The childhood period starts after toddler. Early childhood plays the most important role in child development. And the development in early childhood is very fast. Cognition and physical development are very important in this stage. Because in this period, children are able to solve problems with the help of cognition power.
The period of early childhood is between 2 to 6 years. This period is also called the “preschool stage”. In this stage, boys are continuing to slightly larger compared to girls.
This development includes physical development, motor development, Information processing, language development, emotional development, and cognitive development.
This physical development leads to control of the body. Children try to control their body with the help of motor skills and balancing procedures.
I. Skeletal Growth Between 2 to 6 ages skeletal growth is continuing, and approximately 45 new epiphyses are in bone. End of the early childhood period, children start to lose primary teeth.
II. Brain Development In this period (2 to 6 years) brain has 90% developed. By age 4, the cerebral cortex has produced more synapses. Many responsible areas for brain development. They are the corpus callosum, hippocampus, reticular formation, and cerebellum.
a. Reticular Formation It is a part of the brain. It is responsible for attention and conscious process.
b. Hippocampus It is responsible for memory and spatial relationship ( object is located in space)
c. Corpus Callosum It is connecting two cerebral hemispheres. The Corpus callosum is responsible for the production of synapses. In the period, between 3 to 6 years, productions of synapses are very high level.
d. Cerebellum The cerebellum plays the most important role in brain development. It is responsible for balance and control of body movement.
Many factors are affecting physical growth. The factors are hormones, nutrition, Infectious diseases, and malnutrition.
Hormones The pituitary gland is releasing two types of growth hormones. Growth hormones are most important for the development of all body parts. Thyroid-stimulating hormone is also important for brain development.
Nutrition In the preschool period, children need more nutrition according to children’s age.
Infectious Diseases If a child suffers from infectious diseases then the child’s full physical and mental growth is not possible. Infectious diseases include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.
Malnutrition It leads to the poor physical growth of children.
The child’s body becomes more structured and the center shifts downward, toward the trunk. In this stage, the child’s pace becomes more smooth and rhythmic, and for the first time, the child is running. After some time child is skipping, jumping, galloping, and hopping.
Many changes occur related to motor development. They are:-
Information processing includes- attention, planning, and memory.
Attention Preschooler children are spending less time on tasks and planning. In this period, children are more focused on sustained attention than toddlers.
Planning At end of the early childhood, children are more become and good planning. And 5-year child generates a plan and follows a plan related to playing activities and the celebration of a birthday party.
Memory Children are acquiring language skills to describe self-thinking and planning.4-5 years old children’s recognition power is very good than a toddler.
In this period, episodic memory improves with dramatic phenomena. And children have easily recalled the specific events related to birthday parties and specific functions and occasions. Children are more easily recalled familiar events than unfamiliar events.
Language is playing an important role in understanding events and experiences. At age 2, the child’s spoken vocabulary is about 250 words, and by age 6 vocabulary of a child is about 10000 words.
By age 2, children are able to telegraphic speech (combined two words). By age 5, children are able to combine more than 6 words.
Children are able to have emotional understanding and emotional self-regulation. By age, 4 to 5 children are able to correctly judge the causes of basic emotions. Children are more emphasize external factors than internal factors.
Preschooler children learn basic emotions from interacting with adults. In this period, children are able to have emotional self-regulation. It is a process by which children manage their emotions. This process is dependent on circumstances or situations.
In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, the second stage is the preoperational stage (2–7 years). Children start to think symbolically with imagination. But they do not understand concrete logic.