cog dev guide

• Childhood


  Associated with play, fantasy, and innocence. Involves growth and development which are critical for the entire life span.
• Stages of childhood


  • Infancy (birth to 2 years)
  • Early childhood (2 to 6 years)
  • Middle childhood (6 to 11 years)
  • Adolescence (12 to 19 years)
• Physical and motor development in childhood


  • Physical growth is rapid during infancy, but it is comparatively slower in childhood
  • Changes in height, weight, muscular and skeletal structure lead to development of motor skills
  • There are universal trends in physical and motor development, yet there are large individual differences
• Major milestones of physical and motor development


  • Lifting chin up while lying on stomach
  • Lifting head and chest
  • Rolling over
  • Picking up objects with palm without sitting with support
  • Finer use of thumb and fingers
  • Sitting alone (without support)
  • Standing with support (holding on to furniture)
  • Crawling
  • Standing independently
  • Taking few steps without holding on and walking holding on
  • Grasping objects with thumb and forefingers
  • Walking alone
  • Running and climbing stairs
  • Walking on tip toe
  • Riding a tricycle
  • Throwing ball over head, walking down stairs with one foot to a step
  • Copying complex figures
• Gross motor


  Control over large muscle groups that enable the child to get around, e.g., crawling, standing and walking
• Fine motor


  Control over smaller muscle movement e.g., grasping, pinching etc. Necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements
• Activities involving fine motor skills by age


  • 0 and 3 months: Holding an object
  • 3 and 6 months: Trying to reach out for objects, putting things in mouth
  • 6 months and 1 year: Trying to hold food, using hand and fingers to play games
  • 1 and 1-1/2years: Scribble on paper, trying to play throw and catch with the ball
  • 1-1/2 and 2 years: Drawing lines with pencil, using a spoon to eat food with little help
  • 2 and 3 years: Brushing teeth and buttons cloths with help
  • 3 and 5 years: Builds using building blocks, uses a pencil to draw, turn pages of a book
  • 5 and 7 years: Draws various shapes very easily, brushes and combs without support, cuts shape very clearly
• Physical and motor development in early childhood (2-6 years)


  • Child is mobile now and interacts with the wider society, resulting in learning of rules for social behaviour
  • Mental abilities develop which prepare for formal education and schooling
  • Locomotion skills such as walking and running, becomes refined
• Physical and motor development milestones in early childhood (2-6 years)


  • 2-3 years: Develops a smooth gait, ability to jump, hop, throwing and catching large balls
  • 3-4 years: Can climb stairs (bring both feet together on one step before going to next step), can jump, hop, play throw and catch, learn to ride a tricycle, kick a ball, build tower using blocks, mould clay into various shapes, scribble with crayon. Begins to show preference for right or left handedness and use hands for twisting motions required in opening door knobs, jar lids, holds pencil, eat using spoons and forks. Toilet trained
  • 5-6 years: Capable of coordinated actions requiring body balance, muscle coordination for fine motor activities improves, can complete self-care tasks, can feed themselves without an adult's help. Can run faster, rides bicycle with training wheels, climb stairs sideway steps, play on swings like- jungle gym, see-saw, slide etc.
• Physical development in middle childhood (6-11 years)


  • Physical growth becomes gradual, rate of overt change becomes slower until puberty
  • Changes occur in height, weight and muscular strength and swiftness
  • Large gender differences can be seen, with girls slightly shorter than boys during 6 to 8 years but then the trend reverses
  • Growth spurt for boys comes later than for girls
  • Children achieve greater control over large and small muscles, become stronger, faster and attain better motor co-ordination
  • School children are energetic and enjoy all types of outdoor games
  • Increase in cognitive capacity also helps them learn the rules of new games
  • Can copy complex figures and assemble tools and model toys
  • Become skillful in games requiring skillful eye-hand coordination such as throwing, catching and hitting targets
• Cognitive development


  Refers to the way children learn and process information, and includes attention, perception, language, thinking, memory and reasoning
• Stages of cognitive development (Piaget)


  • Sensori-motor stage (Birth- 2 years)
  • Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
  • Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
  • Formal operational stage (11+ years)
• Cognitive development in early childhood (2-6 years)


  • Children become proficient in using symbols such as – word, images etc.
  • Have good vocabulary and their sustained attention span is improved
  • Become selective in their attention and perceptual skills also improve
  • Thinking becomes logical, memory and information processing improves
• Pre-operational stage (2-6 years)


  • Symbolic function (2-4 years) – child can create mental images of objects and store them in their minds for later use. Ego-centrism – inability to see the world from others perspective.
  • Intuitive thought (4-7 years) – Children tend to be so certain of their knowledge and understanding that they are unaware how they gained this knowledge in first place. Centration – child focus on one characteristic of an object and base their decisions on that only.
• Language development in early childhood (3-6 years)


  • The period of 3-6 years is referred to as 'language explosion' as the vocabulary increases from 900 words at 3 years of age to 8000 to 14000 words by 6 years of age
  • Child form more than two-word sentences and learn and understand grammar rules
• Cognitive development in middle childhood (6-11 years)


  • Children are full of curiosity and keen to explore environment
  • Memory, conceptual knowledge improves, which facilitates logical thinking beyond immediate situation
  • Engage in music, art, dance and develop other such hobbies
• Socio-emotional and personality development in early childhood


  • Children typically start to develop self-conscious emotions like shame and guilt as they start evaluating themselves, instead of simply reacting to caregivers' or other adults' evaluations
  • Become increasingly self-aware, effective at communicating, and understands thoughts and feelings of others, their social skills improve
  • Become skilled at modifying and expressing their emotions to fit different social situations, helping them to fit in with groups and create interpersonal relationships
  • Empathy develops during early childhood, an important component of positive social behaviour
  • Learning how to appropriately express and deal with anger and fear is a valuable life and social skill
• Socio-emotional development in early childhood


  • Parents and caregivers directly teach ways of controlling emotions and also indirectly influence children's behaviour by acting as models
  • Children engage in parallel play in which they play beside each other without truly interacting with each other
  • Young children begin to play more cooperatively, often including pretend or symbolic play
  • Enter a stage of rough and tumble play which includes running, racing, climbing, or competitive games, practicing social skills like taking turns and following simple group rules and norms
• Socio-emotional development in middle childhood (6-11 years)


  • Children show fast change in social relationships
  • Use social comparison to distinguish themselves from others, start seeing things from other's perspective
  • Begin to weigh self-worth and increasingly compare themselves with peers
  • Able to understand emotions of pride and shame and can experience more than one emotion in a given situation
  • Can suppress emotions and use self-acquired strategies to cope
  • Internalize or begin to control their values and feelings from within
  • Start making judgments at this age that impact moral development
  • Gender differences are observed, with girls attaching greater importance to good interpersonal relationships and the family, while boys emphasizing the importance of social prestige
• Bullying in middle childhood


  • Bullies display certain characteristics, such as being intrusive, having demanding but unresponsive parents
  • Victims are often depressed and have lower self-esteem
• Self-concept development in middle childhood


  • Changes from a focus on observable characteristics and typical behaviour and emotions to an emphasis on personality traits, positive and negative characteristics, and social comparisons
  • Child begins to see his or her own strengths and limitations, helping the move towards achievement of an identity
• Socialization


  The process of acquiring norms, values and beliefs, which are considered significant in a society, and transmitting cultural values, preferences and patterns of behaviour to children
• Socialization in early childhood


  • Children learn a great deal about the norms, conventions and practices in their families, society and culture
  • Acquire language and learn the fundamentals of culture
  • Primary socializing agents are the family members
• Socialization in middle childhood


  • Influence of peers and school becomes prominent, though family context remains important
  • Effect of media is undeniable
• Parenting styles


  • Authoritarian style - demanding, controlling, insensitive parenting
  • Permissive style - indulgent, non-demanding parenting
  • Authoritative style - firm, consistent parenting, reasons given for discipline
  • Neglectful or uninvolved style - uninterested, uncaring, low control and communication
• Ethnicity and socio-economic status of the parents makes an impact on the child's development directly and indirectly
• Ethnicity is linked to family size, structure, education, income, composition, extended networks