The Observation on Ages 3 to 5

The Observation on Ages 3 to 5

Cognitive Development

At the ages of 3 to 5, a lot of development in cognitive skills occurs. The preschoolers start to improve on their abilities and begin to be imaginative. Their abilities to recall concepts begin to develop more and more as their age increases, of course, with a few isolated cases. The children in this age group possess the ability to share ideas and opinions in an improved and a better way. Their ability to analyze, ordering, contrasting, comparing and creating new concepts improve significantly at this age. The preschoolers also engage themselves in more sophisticated games and role plays that denotes high mental capability application. Their minds, thinking, routines, and reasoning majorly concentrate on the concept of learning through play. Their capabilities of deriving and remembering ideas from the daily routines increase in strength now and then (Curry & Arnaud, 2018).

From the observation of a child in this particular age group, the stated facts are evident in the manner in which the child under observation conducted herself. The girl could count up to five objects, draw a person in more than three body parts, and could comfortably analyze a book by turning the pages one by one. The pretense game involved being a doctor and diagnosing her doll with fever as well as giving the medication, and food. All these observations demonstrate the fact that cognitive skills and abilities are more developed and sophisticated compared to the previous age groups.

The cognitive development at this stage relates to other domains of development in several ways. First, in contacting their activities, the children move around a lot, stretching their muscles, increasing their strength, and sharpening their sights, which in the long run leads to physical development. The children at this age are subjected to new toys and the need to share their views and ideas to the caregivers or their peers. As a consequence of these facts, more vocabulary and words are added to the existing language that, in the end, leads to further development of the language at this particular age group. Finally, the preschoolers are highly socializers and possess the ability and the language to share what and how they feel to the caregivers or peers. The like role playing and pretense games that lead to increased social-emotional development (Tandon et al. 2016).

Social-emotional Development

In truth, the condition of mental health, as well as the emotional status of a toddler, infant, and child, contains a substantial effect on their future relationships. Children in possession of an excellent healthy mental and emotional condition, and under normal circumstances end up leading a thriving social life. At the ages between 3 and 5, children are starting to establish themselves fully as emotional beings. Consequently, they are learning, and more so, sharing their feeling amongst themselves or to their caregivers. However, social-emotional development denotes a lot more than just responding and passing of information on how these children feel. The development of this kind actively involves the ability of the preschoolers to independently exercise a routine, put their emotions in check, interact positively with their age mates and friends as well as feeling positive about themselves (Black et al. 2017). It is essential for every child to have these social skills in order to foster general growth.

In the observation of child who is a preschooler these skills emerged evidently. First, the child imitated and copied pretty everything that their caregivers did. For instance washing hands, cleaning the compound and so on. The show of affection towards peers and caregivers is also a standout observation noted and conducted by the child. For instance, the child demonstrated pity and concern when one of the peers cried. The child also displayed vital understanding of the concept of possession like ‘hers’, ‘theirs’, ‘mine’, and ‘his’. The induced and initiated role play more so, the game of a family setting assigning themselves roles for instance, a boy was given the role of being a dad. The observations are in check with the fact that at this age, children contain advanced social and emotional skills.

Social-emotional development at this level also relates with the other developmental domains in children’s tender age lives. It contribute to physical development by initiating growth of brains as well as physique. As they move around socializing, and conceptualizing the elements of this development domain their physical and brain growth is stimulated more. Language also is developed due to the introduction of new social and emotional concepts which increases their word count and vocabulary. Finally, the cognitive development occurs when the children become aware of themselves, and attain the ability to think creatively and independently on social matters in attempt to offer solution for a task or a problem or in event of initiation of role play (Tandon et al. 2016).

Language Development

Communication is vital in the growth and development of toddlers, infants and generally in children. Among the preschoolers, the use of language to communicate is common. In addition, the children between the ages of 3 to 5 employ the use of gestures, sounds and facial expressions to communicate information and elements that they lack words and vocabulary for them. At this level the vocabulary and word count that these children can use range from 500 words to almost 2000 words. More so, the language and communication among these children improves and grow with utmost speed. The sentence that they construct are more complex and consist of 3 and more words. They have the ability to put more than one idea in one sentence. Their communication and language contain events that happened in the recent past, current events as well as the expected events (Trawick-Smith & Smith, 2014).

From the observation of the child aged 4 the stated features became evident. The child had the ability to follow guidelines and communicate in more than two steps. The child named things around him with ease and confidence. The child had the ability to recite a poem from memory without missing a line. He could clearly distinguish between the plural and singular words. The child conversed using an average of 3 sentences while making a statement and presenting his case. The child also informed how he poured water on himself the previous night, and expected his grandmother the following day. These observation clearly cement the tremendous development in terms of language used and how they use it to communicate. They communicate with simple clarity, understands almost everything within their disposal and more so have the ability to apply grammatical regulations.

Language and communication is vital and share an interdependent relationship with the other development domains. Language give these children the words to communicate their emotions, ideas, demonstrate social awareness, and increase and show value and self-acceptance. By doing that, language proves to be vital in promoting cognitive, and social-emotional development. Using gestures, and expressions to communicate also lead to physical and brain growth (Tandon et al. 2016).

Physical Development

At this level of ages between 3 and 5, children experience continuous increase in their muscles, weights, heights and the growth of the size of their parents. In comparison with the infants and toddlers in the previous age groups, the preschoolers are leaner as well longer. Their body parts including their legs, heads, arms and trunks undergoes continued growth. Their brains and mental capacities continues to enlarge, develop and grow as their physique also grows. The start performing activities and event that are more physically asserting, and which they could have found it difficult to partake as toddlers. For instance, the children can start climbing, skipping, running, using tools such as scissors, and stringing of beads among many more activities. However, development with the physique of these children is specific to individuals. It implies that even though most children demonstrate and exhibits these features at this level, there are others who might seem to be more mature with extensive physique while other might not (Black et al. 2017).

In the observation of a child in this category, category the stated features emerged. The child easily climbed on the objects like chairs and tables. He run up and down in the compound. The boy also pedaled a tricycle with easy, and seemed like an expert on it. The child used a pair of scissors to cut piece of paper into different shapes. During play time, the child could confidently catch a bouncing ball, and could also stand supported by one foot for up to 20 seconds. It was interesting to witness the child perform a somersault on his own, and no scare or injury detected. All these observations evidently demonstrates the physical development that has occurred to reach to complex level at this category compared to prior age groups.

The physical development domain relates with other growth and development dimensions in same simple way. Most children, and according to the approved milestones, behave have their age. This implies that children interests, thinking capacities, language and their social relations improve to sophisticated levels as they experience physical growth. More so, the vocabulary and language develop since the preschoolers are often presented with new concepts, ideas and levels of socialization that usually comes with different and new words to them (Tandon et al. 2016).

References

Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu, C., … & Devercelli, A. E. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), 77-90.

Curry, N. E., & Arnaud, S. H. (2018). Play in developmental preschool settings. In Child’s play (pp. 272-290). Routledge.

Tandon, P. S., Tovar, A., Jayasuriya, A. T., Welker, E., Schober, D. J., Copeland, K., … & Ward, D. S. (2016). The relationship between physical activity and diet and young children’s cognitive development: A systematic review. Preventive medicine reports, 3, 379-390.

Trawick-Smith, J. W., & Smith, T. (2014). Early childhood development: A multicultural perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.