social and communicative development in infancy and early childhood

 social and communicative development in infancy and early childhood

Child development occurs in different dimensions, including social and communicative development. Developmental makes a child change across three general dimensions cognitive, physical, social, and emotional change. In this article, we will deal with the cognitive domain, which entails changes in wisdom, intelligence, problem-solving, perception. Finally, language, social, and emotional domain looks at changes in self-perception, emotions, and interpersonal associations with family members who surround a baby in the early stages (Kuhl, 2007). All these domains influence one another, and if a change occurs from one, it affected the other domains. We will major explore social and communicative development in infancy and early childhood and relate these scenarios to the developmental theories.

Development of a child thinking is characterized by the ability to change (plasticity). Without plasticity, there can be no development of a child’s thinking, language, and behavior (Kuhl, 2007). Development is influenced by genes and the environment that the kid lives. Development in infancy occurs from birth to two years, and in early childhood, it occurs from 3-5 years of age.

Back then, I visited my sister, who had 14 months of an infant. Baby Shantel would do a lot of things to capture our attention. What most interests me is the way she used to point at things indicating that she wants them; the pointing becomes like a way of her socialization to other people. Shantel knew how to use non-verbal cues to gets someone’s attention and knew the right person to point in different situations. Until she learned how to communicate and socialize verbally, that was the means of communication, even if she needed you to give her the toy.

According to the attachment theory of the development of social skills, Infants interact with people close to them, and this is how they develop social and emotional skills. Every stage and month of an infant, social and emotional milestones have to occur. It is through the attachment theory we see kids clinging to people who stay with them mostly. It comes to the point that when these close people have to go, the baby responds by crying. Babies also cry when they see a stranger whom they rarely see. The crying is because of less attachment to the unknown people who are not familiar at all. These close attachments make the baby develop social interactions by familiar people to the point of even shaking head to show acceptance of something.

Behavioral Theory

According to behavioral theory, children’s behavior is defined by the environments surrounding them. Babies might cry a lot and be nervous when they stay for a long period at home and then all of a sudden the mother takes them to another place such as visiting a friend in the town where there are crowds of people. These movements change a child’s behavior of being cool and happy to a different person who stays crying, sleeps for a few hours, and always shows nervousness because of fear. But if environments are often changed, such as visiting places, going to church, attending group gatherings, these environments make the baby adopt, and their behavior remains constant. Fearing less makes the babies develop socially, and their thought is expounded, which results in cognitive development in return.

Cognitive Theory

According to Piaget’s cognitive developmental theories, which is concerned with developments of thoughts of an infant, it gives a view of how processes of thought influence one’s understanding and interaction with the rest of the world. Piaget argues that children think in a different way than adults. This theory tries to explain how processes of thoughts and mental states (Siegler, 2016).

According to this theory, a child develops in the following stages, sensorimotor stage in this a phase between birth and two years of age and this period the world seems limited according to the infant’s motor activities and sensory perceptions (Siegler, 2016). The other stage of cognitive development is the preoperational stage, the period from 2-6 years of age. In this stage, the child is unable to take someone’s point of view of something and cannot comprehend what was meant by the other person. These are the stages of infant and young childhood that helps a child to develop thinking skills. For example, Shantel’s mum says to Shantel dont joke with fire as a warning not to make mistakes since there will be consequences, but Shantel thinks her mum is talking of the real fire at home. It is through these stages of cognitive development that a child can develop from seeing the world as limited to the point where she/he knows to make compound sentences and learn someone’s thoughts.

Social Learning Theory

The stages of infant development also include social learning and growth. According to Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, it is believed that the reinforcement and conditioning process can not adequately explain the learning of a human. Bandura believes that learning is achieved by observing and modeling (Bandura & Hall, 2018). When a child observes the actions of his/her parent, it makes it easy to gain new skills and get further information. An example is when mum Shantel goes to cook, Shantel on the other hand, copies such action and collects tins and tries to do cooking using sand to act as rice and grass to act as vegetables. I believe infants and young children copy the actions of their closest people. Bandura continues to say that observation is also vital in a child’s learning, but this observation does not need to be from watching models who are alive. Listening also contributes to learning. Listening to people is how the infant who cannot talk gets to learn and develop even speech from this.

These two theories of Piaget and Bandura helps a child to develop talking skills from thoughts, listening, and observations. It is through these theories that we get to know that communication and thoughts of a child grow from one stage to another, thus acts as a continuous process. It is through these process of cognitive and social developments that builds a child’s ability to communicate and socialize with others in the world. There can be no communication if the thought, observation, and learning how to talk if there were not there.

In conclusion, child development stages are connected, and to get to a higher stage, the child will pass through others at the back. Talking to a baby and reading to the baby helps him/her to develop language easily, gain thoughts, and start socialization at an early age. It is through such efforts that prevent delayed milestones of babies.