GROUP PROFED 1

EARLY
CHILDHOOD
TABLE OF
CONTENTS

02 Early childhood

04 Importance of Early
Childhood

05 Physical Development
in Early Childhood

06 Growth in the
Hemispheres and Corpus
Callosum
07 Motor Skill
Development

08 Socio-Emotional
Development under Early
Childhood
10 Cognitive Development
in Early Childhood

12 Information Processing

Applications to Early
14 Education

GROUP 3

01
EARLY GROUP 3

CHILDHOOD

Early childhood experiences can have

physical, social, and emotional effects that
last a lifetime. While a young child's early
experiences and environment can help put
them on a stronger course for the rest of
their lives, traumatic events or
circumstances can have a permanent,
negative effect.

Birth to age eight early childhood experiences have an impact on how the brain
develops, laying the groundwork for all future learning, behaviour, and health.
Children who have a solid foundation are better able to acquire the abilities
necessary to function as adults.

02
There is a period of rapid brain growth from birth and age three in particular, during which
billions of connections between individual neurons are formed. There must be mechanisms
and interventions available from birth to facilitate that development.

Early life events have a significant impact on how the brain develops in children. Good
development is encouraged by exposure to supportive settings, stable and responsive
relationships with parents and other adults, and other positive circumstances.

EARLY
If you've ever spent time with kids, you know
what incredible learners they are. They seem

CHILDHOOD
to pick up new words and skills at a hundred
miles per hour. Young toddlers acquire and
assimilate knowledge simultaneously in many
different ways.

For instance, a toddler is also learning speech,

observing social signs, and learning how to
express their emotions while they gain crucial
physical skills and coordination. How much
those small minds can process at once is
amazing. This is only one of the numerous
factors that make early childhood education
so crucial.

Parents have undoubtedly already heard a lot

about some of these developmental
milestones for children. As children grow,
doctors, teachers, and other professionals who
work with children keep an eye out for
significant changes. Even if you've done your
research on early infant development, it can
be difficult to keep track of significant
anniversaries.

GROUP3 03
 IMPORTANCE OF EARLY GROUP 3

CHILDHOOD
The First 6 Years Are Crucial

There is compelling evidence to suggest that the first six years of

a child's existence are the most formative years of their lives. The
learning rate slows after the first six years. The first six years of a
child's life are when the brain grows the fastest. More quickly than
at any other time in their life, neurons are growing. Children can
learn so many languages at once because of this, while adults
find it more harder to do so.
Learning Difficulties Can Be
Identified Early

Children occasionally experience learning issues, and the

sooner you spot these issues, the easier it will be to cure them.
Early detection of a child's difficulties will allow you to offer more
support. You can speak with a specialist to receive a reliable
diagnosis and treatment strategy. Early intervention might often
assist to solve the problem before it becomes worse.

Builds Positive Experiences

A youngster will have a good attitude on life and be more

optimistic regardless of their circumstances the more positive
experiences they have in their early years. Additionally, it will
support their growth in self-assurance and high self-esteem.

Builds Solid Relationships

Your relationship with your kids as a parent will be their

introduction to relationships. The quality of your relationship
with your child will have a major impact on how they conduct
their future relationships. They'll observe you and take notes on
everything you do. If you have healthy interactions, they will pick
up on how to communicate and develop relationships with
others as well. But the inverse is also accurate. Your behaviour
around your children will teach them how to behave around
others as well.
04
 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD
Physical development refers to the advancements and refinements of motor skills,
or, in other words, children's abilities to use and control their bodies. Physical
development is one of the many domains of infant and toddler development.
Physical development in early childhood encompasses gross motor skills and fine
motor skills, two of the five key areas of development that are important for young
children

GROWTH IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 years
tend to grow about 3 inches in height each
year and gain about 4 to 5 pounds in
weight each year. The 3 year old is very
similar to a toddler with a large head, large
stomach, short arms and legs. But by the
time the child reaches age 6, the torso has
VISUAL PATHWAYS lengthened and body proportions have
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 become more like those of adults. The
years tend to grow about 3 inches in average 6 year old weighs approximately
height each year and gain about 4 to 5 46 pounds and is about 46 inches in height.
pounds in weight each year. The 3 year This growth rate is slower than that of
old is very similar to a toddler with a infancy.
large head, large stomach, short arms
and legs. But by the time the child
reaches age 6, the torso has lengthened
and body proportions have become
more like those of adults. The average 6
year old weighs approximately 46
pounds and is about 46 inches in height.
This growth rate is slower than that of
infancy.

GROUP 3 05
 GROWTH IN THE HEMISPHERES
AND CORPUS CALLOSUM
Growth in the Hemispheres and Corpus
Callosum: Between ages 3 and 6, the
left hemisphere of the brain grows
dramatically. This side of the brain or
hemisphere is typically involved in
language skills. The right hemisphere
continues to grow throughout early
childhood and is involved in tasks that
require spatial skills, such as
recognizing shapes and patterns. The
Corpus Callosum, a dense band of
fibers that connects the two
hemispheres of the brain, contains
approximately 200 million nerve fibers
that connect the hemispheres (Kolb &
Whishaw, 2011).

MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Early childhood is a time when children are especially attracted to motion and song. Days
are filled with jumping, running, swinging and clapping and every place becomes a
playground. Even the booth at a restaurant affords the opportunity to slide around in the
seat or disappear underneath and imagine being a sea creature in a cave! Of course, this
can be frustrating to a caregiver, but it’s the business of early childhood.

Gross Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills

What are Gross Motor Skills? Gross
Fine motor skills involve the use of
motor skills are the abilities required to
control the muscles of the body for the smaller muscle of the hands,
large movements such as crawling, commonly in activities like using
walking, jumping, running, and more. pencils, scissors, construction with
They also include higher level skills lego or duplo, doing up buttons and
such as climbing, skipping, and
opening lunch boxes.
throwing and catching a ball.

06
 GROUP 3

SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Self-stimulation is common in early childhood for both boys and girls. Curiosity
about the body and about others’ bodies is a natural part of early childhood as
well. Consider this example. A girl asks her mother: “So it’s okay to see a boy’s
privates as long as it’s the boy’s mother or a doctor?” The mother hesitates a bit
and then responds, “Yes. I think that’s alright.” “Hmmm,” the girl begins, “When
I grow up, I want to be a doctor!” While this subject can feel uncomfortable to
deal with, caregivers can teach children to be safe and know what is appropriate
without frightening them or causing shame.

07
 SOCIO-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
UNDER EARLY CHILDHOOD
In this stage of development, children's understanding on themselves
and their role in the world expands greatly. That expanding of
themselves and others develops with stage

SOCIAL MILESTONE
3 years old
Dresses and undresses self
Shows concern for crying friend
Copies adults and friends
Understands the idea of mine,
his and her

4 years old
Enjoys doing new things
Would rather play with others
than by self
Creative with make-believe play
Plays mom or dad

5 years old
Is aware of gender
Shows more independence
Wants to please friends
Likes to sing, dance, or act

08

D. Gender Identity, Gender constancy,
A. Self-esteem - Early childhood is a time
and Gender Roles - Preschool-aged
of forming initial sense of self. Self
children become increasingly interested in
esteem is an evaluative
finding out the differences between boys
judgement about who we are. The
and girls physically or what it means to be
emergence of cognitive skills
male or female. This self-identification or
improved perception of self, but
gender identity will gain knowledge that
tend to focus
gender does not change
on external quality. For example,
E. Relationship with Parents, Siblings,
when you asked them to describe
themselves, they tend to include
and Peers
physical e1. Parents - Parenting styles change from
description such as preferred one child to the next. It can also be affected
activities or favorite possession like by concerns the parents has. For example,
coloring books and dolls or toys parents tend to be more authorative when
B. Self control - The ability to not children are more energetic
initiate a behavior before you have e2. Siblings - Siblings play an important
evaluated all of the information role in the development of social skills.
C. Erickson : Initiative vs. Guilt Interactions between younger and older
Psychologist - Children can achieve siblings can teach empathy, sharing, and
initiative when they are placed in an cooperation as well as negotiation and
environment where she/he can conflict resolution
explore and make decision. On the e3. Peers - Social interaction with
other hand, if children is put in an another child who is in similar age,
environment when initiation is skills, and knowledge provokes the
repressed, she/he will develop a development ofany social skills that
sense of guilt are valuable for the rest of life. They
learn how to initiate and maintain
social interaction with other children.
For example, they learn how to
manage conflict such as turn-taking,
GROUP 3 compromise, and bargaining
F. Play - It means to release pent-up
emotion for children and to deal with
emotionally distressing situations in a
more secure environment. Play is also
a way of children developing their
intellectual abilities

EMOTIONAL
MILESTONE 09
 A child’s cognitive development during early
childhood, which includes building skills such
GROUP 3
as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, and
numeracy, begins from the moment a child is
born. Early childhood is a time of pretending,
blending fact and fiction, and learning to think
of the world using language. As young
children move away from needing to touch,
feel, and hear about the world toward
learning some basic principles about how the
EARLY CHILDHOOD

world works, they hold some pretty interesting

initial ideas. For example, while adults have no
DEVELOPMENT IN

concerns with taking a bath, a child of three

might genuinely worry about being sucked
down the drain.
A child might protest if told that something will
happen “tomorrow” but be willing to accept
COGNITIVE

an
explanation that an event will occur “today
after we sleep.” Or the young child may ask,
“How long are we staying? From here to here?”
while pointing to two points on a table.
Concepts such as tomorrow, time, size and
distance are not easy to grasp at this young
age. Understanding size, time, distance, fact
and fiction are all tasks that are part of
cognitive development in the preschool years.

10
MILESTONES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
IThe many theories of cognitive development and the different research that has
been done about how children understand the world, has allowed researchers
to study the milestones that children who are typically developing experience in
early childhood. Here is a table that summarizes those.

3 years old
Can work toys with buttons, levers,
and moving parts
Plays make-believe with dolls, animals,
and people
Does puzzles with 3 or 4 pieces
Understands what ‘’two’’ means

4 years old
Names some colors and some numbers
Understands the idea of counting
Starts to understand time
Understands the idea of same and
different
Tells you what he thinks is going to
happen next in a book

5 years old
Counts 10 or more things
Knows about things used every
day, like money and food

11
 Language
Information
Development
Processing
Vocabulary Growth
Information processing A child’s vocabulary expands
researchers have focused between the ages of 2 to 6 from
on several issues in about 200 words to over 10,000
words through a process called fast-
cognitive development
mapping. Words are easily learned
for by making connections
this age group, including between new words and concepts
improvements in already known. The parts of speech
that are learned depend
attention skills, changes in
on the language and what is
the capacity, and the emphasized. Children speaking
emergence of executive verb-friendly languages such as
functions in working Chinese and Japanese, tend to learn
nouns more readily. But, those
memory. Additionally, in learning less verb-friendly
early childhood memory languages such as English, seem to
strategies, memory need assistance in grammar to
master the use of verbs
accuracy, and
(Imai, et al, 2008).
autobiographical
memory emerge. Early
childhood is seen by
many researchers as a
crucial time period in
memory development
(Posner & Rothbart, 2007).

12
 LANGUAGE MILESTONES GROUP 3

3 years
- Follows instructions with 2 or 3 steps
- Can name most familiar things
- Understands words like “in,” “on,” and “under”
- Says first name, age, and sex
- Names a friend
- Says words like “I,” “me,” “we,” and “you” and some
plurals (cars, dogs, cats)
- Talks well enough for strangers to understand
most of the time
- Carries on a conversation using 2 to 3 sentences

4 years
- Knows some basic rules of
grammar, such as correctly
using “he” and “she”
- Sings a song or says a
poem from memory such as
the “Itsy Bitsy
- Spider” or the “Wheels on
the Bus”
- Tells stories
5 years - Can say first and last name

- Speaks very clearly

- Tells a simple story using full
sentences
- Uses future tense; for
example, “Grandma will be
here.”
- Says name and address
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 APPLICATIONS TO
EARLY EDUCATION

Mathematics

Even before they enter kindergarten, the mathematical

knowledge of children from low-income
backgrounds lags far behind that of children from more affluent
backgrounds. Ramani and Siegler (2008) hypothesized that this
difference is due to the children in middle- and upper- income
families engaging more frequently in numerical activities, for
example playing numerical board games such as Chutes and
Ladders.

Reading
Cognitive developmental research has shown that phonemic
awareness—that is, awareness of the component sounds within
words—is a crucial skill in learning to read. To measure
awareness of the component sounds within words, researchers
ask children to decide whether two words rhyme, to decide
whether the words start with the same sound, to identify the
component sounds within words, and to indicate what would be
left if a given sound were removed from a word. Kindergartners’
performance on these tasks is the strongest predictor of reading
achievement in third and fourth grade, even stronger than IQ or
social class background (Nation, 2008). Moreover, teaching
these skills to randomly chosen 4- and 5-year-olds results in
their being better readers years later (National Reading Panel,
2000).

Continuing Brain Maturation

Understanding of cognitive development is advancing on many
different fronts. One exciting
area is linking changes in brain activity to changes in children’s
thinking (Nelson et al., 2006). Although many people believe that
brain maturation is something that occurs before birth, the brain
GROUP 3

actually continues to change in large ways for many years thereafter.

For example, a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is
located at the front of the brain and is particularly involved with
planning and flexible problem solving, continues to develop
throughout adolescence (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006).

14


10 STANDARDS OF HIGH QUALITY PRESCHOOL

ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN
(NAEYC)

• Positive relationships among all

children and adults are promoted.
• A curriculum that supports learning
and development in social, emotional,
physical, language, and cognitive areas.
• Teaching approaches that are
developmentally, culturally and
linguistically
appropriate.
• Assessment of children’s progress to
provide information on learning and
development.
• The health and nutrition of children are
promoted, while they are protected
from illness and injury.
• Teachers possess the educational
qualifications, knowledge, and
commitment
to promote children’s learning.
• Collaborative relationships with
families are established and
maintained.
• Relationships with agencies and
institutions in the children’s
communities
are established to support the
program’s goals.
• The indoor and outdoor physical
environments are safe and well-
maintained.

15
 References

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/10-naeyc-program-
standards

https://helpmegrowmn.org/HMG/DevelopMilestone/CognitiveMil
estones/index.html

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=age-
appropriate-speech-and-language-milestones-90-P02170

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/dec2019/valuing-
diversity-developing-understanding-behavior

https://www.umassglobal.edu/news-and-events/blog/what-is-
purpose-of-early-childhood-education

https://empoweredparents.co/cognitive-development-in-early-
childhood/

https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/physical-
development/gross-motor-
skills#:~:text=When%20considering%20children's%20gross%20m
otor,muscles%20for%20sitting%20and%20crawling.

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/child-is-playing-superhero-
gm946884898-258560431

https://www.beststart.org/OnTrack_English/1-importance.html

GROUP 3 MEMBERS:
CAPUL, G.
DUMARAOG, C.
RAFAEL, A.
REYES, K.
VILLACORTA, M.