During early childhood (02-06 years), parents often refer to it as the problem, troublesome, or toy-age, educators label it as the Pre-school-age, while psychologists refer to it as the Pre-gang, the exploratory, or the Questioning-age. Despite slow physical development during this stage, the physiological habits established in babyhood become firmly rooted.
During early childhood, children are in a teachable moment for acquiring skills. This is because they enjoy repeating activities that help them learn skills. They are also adventurous and willing to try new things. Additionally, they have not yet learned many skills, so there are fewer distractions when acquiring new ones. Speech development also progresses quickly during this time, leading to improvements in comprehension and various speech skills.
The amount of talking young children do and the content of their speech are strongly influenced by various factors, such as intelligence, sex, family size, child training, and other conditions, which can cause variations in the predictable pattern of emotional development. Early childhood, which is the pre-gang age, is a critical period for establishing the foundations of social development that will be characteristic of late childhood. It is also a time when companions play a crucial role in the socialization process.
The motor skills children have acquired, the degree of popularity among their age-mates, the guidance in learning different patterns of play, and the socio-economic status of their families greatly influence play in early childhood. Inaccuracies in understanding are common during this stage because many childish concepts are learned without proper guidance. Additionally, children are often encouraged to view life unrealistically in order to make it appear more exciting and colorful.
During the early stages of childhood, children’s moral comprehension is shaped through punishment and praise, aiding them in acquiring obedience to rules. Additionally, disciplinary approaches vary during this phase; certain children encounter authoritarian discipline while others are brought up with permissive or democratic methods. Throughout this period, shared areas of interest among children encompass religion, the human body, self-awareness, sexuality, and fashion.
During early childhood, gender identity is formed as children learn and embrace societal expectations for their gender. This involves comprehending and adhering to sex-role stereotypes. The socialization in this period is impacted by familial bonds, encompassing parents, siblings, and relatives. These connections contribute to the development of children’s self-perception. Additionally, early childhood presents physical dangers like mortality, illnesses, accidents, unattractiveness, obesity, and left-handedness.
During early childhood, there are various significant psychological risks to take into account. These include a lack of social content in speech, challenges in establishing empathy, an inability to learn social skills due to insufficient guidance, a preference for imaginary companions or pets, excessive emphasis on entertainment instead of active play, negative emotional assessment of ideas, inconsistent or overly severe disciplinary approaches, not adhering to expected gender roles within the social group, deterioration in family relationships, and negative self-perceptions.
The happiness of young children is mainly influenced by their home experiences rather than external factors. Often, people ignore global issues until they personally experience them. In today’s society, a perilous threat hangs over the households of our loved ones and acquaintances. Unlike discrimination, this threat specifically targets children and does not discriminate based on race or culture.
Child Obesity, a silent killer that claims the lives of one in every 100 children annually, creates distressing medical scenarios for all those it affects. Often overlooked and considered unlikely to affect anyone we know, we turn a blind eye to its pervasive presence on our streets, in our news papers, magazines, TV shows, and entertainment industry.
Economics
The economic factors greatly affect the development of children, especially in their early years. If mothers live in poverty or have limited education, their children are more likely to have lower birth weight and face health issues throughout infancy and childhood. Moreover, parental income can indicate future adult health. Additionally, families with lower income often lack resources to support the emotional and physical well-being of both parents and children, which hampers the overall development of young children.
Social Issues
Social issues have a profound impact on children’s early development. The social conditions of their parents or caretakers directly affect a child’s language, social, and emotional growth, which can lead to lasting effects. Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) indicate that children from low-income families often lack the essential social skills needed for kindergarten readiness. Additionally, forming a secure and loving bond with a parent or caregiver is vital for nurturing continuous emotional, physical, and intellectual progress.
Nutrition
A healthy diet directly impacts a child’s health and development during their early years. Inadequate nutrition can result in stunted physical growth, general poor health, and potential obstacles to later intellectual and physical growth. Furthermore, research suggests a strong correlation between household income level and nutrition.
Community
Living conditions heavily influence a child’s development, especially those growing up in low-income communities. These children face multiple obstacles, including exposure to toxins and pollution, poor water quality, high noise levels, and limited safety measures. Additionally, these areas often lack essential resources for families, have limited healthcare access, and fewer safe play spaces for children. Furthermore, living in poverty increases the risk of children encountering lead-based paint that can cause long-lasting health problems.
Some theories emphasize the social and emotional factors that contribute to children’s moral agency, such as self-control and active engagement in social interactions.
- Accepted Practices 1. Sigmund Freud proposed that during early childhood, children adopt the same moral practices as their same-sex parent. Then, he argued, children attempt to observe these practices and experience feelings of guilt–or hostility turned inward–when they do not.
- Fixed Standards 2. Jean Piaget concluded that during the earliest years of childhood, children see rules and justice as fixed or permanent properties of the world. Children, therefore, expect punishment to inevitably follow when they break a rule.
- External Rewards 3. Similarly, Lawrence Kohlberg theorized that children do not have internalized moral values, but instead that they reason morally on the basis of understood punishments and rewards for behavior. Kohlberg concluded that, at this stage, children obey because they are told to do so.
- Prosocial Behavior 4. Morality develops in early childhood, William Damon proposed, through the encouragement of prosocial behavior by both peers and parents. Feelings f empathy and encouragement from others, concluded Damon, shape the moral development of early childhood.
- Global Empathy 5. Martin Hoffman likewise theorized that children have an inborn “global empathy” that supports their moral development. Through this innate empathy, Hoffman contended, children learn to consider what the feelings of others might be and how their actions may affect those feelings.
