Patterns of development can be referred to as the emotional, psychological and biological changes that happen in human beings from birth and until the end of adolescence stage (Shaw et al. 677). It is a perpetual process with foreseeable sequences though it is valuable for every child. Typically patterns of development do not advance at an even rate, and every stage is impacted by the previous type of development. Development in human beings occurs due to genetic factors leading to maturation. Also, learning and environmental factors play a role in the development of children. Typically, the first five years of children's life are incredible for learning and growth. Having knowledge on the rapid alterations in the development of children is important as it helps caregivers and parents to participate actively and purposively in promoting early learning as a foundation for advanced learning. Therefore, this study explains the external effects on short-term and long-term cognitive, social, and physical development in children.
Changes in development is a life process that every person undergoes though it is unique for every individual. Even though some principles and assumptions are universally accepted on child development, there is no scenario of similar development evidence in two children. Normally, children differ in social, cognitive, emotional, and physical growth patterns. They are also, different in the manner they respond and interact with their environment, affection and other important factors that influence the overall development. For instance, some kids may appear to be energetic and happy at all times whereas others may seem to have an unpleasant personality (Flynn, Foley, and Vinnitskaya 8). Also, some kids may be quiet while others are active always. In other circumstance, you find that it is easier to manage some children whereas it is hard to handle their counterparts. An understanding of various sequences in growth patterns among children can aid us to give the necessary attention to children with a different personality.
Children Development
As mentioned earlier development is the change or growth that happens in children from birth to adolescence. Often, these changes occur in a systematic sequence, involving cognitive, emotional, and physical development (Shaw et al. 677). These are the three key areas of child growth that includes several developmental changes which occur in a predictable pattern.
Physical Development
This involves physical body changes like in weight, size, bone thickness, hearing, vision, fine motor, gross motor as well as perceptual development. Normally, development is speedy throughout the first two years of life. When physical changes happen, the gains more abilities. From birth to five years, physical growth entails the baby motor skills. The newborn recaps motor actions thus, helping to build motor coordination and physical strength.
Reflexes
At birth, babies have reflexes at their unique physical capability. A reflex can be referred to an automatic body reaction to a stimulus, and it happens involuntarily. For instance, a good example of a continuous reflex for a lifetime is blinking. Some reflexes appear during infancy and later disappears after some weeks or months from birth. When reflexes occur at birth, it is a sign of healthy nerve and brain development. Thus, the absence of normal reflexes at birth creates suspicion of brain and nerve damage. Some kinds of reflexes like sucking and rooting are fundamental for survival. Firstly, the rooting reflex makes the baby move their head to anything that comes across their faces. Therefore, rooting is a significant survival reflex that enables infants to locate food like a nipple. Also, when something comes near a newborn's lip, he or she begins to suck. Therefore, this reflex is also crucial in getting the infants food.
Cognitive development
This refers to the way kids think (reason), solve problems, acquire knowledge as well as develop language skills. Examples of cognitive tasks include knowing to differentiate colors, ability to differentiate one and many as well as expressing similarities in things. Typically, kids learn through their interactions with different people and senses like touch, smelling, taste, hearing, feeling and seeing. As children continue gaining knowledge about the world, their cognitive ability advances, and this is evident when they play, interact with other people, use language, as well as their skills of constructing materials and objects.
Social-Emotional Development
Emotion development involves the ability to express feeling about something more especially about oneself, others and the surrounding. This is the reason social and emotional development are studied as one because of their close relation to the growth pattern. Feelings of fear, trust, friendship, confidence and humor are examples of social-emotional development in children. Also, self-esteem and self-concept are emotional traits evident during child development (Lenroot and Giedd 721). Therefore, the relationship of trust and care that emerge between adults and kids serve as an essential foundation for personality development and emotional development. Moreover, when a child is not shown love, rejected and neglected, he or she feels insecure thus making it hard to develop some skills like that of socializing with other people.
Adults conduct an assessment of children from day-to-day. They often come up with judgments about learning and development in children through the use of the information they gather. On the other hand, kids make decisions on what seems enjoyable and good. Assessing patterns of development in children can help the adults to understand, what kids can be able to do, how they think, as well as their interests. Information acquired during the assessment, can help grownups to create informative stories of children thus inspiring them to pursue further development and learning. Typically, assessment of learning and assessment for learning are two different approaches. The two are distinct in the manner that they are used to collect information. The key drive to the utilization of an assessment of learning is to help in informing other parties like professionals and parents about the achievement of children. Assessment for learning emphases on using information collected from assessment to assist children to progress in learning and development.
The two approaches are essential as they help in the assessment of development on a daily basis. Also, adults can assess patterns of development in children by using for actions as follows. Firstly, they can use dispositions to assessment development of kids. This entails looking into aspects like concentration level, resilience, curiosity, and perseverance. It is so easy for an adult to assess these issues when interacting with a child. This can help the adults to evaluate the abilities of children to learning and development. Also, skills like cutting, talking, problem-solving and writing can be used to assess development in children. In many cases, you will find that children, who are sharp, have the abilities to develop new skills with fewer difficulties. On the other hand, some kids may take more time to develop new skills due to their slow learning abilities. Identifying skills can help teachers and parents to nurture talents among children.
Conceivably, adults can use values and attitude in assessing learning and development in children. For instance, they can observe on matters relating to dignity and for others, care for the environments as well as their attitude towards learning. Attitudes and values tell a lot about the development of a child (Lenroot and Giedd 725). In most cases, the way a child is brought about and the environment determines how one will behave. This is the reason adults try to assess behavior so as to take necessary steps to rectify messes before they develop to become a child's personality in the future. Lastly, an assessment can be undertaken by focusing on the understanding and knowledge of the children. This can be achieved through the evaluation on how kids can differentiate thing like the color as well as relate things in their surroundings.
Work Cited
Shaw, Philip, et al. "Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents." Nature 440.7084 (2006): 676-679.
Lenroot, Rhoshel K., and Jay N. Giedd. "Brain development in children and adolescents: insights from anatomical magnetic resonance imaging." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 30.6 (2006): 718-729.
Flynn, Suzanne, Claire Foley, and Inna Vinnitskaya. "The cumulative-enhancement model for language acquisition: Comparing adults' and children's patterns of development in first, second and third language acquisition of relative clauses." International Journal of Multilingualism 1.1 (2004): 3-16.
