Developmental stages and human growth

Child Development

Jean Piaget described the developmental stages for children as the "Sensorimotor Stage" (infancy), "Pre-operational Stage" (Toddler and Early Childhood), "Concrete Operational Stage" (Elementary through early adolescence), and "Formal Operational Stage" (later adolescence and adulthood). Piaget also described the emotional, social, intellectual and physical changes that took place at each stage. Early childhood teachers must understand these stages if they are to provide developmentally appropriate activities for the children in their charge.

The Sensiomotor Stage is important to early childhood educators because in some preschools, they will have children enrolled who are still in this stage while approaching the Pre-operational (toddler) Stage. At the beginning, infants display only simple biological reflexes related to strong biological needs, such as sucking. At the end of this stage, however, the children have begun to show pride in accomplishments, are becoming independent from their parents and even developing the beginnings of self-control (World Bank, 2002).

Intellectually, these children perform cognitively without using symbols, through physical activity and the beginnings of language skill. At about seven months of age they develop the concept of object permanence (Huitt & Hummel, 2003), or the understanding that things exist even when out of their sight. By eight months of age they realize they can move objects themselves (Staff writers, 2004), and enjoy using objects that respond to such movements, such as rattles (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

By 12 to 18 months of age, children have the image of objects stored in their minds, and will search for desired items when they are not in sight (Staff writers, 2004).

By 24 months, however, an age when some children start preschool programs, the beginnings of symbolic thought often has begun, and the child understands that images can stand for objects. They are familiar images. This skill, called "mediation," (Staff writers, 2004) begins the shift from thinking only concretely to thinking somewhat abstractly about the world as well. This step begins the processes that will allow the child to think about objects when they are not present, imitate things and even memorize (Staff writers, 2004). It expands the child's ability to understand how things exist while out of sight. It also lays the groundwork for goal-focused behavior.

Children at this age start actively experimenting with objects. These developments allow them to learn new things more easily, make choices, and learn their favorite songs (World Bank, 2002). It also encourages the development of a longer attention span (World Bank, 2002). These developments dovetail with the acquisition of significant new levels of language skills, and allows the child to gradually develop pre-reading and pre-writing skills.

Physiological growth during this period enhances emotional and intellectual development (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). The child gradually develops increased fine and gross motor skills (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Socially, the child's language skills allow the child to expand social skills. Parallel play and the beginnings of cooperative play emerge at the end of this stage. The child will begin to ask many questions, demonstrating a new level of object constancy that allows the child to learn about objects in many dimensions (World Bank, 2002).

The Pre-0perational Stage, however, is the stage that will most concern preschool teachers. It is a period of tremendous emotional, intellectual, physical, and social growth covering the ages of about 2 1/2 to 7 years old, the age most children enter pre-school, kindergarten and first grade. One of Piaget's most important conclusions about this age was the strong development of symbolic thought (Staff writers, 2004).

Emotionally, children at this stage learn to use words to tell how they're feeling as well as to cope with those feelings, to problem-solve (World Bank, 2002), and as the major way of interacting with parents, with teachers, and with peers. It is at this age that their sense of personal competency begins to significantly develop (World Bank, 2002). Emotionally they are still ego-centric, seeing and interpreting events from their own perspectives (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

Cognitively, they use language symbolically. Memory and imagination develop more, but thinking is pre-logical and is often magical in nature.

Early signs of the interplay between symbolic thinking and imagination might be if a child pretends that a broom is a horse (Staff writers, 2004). By age 3 or 4, children can use objects to represent other people or things, such as using a stone or stick to represent specific individuals in imaginative play (Staff writers, 2004). Children this age can begin to think through the actions they want to perform, using language, before doing them (Staff writers, 2004). Curiosity about the world increases, and interest in letters and numbers increases (World Bank, 2002). At the end of this stage, children begin to acquire reading and math skills.

Physiologically and socially the children's skills explode. Combined with emotional and cognitive developments, children can begin some simple team sports toward the end of this stage. Children develop real, solid friendships (World Bank, 2002) although they will still have difficulty seeing events from another person's point-of-view (Staff writers, 2004). It is during this period that they really learn to take turn, play cooperatively, and share (World Bank, 2002).

These facts about children's development have important implications for the classroom. Many parents have seen a child open a holiday or birthday present that was too advanced for the child, and then observed that the child plays with the box instead of the toy. Developmental stages cannot be rushed. While a Pre-Operational child may show some interest in letters and numbers, this does not mean that the child has developed sufficient memory, symbolic and language skills to be taught how to read. While a few children may be accelerated in development of those areas, the majority are not, and such development cannot be forced upon them. First come the developmental skills, and then the instruction using those skills can follow.

This means that the preschool environment will have to have a wide variety off materials available for the children's use that reflect the fact that each child will vary in what he or she is ready to do. This means that a good preschool classroom will contain, for instance, a wide variety of difficulty levels for puzzles, from simply placing one object in its cut out shape to puzzles that may require the child to put four, eight, or even more pieces together, to accommodate the development of all the children present.