In early childhood, as parents and family, we see changes in our young ones. It's very exciting but yet sometimes parents handle the growth of our children different. As parents, we tend to want our child to develop faster and better than others but we can't force this upon the children. As summarized in the reading, statistics show the rate of physical growth slows in early childhood, instead, continues at a steady pace. In other words, pushing children to physically grow faster is counterproductive. While motor skills are getting more refined as the child gets older. Development in cognitive in early childhood is in other words known as Piaget's theory in which we expect them to obtain and control symbols they may see or hear. Finally, early childhoods development in language becomes a powerful tool for adjusting to the environment and world around them.
In middle childhood, changes in development take a big step. Children can accommodate material at a different level. Their thought processes are so much quicker and understanding has grown to a level in which they can have a conversation successfully with children their own age and parents. Although as said thinking and understanding is better, they still have problems understanding subjects in school such as reading, math, etc. During this growth in development, the children tend to want to use their abilities in which they know how to. Using their abilities is a great thing, getting them active in the world helps them but we must realize the world to them is like a whole new world because they are socially active in it.
It is so true that parents push their children to become bigger and better than others and early/middle childhood is probably the time it begins. So many parents want their children to become the next big thing and have a tendency to put pressure on them, causing stress. I can remember as a swimmer, certain parents were extremely hard on their kids if they did not perform well. This is probably why children can begin to feel self-conscious about themselves and end up hating the activity they are involved in. Great point made Joey!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Joey.
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point about parents tending to "push" their children and handling the "growth of our children different." Parents usually always want the best for their children and do tend to "push" their children to do more or perform better. I believe I understand what you mean when you say, "pushing children to physically grow faster is counterproductive," though physical growth can't necessarily be altered by parents. I do tend to see families with more then one child place more expectations and responsibilities on the older child. I think its a multifaceted situation where the older sibling wants to do more and take on a sort of "teaching" or "parenting" role with the younger sibling, but also that the parent needs and expects the older sibling to assist. I think that as additional children enter the family unit, parents are learning from their previous experiences or tend to become less cautious (for lack of a better word) with each additional child.
I think it's important for parents to reinforce in their children that everyone grows and develops at a different pace, and that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Failure is important for children to experience so that they can learn from it. Failure allows us the opportunity to realize what we need to work and improve upon, and should not be a discouragement for children. This seems to be way too prevalent lately when children give up or throw tantrums or quit when they make a mistake or don't do as well as they had hoped to. This middle childhood is such an important developmental period for children.