Child Development

Child Development

Child Development is a topic a teacher will come across daily. As a teacher it is your job to assess students on their ability to grasp both abstract and concrete thoughts. Understanding the development stages will help to identify the course structure. 

When you type in cognitive development stages of children in any search engine you will surely come across Jean Piaget. He is considered by many to be the ?Father of Developmental Psychology.? His key concepts are assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, and schemata.

Assimilation occurs when the brain uses existing structures to deal with the new event. Adults and children alike use this in daily activities. When a new piece of information is given to us. 

Accommodation is when the internal reality has to adjust to fit the external reality. 

Equilibration is the brains desire to make sense of what the brain believes and reality. 

Schemata is where the brain begins to see patterns and organize thoughts to better understand the external reality. 

The cycle begins much like learning physics. First, your brain tries to understand the information with the tools at hand, assimilation. Only to find that the tools are not at hand. So the brain makes and accommodation by trying to develop the tools to understand the problem. As we begin to understand the problem and the solution and both the internal reality and external reality match we have reached equilibrium. Last stage of this is schemata, which allows the brain to categorize the information for use in future assimilation. 

The key concepts above span all ages. . Piaget’s theories on cognitive development in children are broken down into four stages. Sensorimotor, (birth-2 yrs.), Preoperational (2-7 yrs.), Concrete operational (7-11yrs.), and Formal operational (adolescence to adulthood). We will talk about Concrete operational and Formal operational as our most likely audience.

The Concrete operational stage normally develops between 7-11. In this stage the use of logic and understanding of concrete objects. The student will think of external factors such current events.

Formal operational is from 12 through adulthood. This stage the student can think of abstract ideas and form new concepts. Piaget believed that this process was a continuing process. 

This information has not told you the teacher how this affects the classroom. As a teacher with students in the Concrete stage you will have to present ideas in a step-by-step format. Students at this stage rely on concrete ideas and logical thinking. Of course at this level students attention span may be limited. So keep the lesson plan varied. 

The Formal Operational stage teacher will have a variety of things to deal with in the classroom. At this age you have to deal with the physical development of the student. This stage will pose the greatest difficulty. As a teacher you have to be careful not single out a student as their self-esteem is lacking at this age. The good part is they are capable of hypothetical questions and explain why a base verb changes in the past simple form. 

Child development is constantly changing. It is the teacher’s job to understand the basic development stages so they match the lesson. 

Child Development

Introduction: 

This paper is especially geared to those parents or teachers who want to teach their non-English speaking children to speak English. I get so many parents who ask me, ?Can you teach my child English, please?. In this paper I would like to give these parents and the teachers some guidelines in teaching their children to speak English at a very early age. 

When to start to teach a child English? As soon as possible: Some people might be wondering if one can really teach a child from small to speak more than one language. My answer is a definite, ‘Yes’. One should start as early as possible, so that it will become part of his DNA of language acquisition. And don’t worry; you won’t confuse him with more than one language. He is more than clever enough to discern the different languages that he is exposed to and reply in the language that you speak to him. The key is to give him a lot of exposure to English; to speak as often as possible to him, even if he is too young to respond. All the effort will later bear fruit when suddenly out comes this treasure of English vocabulary that he has build up over time. Another important factor is not to try and force him to speak in English, let it come naturally! They will tell you when they are ready by just spontaneously starting to use it whenever it is appropriate for them. 

How to teach a child English? The parent has one of two choices: To send him for formal English education at a school or English-speaking club, or to teach him yourself. Both could be valuable and the wise parent would most probably use a combination of the two. Because children in general enjoy listening to stories, I think story telling should be at the heart of English education. Tell them stories as much as possible. They will later memorize it and re-tell it to you! Also, as their ability to write in English increases, let them write as much as possible on any subject that they are interested in. Some children are better in verbal expression and we tend to reward that, but what about those who are better in creative writing? Are we providing avenues for them to express themselves and reward them for doing so? One area to be careful at is in correcting their English. Children can often not distinguish between personal criteria and performance criteria. Carefully stress where the language problem is, but at the same time affirm the child for the effort he has put into the assignment. It is also important to motivate a child by teaching him to compare himself to himself, and not to other children. A motivated child will learn much faster and will even take initiative to develop on his own if enough affirmation is given. 

Resources to help in teaching English to children The child should be encouraged to read as much as possible English children books. It is of utter importance that the child has to expand his vocabulary continuously, which will also give him a better ability to express himself in English. And reading can really increase that. It is not in vain that the Japanese proverb says, ‘Un- worked field: empty stomachs, unread books empty heads’. Make sure that he always has reading material available, and that it is not somewhere in a bookshelf out of his reach! Let him choose what he wants to read, so that he does not get bored with the books. Parents and teachers should also read together with the children so that they can see it is such an important activity that you are willing to give of your precious time to it. Watching English TV programs or videos could also be helpful, but this must be done under proper guidance. The parent or teacher could ask the child to explain what he saw on the program or to re-tell the story to you. Listening to English children songs and explaining the meaning is also a very useful tool. And of course playing games in English, and let the children act out stories in English will be some of their most favorite learning activities. 

Learning another language like English will help children to develop faster. Your child will be forever grateful to you for teaching him to understand the language of the Internet, for future research and study purposes and for corresponding in our ever-increasing English speaking world. Above all, learning another language will stretch his mind and will increase his comprehension and intellect, which is one of the biggest favors you can do for your child.