist in the mental as well as emotional growth of the children.
References
Cheeseman, S. and Torr, J., 2009. From ideology to productivity: reforming early childhood education and care in Australia. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 3(1), pp.61-74.
Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P. and Howe, A., 2013. Creative learning environments in education — A systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, pp.80-91.
Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. (2017). Parenting skills | The role of parents in early childhood learning | Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/parenting-skills/according-experts/role-parents-early-childhood-learning [Accessed 28 Oct. 2017].
Healthguidance.org. (2017). The Basic Needs of Every Child. [Online] Available at: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14969/1/The-Basic-Needs-of-Every-Child.html [Accessed 28 Oct. 2017].
Kit, W.W.B.T., 2008. Using Environmental Strategies to Promote Positive Social Interactions.
Lee, W.S.C., Cholowski, K. and Williams, A.K., 2002. Nursing students and clinical educators’ perceptions of characteristics of effective clinical educators in an Australian university school of Nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 39(5), pp.412-420.
National Research Council, 2015. Transforming the workforce for children birth through age 8: A unifying foundation. National Academies Press.
Phillips, D.A. and Shonkoff, J.P. eds., 2000. From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academies Press.
World Health Organization, 2004. The importance of caregiver-child interactions for the survival and healthy development of young children: A review.
