CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

Meaning and importance

To understand a child, it is necessary to see him as a person possessing certain pattern of development.
It implies that development is a continuous process, following pattern, and that what he does at one
time is the product of change over a long period. This principal pervades every phase of development.
The pattern at any stage depends upon the previous pattern. An individual is continuously changing
into something, a little difference to what he was and to what he is presently.
How an individual responds to the present situation is greatly determined by his past experiences. The
pattern of life is shaped by choices and decisions he makes at successive stages of developing
structure. It is generally understood that attainment of a skill is a process of progressive adaptation
from an initial stage of awkwardness to one characterized by organization. It is the gradual change
from dependency to independence from ignorance to mastery. Insight into the nature and
characteristics of child development is fundamental to understanding the child and planning his
environment for furthering development.
Development is the product of the interaction of the organism and his environment, of nature and
nurture and of heredity and environment. It must be remembered that no growth is possible without the
presence of favorable stimulation from the environment. The environment determines in a large part-
the extent, degree and manner in which the innate potentialities of the children are realized and the
manner in which hereditary capacities are put to work. We are aware that the limits and direction of
development are laid down in the constitution of the organism at the time of fertilization. It is
important that as teachers and parents we equip ourselves with information and be constantly on the
alert for evidence of special aptitudes and nourish them at the right time.
Development is continuous and a gradual process. The transformation is never sudden; the child never
jumps from one stage to another. It is continuous and the product of extensive underlying preparation
and maturation
Development has many functions proceeds most rapidly in the early years of life. Mental and physical
development is rapid during child hood. Thus, we should capitalize on this and encouraging the fullest
utilization of the child capacities as foundation for later accomplishments. Even basic trends in
emotional and social adjustment are established in the early years of life.
Development follows an orderly genetic sequence. The developmental order to be, is due, primarily to
heredity growth factors. It follows a set pattern or sequence specific to a particular species. Thus, if a
child cannot perform one task of a known developmental series, it is unlikely that he will not be able
to do one that regularly develops later. There are wide individual differences in developmental patterns
and one cannot be content with averages. Rate of differences exist. Relative development may be rapid
and follows a particular series, but still individual differences exist. Relative development rates of
individuals tend to remain constant from infancy to maturity. Thus, the ultimate development may be
estimated earlier or in advance, and education be planned to best fit the particular individual.

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Complex behaviour pattern as evident on maturity is the synthesis and integration of smaller elements.
Development is a process of both differentiation and of integration. It is a matter of building up larger
processes from response to form a new pattern. Thus, differentiation and integration play a parallel
role in development.
Maturation or growth of intrinsic pattern plays a vital role in the effects of specific training.
Acquisition of behavior through specific training is largely dependent on maturation. The effect of
specific training varies with the stage of maturation reached by an organism. Training given at the
right level of maturation leads to easier acquisition of skill by children.
During the developmental stage, he has been observed to use his inherent impulses. The child tends to
use his abilities and potentialities spontaneously. The capacity to do, think and feel act as motivators
and the child responds by putting these abilities into use. So instead of just waiting for what comes, the
child tends to search, to explore and find new avenues. Curiosity is normal in a developing child and
creative behavior is prominent.
Child development refers to a period of development of an organism when development is both rapid
and maximum. As children are the wealth and future of a nation, it is imperative that we seek ways
and means to make this development rich and healthy, so that we have a mature adult, drawing upon
their potential to build a strong and wealthy nation. In order to achieve this, we must lay the
foundation in the early years. Parents, teachers and other adults play a vital role in providing an
atmosphere conducive to the well-being and healthy development of children. The child learns skills,
develops attitudes and beliefs, and becomes a social member of his group. What he learns and how
quickly he masters the accepted or rejects the undesirable is largely determined by the help and
environment that is available to him in the child development early years of life. We as parents and
teachers can help only when we are equipped with information and knowledge of the needs of this
stage of development.
A child growing continuously and gradually and there are no sharply defined periods of developments.
But educators and physiologists have recognized certain stages in the development of a child for the
sake of convenience such as;
1. Infancy (0 – 4 years)
2. Early childhood (4 – 6 years)
3. Later childhood (6 – 8 years)
4. Boyhood or girlhood (8 – 12 years)
5. Adolescence (12 – 16 years)
6. Adulthood

Expected development tasks of childhood

1. Learning to walk
2. Learning to take solid food
3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control elimination processes of body waste\
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6. Achieving physiological stability
7. Forming simple concepts of social and physical reality
8. Learning to relate oneself emotionally to parents’ siblings, peers and other people

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9. Learning to distinguish right and wrong and developing consciousness
10. Preparation and participation in formal education in schools and other institutions

Characteristics of various stages

1. Infancy and early childhood. Infancy is a period of complete dependence. Being physically and
emotionally immature, the child is dependent upon others for all its needs. He has a great capacity for
learning, instinctive behavior id gradually replaced by learned behavior. All gains are consolidated
during childhood. Physical development is rapid in infancy but it is slower during early childhood,
with a marked increase in muscular coordination. He is physically active thereby developing in size.
Intellectually, development is equally rapid. The nervous system is more mature, allowing for the child
comprehend what he sees around him

Vocabulary is developed, allowing him to express his thoughts, feelings and emotions. He is good
imitator and loves and learns a lot through imitation of others. He is prepared to pick up and master the
rudiments of normal school learning. Loves fantasy and loves making up stories of his own
Socially, he still finds it difficult to get along with all. He loves to associate with people he is familiar
with. Self-assertion and self-love are two significant characteristics of this stage. He slowly learns to
develop an identity of his own, enjoys playing with friends.

Emotionally also he matures and slowly learns specific attitudes towards things around him. Loves his
parents and other family members. Develops strong likes and dislikes. Easily angered and indulges in
violence at times.
Sense organs are well developed. Uses them to discover the world around him. His sense of curiosity
can be exploited to teach and socialize him.
Guided by pain and pleasure, his moral sense is not well developed, thus rewards and punishments are
effective in teaching him the good.

Physically active and alert, he indulges in play, dance and other activities. Understands and appreciates
only concrete experiences. Though he indulges in fantasy and imagination, he is not unaware of reality

Formal education is usually started, during this stage. So it should seek to use these characteristics to
achieve its ends. The school should enable him to use his sense organs skillfully and help coordinate
his otherwise clumsy and uncoordinated muscular activities. His natural curiosity should never be
suppressed, his questions answered and he allowed to explore things and discover for himself the
realities of his environment.

2. Later childhood; this is known as the golden period of life. Having acquainted himself with
environment, the child is now out to master it. Physical growth is not as rapid as earlier but he grows
stronger and steadier. Endurance is better also. Tends to be restless and so must be kept well occupied.

Intellectual development shows up in the form of thinking and concept formation. He has literally
pursuits, as he can now retain large amount of knowledge and information. He not only thinks but

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learns to observe and reason. Memory is remarkable and he can retain and use information for his
benefit

Socially he is more cooperative and loyal to his playmates. Group play is predominate. Though he is
capable of criticizing people and things, is submissive to authority. He is less selfish, self centered and
outgoing and aggressive

Emotionally he is mature and can handle his feelings in socially accepted manner. He is tolerant and
polite. Takes easily to moral training. Yearns for social admiration and acceptance
As evident from above that the early years of life are important as it is during this time, that maximum
learning takes place and also that the foundations for later learning are laid. Parents and teachers must
be informed and made aware of means and methods to be used to still further the learning during this
period. It must thus be remembered that;
1. Early improvishment of environment can lead to retardation
2. Inherent defects when diagnosed earlier, can be overcome by appropriate care and provisions
3. School and home should provide an environment conducive to development of potentials to the
fullest
4. Provide for experiences and activities related to maturation
5. Review and drill be provided for mastery of skills
6. Cater to readiness and individual differences
7. Provide children opportunity by the way of equipment and other things to use what they have
learnt
8. Organize learning situations
9. Use all available sources (personal and community) to develop the child
10. Stimulate the child, by exposing him to a variety of things in his environment
11. Provide for a well-balanced diet for physical growth and timely medical care to rule out
deficiency and diseases
12. Allow the child to associate with a large group of people to learn and appreciate the
functioning of his social set up. A child’s personal and social adjustments must be changed
before they settle into habitual patterns
13. Encourage creativity. Make the child an explorer rather than a conformist
14. Give a sense of security and feeling of confidence by giving him love, affection and security
15. Use praise, encouragement and other rewards to teach him rather than punishment
16. Help him develop a vocabulary, so that he can express his thoughts, ideas and feelings well
17. Remember that behavior problems like thumb sucking, bed wetting, temper tantrums, fear etc
are merely aspects of normal behavior of this age
18. Discover and analyze underlying causes for any behavior problems or childish ways of
exhibiting emotions and solve them accordingly.
19. Provide the child with food, shelter, clothing rest,, exercise, love and opportunities to learn
develop.

Need for studying child development

A sound study of child development is essential, as it equips one with information regarding its
characteristics and format. Parents, teachers and students (especially home science) need to study this,
in order to be able to guide and help the children they are associated with. Activities and experiences
at home and school can be planned to suit specific age needs and maturation requirements. Home

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science students in their attempt to be good home makers must be all knowledgeable with regard to
children and their needs. They initially can help look after their brothers and sisters at home, later as
teachers in school and finally as mothers in the home. With adequate information, they are better
equipped to look after children and cater to their needs. A sound knowledge is imperative so that they
can help to bring up children in an appropriate manner, thus saving themselves and society at large a
lot of tension and frustration. Forewarned is forearmed. Being aware of the expected problems and
means of tackling them, they contribute to give healthy and happy children to the nation. A proper
understanding of their needs and problems, allows for wholesome growth and development.
Association with children is made happier and easier on account of some knowledge of child
development, one can save himself. The society and nation, a lot of distress and worry. It helps to
exploit all available resources in the form of human potential for the betterment of the universe.

Scope for studying child development

The area of study encompassed under child development is vast and ever increasing. Some of the
factors studied under child development are;
1. General nature of growth and development of a child. It is a study of the various stages of
development and also the characteristics specific to each stage of development
2. Behavior of child; it makes the student aware of the types of behavior typical of an age group/ it
also studies how the different situations at home, school and society can effect or modify a
behavior
3. Pattern of development; the student of this subject is made aware of the fact that behavior
follows an orderly pattern. It can be predicted as it follows a sequence. The presence or the
absence of one affects the other that was to follow it.
4. Rate of development; a student interested in the study of child development finds out that rate of
growth is not uniform at all age levels
5. Nature and nurture interact in development; what is bestowed by nature must be nurtured for
healthy development. The student on being aware of this helps to provide the right environment in
the form of nutrition, health care, love, affections and appreciation for the individual’s
development
6. Individual differences; a student of child development is conscious of the fact that no two
individuals are alike. They react differently to same conditions. So they plan and provide for each
individual’s specific need
7. Behavior problems; the study of child development familiarizes the student with typical behavior
problems of the various age groups. negativism is common in the two years old, who is trying to
assert himself and find an identity of his own thumb sucking, bed wetting are some problems
whose underlying causes must be found and removed in order to overcome them
8. Healthy child rearing practices; a student of child development is better equipped to provide
better and healthier child rearing conditions. They realize the importance of hygiene, nutrition, rest
and exercise providing for safer places of work and play for the child to prevent accidents is
important

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9. Different aspects of development; a student studying child development is aware that
development occurs in different aspects or spheres such as physical, emotional, social and
intellectual. Besides, the student is also aware that development does not occur at the same speed
or level in the various aspects. At one age level, there may be greater physical development as
compared to intellectual development.
10. Recognition of a healthy child; a student with her information regarding various aspects of
development and their rate can easily judge whether a child is developing normally or not. A stitch
in time saves nine. An early diagnosis of problems through the absence of certain characteristics
can help rectify problem. Awareness of expected norms of a particular age group can help
overcome and tackle the deviations as when they occur

Factors influencing child development

Heredity; This refers to those inborn physical and mental traits that an individual inherits by birth.
Heredity covers all the factors that are present in the individual when he began life. They are the
intrinsic forces and the inborn nature. Heredity refers to the inborn qualities and potentials the child
already possesses before he enters the physical world. The child inherits from his parents certain
physical and mental traits. The particular combination of genes in the chromosomes of the new
organization sets the limits and the general direction of development
Environment; on the other hand, refers to all those physical and mental factors that affect the
development of the child. The home, the family, the friends, the neighborhood, school etc, influence
the development of an individual. These are the extrinsic factors or forces and influences brought to
bear upon a new organism from the moment he is created. It is the nurture and not nature part of an
organism’s life
Heredity and environment both play an important part in the development of an individual. Both are
complementary. Traits are not exclusively hereditary or environmental. Development has been defined
as a “process resultant from a constant flux or interchange of energies within an organism and energies
within its environment. “Some characteristics presumably take form, more as a result of inherent
growth factors than of special conditions of environmental stimulation, no development conceivable
without an environment. With the same set of genes, different environmental conditions may induce
the production of diverse characteristics.
Some aspects of development seem to be more the product of intrinsic rather than environmental
factors. Physical growth for example but even this phase in development is not entirely dependent on
intrinsic factors. Environment (diet, health care etc) may influence the growth. By and large,
environment plays a very important part in the personality development especially in the first six years
of life. The way in which his needs and wants are satisfied, the materials by which he is stimulated, the
language spoken, the attitudes displayed towards him, the inter relationship among the people around
him exert a continuous impact on him. Habit patterns are developed and also attitude towards self and
others. How far the inherited potential are exploited and developed are all determined by the
environment

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Age and sex
Development is greatly influenced by age and sex of the child. Physical growth is greatest during the
first few years of life, and then a spurt again at puberty. Girls show faster growth during late childhood
than boys of the same age. Boys on the hand show rapid growth when they are 15 years than do girls
of the corresponding age

Maturation, learning and growth

Maturation, growth and learning affect development. These words are often used interchangeably to
mean that there is progress in development of the child. But it must be clear that all stand for engaging
one in a variety of interesting activities and encouragement. Positive direction and successful
performance are necessary for development of the child.

Nutrition and health care

The kind of diet consumed determines to a large extent the growth of the child. Children consuming
protein rich diets (non-vegetarians) are marked by large build as compared to children fed on
carbohydrate rich diet. Along with diet, the children need proper and timely medical and health care in
order to grow and develop to the optimum level. Immunization, early diagnosis, cure of deficiencies
and disease prevent slowing down or loss of development.

Psychological factors
A child will grow and blossom in an environment of love, affection and security. Healthy relationships
between the two parents, between parents and children and other members of the family are essential
for optimum growth and development. The child must be loved and respected for his own worth,
accepted and cherished for what he is. The parents and other members of society responsible for him
must see to it that all his wants and needs are fulfilled.

Family care culture and social set up

The process of socialization is necessary to enable the growing child be an accepted member of the
family, culture and social set up. Certain traits, attitudes, beliefs, prejudices and emotions are specific
to each set up. There are certain cultures which favor aggressiveness and competition while there are
others that favor cooperation and submissiveness

Rest and exercise

In order that a child may develop physically and intellectually, rest and exercise in specific amounts
are essential. Exercise in its purest form or in the form of play and other activities help to build him
physically, teaching him coordination. Parents and teachers must allow the child to spend some time
indulging in various physical activities for healthy growth and development. Fatigue may occur due to
over indulgence in these activities, causing a general feeling of tiredness and loss of interest in one’s
surrounding. Periods of rest help to relax the muscles and nerves and refresh one to be able to tackle
activities following with greater vigour. The amount of rest and exercise needed for healthy

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development varies from child to child. A thin and nervous child needs more rest to relax his
hyperactive nerves but remember a slow and sluggish child must be coaxed to go out and play more
frequently.

The endocrine glands

The endocrine glands or the ductless glands situated at various parts of the body play an important role
in the normal and healthy development of a child. Though small in size, they are vital for normal well
being and growth. They produce hormones with specific effects. Whether over active or under active,
they affect the growth and development, the emotional stability and temperament of the individual.
Physical and mental development of an individual is largely dependent on the efficient working of
these glands. Over- activity of any one gland affects normal growth and development.
1. Pituitary gland; a deficiency of the hormone produced by this gland leads to dwarfism or
stunted growth, failure of sexual development and lethargy. An abundance of the hormone of
this gland in the human body leads to giantism. Thus this can affect not only the rate of growth
and development but also affects learning and adjustment in the social environment
2. Thyroid gland; excessive thyroxin, the hormone manufactured by this gland can lead to loss
of weight, irritability, nervousness and insomnia, which may come in the way of normal
development. Deficient working of the gland causes mental retardation and slow learning,
resulting in general backwardness
3. Parathyroid gland; malfunctioning of these glands causes increased excitability of the neuro –
muscular tissues resulting in tetany. This handicaps the individual preventing him to achieve
and use his born potential to the fullest.
4. Adrenal gland; over – activity of this gland results in premature sexual development ad sexual
abnormalities. Under activity causes addison’s disease. In both the conditions it affects the
normal growth and development of an individual.
5. Islets of langerhanas; malfunctioning of this gland results in tremors, breathing problems,
decreased resistance to infection and diabetes. Normal growth and development cannot take
place in the presence of these ailments.
6. Sex glands or gonads; over activity may lead to premature sexual development, a child forced
to play the role of adult faces a lot of tension and frustration. Under activity causes late sexual
development, thereby preventing social, emotional and mental adjustments of a child who is
physical (age wise) fit enough or rather expected to do so.

Aspects of development
To get a complete picture of individual, you must understand how children develop physically as well
as psychologically. The most distinctive feature about an individual is the personality. It is the overall
pattern or integration of his structures, modes of behavior, interests, attitudes, intellectual abilities,
aptitudes and many other distinguishable characteristics.
Thus the whole individual is represented by this personality. When we view an individual as he goes
about the various activities of daily life. We usually obtain total impression of him, however views the

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individual more analytical. The whole personality of the individual can be dissected into various
components. All these aspects are actually interwoven and inseparable from one another. Some aspects
are evident and obvious whereas others need a more analytical study
1. Physical development; physical development is the aspect of development that influences
behavior directly and indirectly.
Directly it determines what the child can do. If he is well developed for his age, he will be able to
compete on equal terms with his peers in games and sports. If not, he will be handicapped in
competition with them and may be excluded from their games. How he feels at the moment -
whether he is well or tired or ill – all this has a direct effect on the way he reacts to people and
situations.
Indirectly, physical development influences attitude towards self and others. These in turn are
reflected in the kind of adjustments one makes. For example, if a child is markedly over weight for
his age and size, he discovers that he cannot keep pace with others and develops feelings of
inadequacy. It influences his self concept

2. Motor development; one of the outstanding characteristics of the human infant is his complete
helplessness. With the passage of time, he matures and learns and achieves motor development
tasks. Some of the most important developmental tasks of the pre – school and years consist of the
development of motor skills based on the coordinated use of different team of muscles.
The child who comes up to social expectations makes good personal and social adjustments; otherwise
he develops feelings of personal inadequacy which weaken motivation to try to learn what others have
already learnt.

3. Emotional development; we all are aware of the traditional belief that a happy, carefree childhood
is essential to a well adjusted adulthood. This belief implies that all unpleasant emotions should be
kept to a minimum. Acceptance of the belief leads parents and even teachers to try to make
childhood as happy a period as possible.

4. Social development. Learning to be a social person does not come overnight. The child learns in
cycles, with a period of rapid improvement followed by a plateau in which there is a little
improvement or even by a phase in which there is a fall to lower level of behavoiur. How soon the
child recovers lost ground or rises from the plateau depends largely upon the strength of his
motivation. It is largely dependent on the learning experience provided and how most children are
satisfied with the process they have made in social development.
5. Cognitive development; the kind of adjustment the child makes to life is greatly influenced by his
knowledge of his environment, people and himself. This knowledge enables a child to adapt to
changes around himself and in himself. If one can help the child in understanding that the changes
take place in a predictable manner and the reasons for these changes, the child will react with less
fear. Anxiety or resentment than the child who has been derived of this help.

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6. Language development; when the child starts schooling, he is unable to communicate and
exercise many of his needs and wants in form that skipping, jumping, climbing, swimming,
tricycling and bicycling. Most 3 years old children push their tricycles and bicycles around and
ride on them only when held on the seat by someone.

Role of maturation in motor development-

Maturation plays a significant role in a child’s motor development. Here we shall how maturation
helps motor development. Children differ in the ages at which they gain control over their movements
and develop their motor skills (e.g. One child may walk at one year, another at 1 year 4 months). They
also differ in the rate at which they learn the different skills. E.g. a child may learn to walk in a shorter
time than learning to throw a ball. If children learn their motor skills at the time their muscles are
ready, they will learn the skill faster than if they are taught the skills at a time when their muscles are
not mature (e.g a child learns to write when he is able to grip the pencil by himself better than when he
is always helped by an adult)
The large muscles develop before the fine muscles and the hands and arms are used before the legs i.e.
a child first learns to catch, crawl then stand and walk and then later on develops fine skills such as
grasping with the fingers. Since motor development follows a pattern, the teacher can plan her
activities according to the maturational level of children. The teacher must follow the pattern gross
motor skills before he learns the fine motor skills and child has to learn gross motor skills before he
learns the fine motor skills and he has to learn the hand skills before he learns the leg skills.

Childhood is called the ideal age for learning skills. There are many factors that facilitate this learning
as for example; liability of children’s body. Fewer previously learnt skills acting as hindrance and
curiosity children willingly repeat the muscle patterns until they are trained, while adolescents will
find this boring.
Principles of motor development
From the various studies conducted in the field of motor development of children, four important
principles of motor development emerge.
Motor development depends on maturation; motor development depends upon neural and muscular
maturation. Development of the different forms of motor activity goes on side by side with the
development of different areas of the nervous system. At birth, the lower nerve centers which are
located in the spinal cord are better developed than higher nerve centers which are located in the brain.
As a result, the reflexes are better developed at birth as compared to the voluntary activities. At birth,
the child shows a great deal of mass activity i.e. uncoordinated movements. This gradually develops
into simple patterns of voluntary activity which forms the basis for development of a skill later on e.g.
when shown a rattle baby moves first, his whole body later on extends hand towards the rattle, and
then by feeling it, tries to get it.

Skills are learnt. Learning of skills cannot occur until the child is maturationally ready. This implies
that children cannot be taught any motor skills until and unless their nervous system and muscles are
sufficiently developed. Many mothers say that they have toilet trained their 8 or 9month babies, but

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what they don’t realize is that they have trained themselves to recognize their child’s mannerisms. It
should be noted that sometimes even though children learn a skill early, it is only a temporary gain, he
forgets it later as he is not ready for it

Motor development follows a predictable pattern; the process of motor development shows four
general trends – cephalocaudal, proximodistal sequences, differentiation and integrations. The
differentiation refers to the fact that growth proceed from mass to specific activities. This means that
as a child practices more and more, the mass or gross responses get progressively displaced by more
specific or refined responses in which only the appropriate limbs and muscles are involved i.e. when a
baby is shown a rattle at first, both the hands and legs move in an uncoordinated manner, later on only
the hand moves towards the object, then he learns to catch the object with palm then finally with
fingers. We see how from mass movement; the response becomes more specific. In a single skill of
catching and throwing a ball, we notice that first a child catches it in a manner as if embracing and
with constant practice, learns to catch it with his hands cupped to receive the ball with fingers. This
refine control of skill is noticed in the pre – school child when the child enjoys walking tiptoe,
backward and forwards on his heels rather than mere walking.
Integration refers to the fact that as gradual refinement of movement takes place, there is also a
corresponding tendency to integrate unitary or smaller activities into large more functional behaviors.
As a baby a child may cry when hungry but as he goes to the kitchen when hungry and chooses
amongst different available eatables.

Individual differences; there are individual differences in the rate of motor development. It is very
important to remember, that though motor development is predictable and follows a general pattern,
there are individual differences. Some children start late and some reach their developmental
milestones early.

Factors affecting motor development

The factors affecting motor development can be discussed under the following heads;
Physical health and status; physical exercise and physical fitness have been found to have a direct
bearing on the development of motor abilities and vice versa. The genetic constitution of the child is of
primary importance. In addition to that, proper nutrition and good health facilities contribute to sound
motor development e.g. children from poor homes perhaps due to malnutrition, tend to be physically
apathetic and listless, hence do not compare favorably with their counterparts from better homes.

Sex differences; in India, studies have shown that boys tend to be faster and superior to girls in most
motor skills excepting skipping. Girls show a greater interest from the beginning in social activities.

Opportunities for practice; the development of motor skills depends on the extent to which
opportunity is provided to practice these skills. If parents and teachers are over protective and forbid
children to perform any motor skill feats for fear of their failing and hurting and dirtying themselves, it
is likely that these children will have difficulty in mastering the motor skills later on. On the other

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hand the more liberal parents and teachers find their children superior in such activities. A more
stimulating environment is more enriching for the development of motor skills.

Motivation, parents who encourage dependence in children are likely to retard the child’s motor
development and rob him of any motivation to perform, since everything is done for him. Therefore,
encouragement on their own (with little guidance) acts as a motivator

INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

INTELLIGENCE

Ability is a general term which refers to the potential for acquiring a skill. Aptitude refers to a person’s
potential for profiting from a certain type of training. It seems natural to think of intelligence as a
single ability or attribute. Intelligence is a general term referring to an overall capacity for learning
problem solving. It is a complex mental ability, including such primary abilities as verbal
comprehension, space visualization, reasoning, numerical ability and other intelligence tests that
measure a mixture of abilities. Operationally defined intelligence is what intelligence tests measure.

The fact that most of our tests of intelligence produce one overall score, or I.Q., determines our
thinking of intelligence as a single thing. Whether there is a general intelligence as distinguished from
specific abilities, or there is a collection of abilities, is what the psychologists are trying to answer.

This question has been approached over the years by a statistical method known as factor analysis.
The basic idea of factor analysis is to compute correlation coefficients among various subjects used in
intelligence tests. Sub-tests that correlate with each other’s but not with other sub-tests from a cluster
with a common factor. By looking at sub-tests forming a cluster Psychologists decide on a name for
the factor.

As early as 1904 Charles Spearman on the basis of factor analysis proposed a two-factor theory of
intelligence. Spearman had found that most of the mental tests then available correlated positively. He
concluded that each test must be measuring two factors – a general factor which he called general
intelligence and a specific factor unique to each test. More refined statistical techniques have shown
that the correlation between subtests is not only due to the sharing of a general factor, but several
factors, each contributing its share to the correlation. The more factors two tests have in common the
higher their correlation. This gave way to the Multiple- Factor theory of intelligence. One of the early
factor analyses gave seven primary factors in intelligence. Thurstone identified the following seven
primary abilities.

1. Verbal comprehension. Ability to define and understand words.

2. Word Fluency. Ability to think of words rapidly.

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3. Number. Ability to do arithmetic problems
4. Space Visualization. Ability to visualize space and form, to remember form and manipulate it
mentally it mentally, ability to draw a design from memory or to visualize relationships.
5. Memory. The ability to memorize and recall or associate previously learned items.
6. Perceptual Speed. The ability to grasp visual details and to see differences and similarities among
objects. The ability to see small details accurately and quickly.
7. Reasoning. The ability to find rules, principles or concepts of under -standing or solving problems.
The ability to see relationship in situations described in symbols.

Guilford in 1961 classified all intellectual abilities into a systematic framework called the ‘Structure of
Intellectual.’ According to this model, human intelligence comprises of 120 factors though not all have
been discovered yet. Intellectual factors are classified into 3 ways namely; content, product and
operation. Content refers to the kind of information involved. This may be figural, symbolic, semantic
and behavioural. Content can take six different forms, these are called products. A single item of
information is unit, while a group of units is termed class. Relation and transformation, system and
implication are the other products. Operations are of five types, namely cognition, memory,
convergent thinking, divergent thinking and evaluation.

In short this model provides for 120 factors in intelligence, each factor is represented by a cell in a
cube and is some combination of three dimensions: (1) Five operations (2) Six products (3) 4 contents
(5 *6*4 = 120) .Because of the great variety of tests involved, the concept of intelligence represented
by this model is broader than that of the typical intelligence test.

Factors Influencing Intelligence

Heredity. Intelligence is determined largely by heredity. The various primary abilities which go to
make up the general intelligence vary in degree to which they are inherited .Studies have revealed that
mental retardation and giftedness often runs in families. Study of identical twins who have been
separated and reared in different foster homes, also points to this. The IQ changes to some extent with
changes in environment especially at an early age, but that it retains considerable consistency even
when the change in environment is great. Such consistency indicates strong heredity influence. It has
been found that in all cases, correlation between parental intelligence and children’s intelligence was
positive but not so between foster parents and foster children.

Environment. Psychologists have found that environment all by itself had some influence on the
level of intelligence of the children but not so much as did home environment plus hereditary
relationship. Special trainings even for short periods, placing of children in better environment have
resulted in an increase IQ scores. Cultural stimulation especially in the early years can improves scores
on intelligence tests. Children adopted or brought up in homes of high quality or cultured homes, are
found to be brighter when they join schools. Besides different environments foster the development of
different patterns of ability, because a particular environment calls for a particular adaptive behavior.
This is evident most dramatically in comparison of abilities typical in different cultures. For example,
children in India tend to do better on language items as compared to their counterparts in the west. The

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culture of India may explain for this difference, for in India there is much emphasis on verbal
achievement .The poet and the philosopher and not the scientist and engineer are much admired.

Sex. Early studies of differences, in IQ between boys and girls were essentially negative in that no
clear differences were revealed. More recent studies however using modern measuring instruments
have revealed that girls tend to be better with regard to rote memory reasoning and word fluency. Boys
surpass girls markedly in spatial intelligence and verbal comprehension. No difference in numerical
ability has been found between the two sexes.

Health. There has long been a popular notion that the child who is superior in intelligence will be
inferior in physical health and vice versa. Numerous studies have shown that good general health
usually goes with high intelligence. Apparently heredity is a factor in both mental and physical
superiority. Any improvement in a child’s physical health makes it easier for him to work up to his full
mental capacity.

Differences in intelligence make a difference in educational and occupational achievement

which can be expected from people. Mental retardation results from one or more of the three general
causes listed below:

1. Early improvishment of environment can lead to retardation.

2. It may have a genetic base. Inherited disorders of the body’s bio-chemistry. Low IQ’s tend to be
inherited and for that reason retardation runs in families.

3. Mental retardation may be caused by a variety of medical or physio-logical conditions. Early

malnutrition, especially dietary deficiency of proteins can result in retardation. Sometimes mental
retardation is caused by illness.

Language Development. The development of language by children is astonishingly rapid and

develops in a regular sequence. Language ability matures as just as motor abilities etc. As the word –
strings increases, so too does grammatical complexity.

Some Major stages of Language Development

12 weeks : Markedly less crying. Smiles, squeals and gurgles when talked to. Sustains
Cooing for 15 – 20 seconds.

15 weeks : Turns head and eyes in response when spoken. Makes chuckling sounds.

20 months : Cooing sounds – varied and sustained.

6 months : Cooing changes to babbling, one syllable sounds with fixed recurrences –
Ma, da, ma
8 months : Reduplication, continuous and frequent utterances.

10 months : Tries to imitate words, babbles, blowing, gurgling, etc. differentiates

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 between words spoken, by making different adjustments.

12 months : Frequent occurrence of identical sounds, sequences and words (mama or

dada). Shows signs of understanding some words and simple commands.
(Show me your eyes.)

18months : More than 3 but less than 50 words mastered.Bab-bling; using

Several syllables, no attempt at communicating and shows frustration at not
being understood – understanding in progressing rapidly.

24 months : Vocabulary of more than 50 items, can name objects around him, begins to form
2 word phrases, more communicative and shows interest in language.

30months : Fastest increase in vocabulary, many new additions every day. Can utter
Up to 5 words, sentences and phrase of characteristic child grammar.
Communicative and frustrated if not understood. Understands all that is said
to him.

3 years : Vocabulary of 1000 words. Utterances are intelligible and can be understood
even by stranger, makes grammatical mistakes .

4years : Language is well established, deviations from adult norm tend to be

More in style than in grammar.

Reasoning .Thinking in which one attempts to solve a problem by combining two or more
elements from past experience to solve a novel problem. Most human reasoning is done with symbols
especially verbal symbols. Reasoning is often motivated by the need to reach solutions to problems
involving an individual’s survival. This involves deductive thinking, inductive thinking and evaluative
thinking. Thinking is the manipulation of images, languages, concepts, either through trial and error,
insight, mechanical solutions or reasoning.

Reasoning depends largely on the ability to retain images. A child before the age of one is seldom
capable of any reasoning or remembering. Children below three do not farewell on ‘double
alternation’ tests, but 4 and 5years olds tend to verbalize their solutions. Children possess clear visual
imagery, and these cannot be broken down and resembled into new patterns (lacks flexibility). This is
not so with adults , language aids in problem solving –words and symbols are more facilitating than
direct manipulation of objects and images .Culture plays a dominant role in determining the extent to
which language influences our thinking .The language patterns of a cultural group determine the
thought patterns and perception of children reared in that culture. Language is not necessary for the
formation of concepts as these may be learned in an infant’s early months. The young baby has no
organized conception of space or movement. Initially it is centered on his own body and his successful
actions. Gradually objects are conceived as having location, mass, weight volume etc. 5-7 year olds
are capable of perceptual details in concept formation. Abstraction progresses with visual similarity
between various objects. Recent investigation of the development of mathematical concepts in

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children suggests that such concepts may be formed on an all or none basis, rather than by gradual
steps.

Creativity. A type of thinking leading to novel solutions of problems or new combinations of stimuli.
Creative people show originality and ability to integrate the element of a situation into a harmonius
whole. It involves inductive thinking and also means a general freedom from rigid thought pattern and
an ability to keep looking at a situation in fresh ways . You might expect creativity and intelligence to
be related, for creativity requires knowledge and skills that high intelligence should help a person
acquire. In fact there is some relationship, but intelligence as measured by conventional intelligence
tests does not seem to be highly correlated with creativity. To get a creative thinker we need to know
the kind of thinking that characterize a person and not just his score on an intelligence test.

Several attempts have been made to develop tests that measure creativity in people. The creative
person uses both convergent and divergent thinking. The creative thinker may use convergent thinking
to gather information and thoughts as building materials for the ultimate creative achievement. He may
drift into free association and in the process come upon useful thoughts that may have been missed by
concentrating strictly on the problem. The characteristics of divergent thinking is the variety of
thoughts involved, as a result of which he is more likely to achieve a creative result.

The steps involved in thinking of outstanding creative thinker have been studied through interviews,
questionnaires and introspection. It tends to proceed in five stages:

1. Preparation – Collecting necessary facts and materials. Concentrated effort.

2. Incubation - Interfering ideas fade, unconscious process, work to fine due to solution in learning
and experience of Individual.
3. Illumination – Solution may suddenly dawn. ‘Aha’ insight experience.
4. Evaluation - Determines whether solution found is correct or not .If wrong then goes back to
stage one.
5. Revision - Solution may need slight modification or require solution of other relatively Minor
problems.

As further research is done in the area of developing creativity, it may be possible by systematic
training and “catching them young,” to increase the number of highly creative workers in our society.
Brain storming for ideas to increase imagination is advised by many psychologists who believe that
“originality” is a form of learned behavior following the same principles as other forms of operant
behavior. They also believe that when people are free from the fear of being shown ridiculous or
wrong, they produce novel ideas much more rapidly.

A primary definitional task appears to be that distinguishing between originality and creativity. Many
original solutions to problems are not useful; an original idea need not be useful one too. But creativity
must meet the criterion of both originality and usefulness. An individually may be highly original but
not creative. Creativity is dependent not only on originality, but also on the individual’s and the
society’s reaction to his originality. Creativity is heavily dependent on society’s approval and
recognition. Creativity has to do with the process of producing original ideas, novel problem solution
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and utilizing innovations. Originality is of course basic to becoming creative. Creativity is a more all
inclusive concept than originality but exercising originality is essential to creative enterprise.

The creative individual tends to enjoy intense, sustained and vigorous effort in overcoming obstacles,
has the need to prove his personal worth, and has greater personal awareness and sensitivity about
feeling of others and a broad range interest.

In view of present need for creative persons, much attention is being given to the problem of
developing creativity through training.

The originality is trainable and transferable has been well demonstrated one procedure is:

1. Presenting, individuals or groups with uncommon stimulus situation for which conventional
response is not bad.

2. Evolving many different responses to same situations.

3. Instructing individual to respond in a unique or different fashion each time a stimulus is presented.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
You have seen that a new born infant responds to his environment in a different way than a six months
old baby. And as the baby grows his responses become more definite. From the so called aimless
moving of his hands, the baby makes definite advances to objects kept in front of him and those very
hands learn to hold a pencil one day and begin to write. This transition takes place not only due to
physical and motor development but also due to intellectual development of a child. Study of
intellectual development explains about a child’s ability to understand, and his faculty of knowing, and
the important factors that play an effective role in cognitive development.

Cognition means to know, perceive or understand. Learning a word , explaining its

meaning ,naming and describing an object , specifying its uses , predicting what would happen if the
object is lost , are some examples of cognitive activity . You can multiply these examples to any
extent. In fact almost everything that we do in our daily life involves some amount of cognition.

The process of cognition is brought about by a number of abilities called cognitive skills .Some of
these are:

 Analysis,
 Synthesis,
 Reasoning,
 Comparison,
 Evaluation,
 Induction,
 Deduction,
 Generalization, etc.

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With the help of these skills we are able to select and modify the information from our surroundings
and use it for making adjustments to it.

Cognitive abilities are the function of brain and develop with age. As the brain matures more and more
abilities develop, not only in number but also in quality. The infant initially can only take in the
information but gradually he develops the ability to process this information and use it for his own
benefit. It is the growth and refinement of cognitive abilities which is referred to as cognitive
development.

Although acquiring cognitive abilities is part of growing up, training and providing facilities for this
development are important .They help in smooth and richer growth of these abilities. For example, a
child who gets more opportunities to talk develops language skills better than a child who has no one
to talk.

Also, cognitive development follows a predictable pattern. Memory precedes reasoning and concrete
reasoning precedes abstract reasoning.

Components of Cognitive Development

The factors that play important role in cognitive development are :

1. Perception. Perception is an important process of cognitive development and probably the first one.
The child, after birth gets all the information about the world around him through his sensory organs.
His initial experiences are sensory in nature.

Perception is the process of giving meaning to these sensory experiences. You pat a child
the experience is interpreted as unpleasant. Thus all experiences obtained through the sense organs are
perceived or interpreted and given a meaning. This means leads to understanding and cognition.

These experiences together with their interpretations are preserved for future reference.
Every time an experience is repeated or experienced afresh, the past experiences are referred to. For
example, a child touches a hot tea-pot and hurts himself. This experience is preserved. Next time when
he sees the tea-pot, previous experience is referred to and the pot is avoided.

Perception is also selective. The sensory organs receive millions of stimuli from the
environment but only a few are attended to. Just now for example while reading this topic , you are
sitting on a comfortable chair and the atmosphere is quiet and peaceful .You are reading the topic with
complete concentration because you want to prepare thoroughly for the fourth coming examinations.
In such circumstances you are not even conscious of the presence or absence of all other stimuli. In
other words, out of many stimuli present you have selected a few and responded only to those. The
process of perception becomes more complicated as one grows. The ability to select the right stimuli
from many present and giving them an accurate interpretation is one of the many cognitive abilities.

There is a definite pattern in the stimuli that attract a child’s attention for perception. When the
child is in the crib, moving objects attract his attention most but during pre-school age it is the familiar

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objects that interest him most. Later when he starts going to school, his interest is more in the unusual
and unfamiliar objects .Thus in order to improve the perception of pre-scholar, a teacher should plan
learning experiences around the known and familiar objects.

Perception of time, direction, depth, space, size, etc., also develop gradually when relevant
stimulations are provided. By the time the child reaches 10 t0 12 years of age, all these perceptual
skills are fully developed. Remember, the more the senses are involved the better is child’s perception.
Hence let the child touch, feel, and taste and smell the objects in order to formulate the right images
and accurate interpretations.

2. Memory. One of the most fundamental aspects of cognitive development is the ability to remember.
If we have no memory, the cognitive development would not take place. For example , in order to be
able to do addition sums up to number 10 we need to know two things :(a) the numbers in sequential
order up to 10, and , (b) addition facts i.e., when numbers are added , the sum total is more . Thus for
cognitive development to take place number facts, we must first learn and remember (a) and (b)
factors. But if we have no memory, how can any learning take place.

Memory helps the individual to maintain a link between the present and the past. When past
experiences are referred to, they help in understanding the new experiences and the familiarity with
them helps in maintaining continuity. Memory also helps the person to reason out and classify.

3. Concepts. Concepts are important in cognition because they are the tools of thinking. A concept is
the abstraction of a concrete object or idea. For example, a chair is a concrete object. It has four legs, a
seat and a back. Some chairs also have arms. A chair may have a stuffed seat or a cane seat or a
wooden seat and it may be brown, white, black or red. In all forms or coloures or sizes a chair is a
chair. Whenever the word chair is mentioned, a definite object emerges before us. This generalized
abstraction of a concrete object is the ‘concept’.

At first children’s concepts are rudimentary and based on concrete objects. For example ,
seeing a real dog or its picture makes the concept of a dog clear to a child .Having formed simple
concepts such a ‘dog’, ‘cat’, ‘house’, ‘bed’, etc., they are able to correctly entirely novel experiences
such as ‘stray dogs’ or ‘soft beds ’or a ‘huge house’ or ‘ beautiful house’.

Thus a child’s repertoire of concepts increases over the years. But they develop abstract
concepts (such as kindness, honesty, etc.) only round the age of 6. This transition from concrete to
abstract comes at about the same time when the child is developing command over language.

Since concepts are formed on the basis of experiences through sensory exploration and motor
manipulation. Let them taste, fell, smell, touch and hear and thereby interpret and acquire a store of
information. Motor manipulation will help the child to supplement his sensory exploration. These
explorations and experiences will lead to better and clearer understanding of concepts, which will lead
to better and clearer understanding of concepts, which in turn will lead to healthier cognitive
development.

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 4. Problem solving. Cognition is basically a problem solving ability. Problem solving means
using the knowledge and skills to solve the problems of everyday life or to deal with the environment
more effectively. Such an activity makes use of all the other processes of cognition i.e.

 Memory,  Inducing,
 Thinking,  Deducing,
 Reasoning,  Discriminating,
 Synthesizing,  Evaluating ,etc
 Analyzing,

Three stages of problem solving are suggested by the psychologists.

These are:

- Preparation ,
- Production ,
- Judgment.

Preparation means understanding the problem and collecting all the information necessary.

Production means thinking of possible solutions.

Judgment refers to the evaluation of various alternatives.

5. Intelligence. Psychologists have come to agree that the intelligence consists of a large number of
mental abilities. Most of these abilities are common to the cognitive ability of the individual. In fact
cognitive development and mental growth run parallel to each other.

There is a rapid mental growth during early years and we know that there is a rapid cognitive
development also during these years .For example , language skills , number ability , ability to
discriminate and see relationships, ability to reason out etc .,are common to both intelligence and
cognitive ability .

These abilities develop rapidly during early years and enable the child to understand the world around
him and make suitable adjustments to it . In fact during early childhood it is the cognitive abilities that
are watched and assessed and not the intelligence .There are tests to measure intelligence even at this
stage but it is not right to measure intelligence because all the development has not taken place yet .
However, from observation we do assess if a child is bright or slow and accordingly his cognition will
be above or below the norm. One should provide more and varied experiences to a bright child to
accelerate his cognitive development. For a child who is slow to pick up, it is advisable to provide
repetition of experiences to help him to clarify the concepts.

6. Learning .Learning is as essential for cognitive development as the other components far. Children
must learn how to perceive differences in things they see, taste, smell, touch or hear. Cognitive ability
brings understanding, specially, when ability to discriminate develops. At 2 weeks of age, for example,

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babies give momentary attention to things that are dangled in front of them. This indicates that they
have started noticing things in their environment. Later they indicate that they can differentiate
between faces. They cry when they see an unfamiliar face, but smile when they see the face of their
mother (which is familiar to them).

Understanding increases as the child’s ability to perceive relationships between new and old
situations increases. Handling objects increases his ability to perceive relationship because it provides
him opportunity to discover meaning.

Stages of cognitive Development

According to Proget, there are four stages of cognitive or intellectual development.

1. Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years). This is the time when the child learns to control his body in space
it is also a part of reflexes. At this stage the intelligence exists without symbols or language. The child
learns by exploring touching, tasting, seeing, hearing and smelling for him the things that are not in
sight do not exist. By the end of this stage the child learns not only to control his body but also
understand that his body is different from space.

2. Preoperational stage (2-7 years). It is preparation to the period of logical thinking and operations.
It is in an ego – centered or self – centered stage and the child views everything in terms of
himself .His learning requires experiences with real objects and things. The child now also begins to
think of things that are not present. This can be observed by watching children enacting roles (of a
doctor, a teacher, mummy, papa etc.) and creating imaginary situations.

Piagets experiments on conservation ( a term denoting the invariant nature of an object despite chance
in certain features) reveal that mass , weight , volume and numbers are in variant physical properties
which the child is now able to comprehend during this stage . This is why when liquid from a narrow
jar is poured into a flat jar , the child thinks it has become less and same mass of clay when rolled flat
becomes more for a child than when rolled into a ball.

3. Concrete operational period (7-12 years). The vague and nebulous concepts of the pre- school
years become concrete and specific. This enables the children to think deductively, to form concepts of
space and time and to categorize objects into broader and more general categories. They are able to
take the role of others and this leads to a greater understanding of reality. They also understand that the
objects can be classified along a continuum, such as length or size. This is called seriation. Because of
this comprehension of the nature of physical properties of the objects the child in this period is aware
of conservation. Conservation reflects the child’s ability to deal with a number of different aspects
simultaneously.

In general, during concrete – operational period ,the child’s thoughts become increasingly logical and
coherent . He is able to consider categories of objects and events. He is now able to consider the other
person’s viewpoint as well, which is a welcome change in the area of human relations.

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4. Formal Operational stage (12 years onwards). Children are now capable of considering all
possible ways of solving problems and are also able to give reasons on the basis of hypothesis and
prepositions. As a result they can now look at the problems from different points of view and can take
many factors into consideration to solve these problems. Children’s thinking thus becomes more
flexible and concrete and they are able to combine information from many different sources. Abstract
theoretical and philosophical matters are also considered partly because the adolescent realises that he
can deal with these. Contradictions in the world can be dealt with and resolved at least in the sense of
arriving at a balance or perspective.

Piaget uses two major processes to describe the cognitive development of the child. These are:

 Assimilation , and
 Accomodation.
Assimilation .It means incorporating new elements from environment, into already existing mental
framework. For example to start with, all four legged furry animals are ‘cats’ or ‘dogs ’for a child.
Every new cat or dog he sees, big or small, live or dead he takes in the information and assimilates
into his already existing mental picture.
Accomodation .It involves the modification of existing mental structure to fit new perception of the
environment. This is the stage when he learns to differentiate between a ‘dog’ and a ‘cat’ and a live
dog from a dead dog or stuffed dog .

The two processes are complimentary to each other and keep occurring throughout the period of
cognitive development.

To conclude we may say that when the child is developing understanding, he is making use of the
various aspects of cognition i.e . The ability to learn, perceive reason out at concrete level or at
abstract level, memories etc. Piaget has explained when and how these abilities develop.

Fostering Cognitive Development

The quality of understanding is influenced by many factors, such as , condition of sense organs ,
opportunity to learn , type of experiences etc . The knowledge of these factors will help you to foster a
child’s cognitive development.

1. Factors Influencing Cognitive Development

(i) Healthy Sense Organs. Perception is dependent on the information brought by the sensory organs.
The more the clarity of information, the better the perception is. But clarity of information comes from
the healthy sensory organs. For example, if the eyes are healthy and normal they can see accurately; if
the ears are normal they can hear accurately. Regular medical checkups will help you to detect any
problems with individual child’s eye-sight and hearing or perception of touch and smell.

(ii) Conducive Environment .It means that the child is placed in the environment where he is
motivated to ask questions or find answers. If you display sensory material in the class, the children
feel stimulated. Charts, picture books, toys, play, painting and building materials have to be on display

22
for children to see and feel encouraged to play with them. Playing or working with these things will
lead to better and richer experiences and better and varied concepts.

(iii) Freedom to Explore. Freedom to explore the environment leads to more sensory experiences.
Loving patient and knowledgeable teachers and parents will encourage children to find things for
themselves. They will also try to answer their questions truthfully and accurately.

(iv) Repetitive Experiences .For developing concepts children need not one but repetition of the same
or similar experience. You as a parent or teacher must allow repetition of the same experience. If a
child wants to perform the same activity everyday let him do it.

Learning

Learning is one of the most important components of cognitive development .Learning experiences
effect concept formation and intellectual development. Learning is a process through which an activity
originates or is changed through reaction to a situation. It is important that the change in characteristic
of the activity is not due to instinct, drug, maturation or fatigue.

Thus we know that: -

1. Learning is an activity through which an activity originates.

2. Learning is a change emerging from an encounter with a situation.
3. The change brought about by learning is permanent.
4. What is learnt can be unlearnt and changed.
5. The occurring change is different from change occurring as a result of maturation, instinct drug or
fatigue.

Instinctive behavior is inherent and does not need to be learnt. Further learning is dependent on
maturation, whereas maturation is not dependent on learning. Individuals differ in their learning
abilities. These individual differences may occur for various reasons in the home school and due to
inherent factors children from each other because of their personal characteristics needs experiences
competence and motivation and environmental .

Learning is affected by personal factors related to the task to be learnt .Personal factors affecting
learning are intelligence, competence, physical and emotional state. Motivation and interest of the
child also influences learning. Environmental factors such as proper guidance, method, equipment and
pleasant environment effect learning. If the task to be learnt is in relation to the capacity of the
learning, it is meaningful and interesting then it is easily mastered. Learning is linked with
development of mind. An individual not merely receives information, but also processes it through the
process of assimilation and accommodation, an individual learns, grows changes and adopts to his
environment.

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SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

A study of social development tells us what social development is, how children develop social
approved behaviors and the activities that enhance the social development of children
Right from the very beginning the child’s talked to and taught the do’s and don’ts of society.
Gradually the child inculates the socially approved behavior. Knowledge of social development is
important because the child has to develop ways to get along with the others in his environment.
Every child is born within a certain society and as he grows he learns to behave in accordance with the
social expectations of his society. This ability to get along well with himself and others in his society
is called social development. The process through which this learning occurs is socialization.
Thus through socialization, a child is trained in the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours appropriate to his
society. Social development would then include learning to eat, play, speak, and make friends and
learning to do the right things and not the wrong ones.
You greet the people you know when you know them saying Namaste or hello or using any other form
of greeting. Students wish 6the teacher when she enters the class-rooms. All this is part of social
development.
Social development means acquisition of the ability to behave in accordance with social expectations.
What child’s attitude towards people and social experiences will be and how well they get along with
other people will depend largely on their learning experiences during the early, formative year of life.
Whether they will learn to conform to social expectations and become socialized would depend on the
following factors:

1. Ample opportunities for socializing

Children need opportunities to be with others of their own age and level of development and also be
with adults of different ages and backgrounds.

2. Opportunities for communicate

Children should be able to communicate with others about topics which are understandable and
interesting to other people. Communication with others i.e., socialized speech is an important aid to
socialization. A child learns to talk social development through constant reinforcements from other in
his environment; speech helps to socialize the child.

3. Motivation

Children will learn to be social only if they are motivated to do so.

Motivation depends largely on how much satisfaction children derive themselves from social
activities. If a child is motivated to share his Tiffin with his friends he will get some satisfaction from
it. This is a social act and helps in social development.

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4. Guidance

Children will learn more quickly if they are taught by a person who can guide and direct their learning.
Setting appropriate models of social behavior and guidance will help them acquire skills and attitudes
which will be expected of them if they are to gain acceptance in the group.

Social development follows a pattern which is similar for all children within a social group. Let us see
what his pattern of social development is in early childhood.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILD HOOD

In the first two month of life babies merely respond to stimuli in their environment. They have no
interest in people. Socialization begins around the third month, when babies can distinguish between
people and objects in their environment. They turn their heads when they near human voices and
smile, kick and waive their arms. In the fourth month they show selective attention to faces. For
example, they look in the direction of the person who turns to leave them. From the fifth to the sixth
month babies reacts differently to smiling and scolding and they can distinguish between friendly and
angry voices.
During the sixth month, social advances become more aggressive. Babies, for example pull the hair of
the person who is holding them, grab the nose or eye glasses and they explore the person’s facial
features. By 7-9 month they imitate speech sounds as well as simple acts and gestures. At 12 months,
they can refrain from doing things in response to no-no’. from the age of 15 months they show an
increasing interest in adults and a desire to be with them and imitate them
From 2 to 6 years, children learn how to make social contacts and how to get along with people
outside the home, especially children of their own age. They learn to adapt themselves to others and
learn how to cooperate in playing activities. The number of contacts with other children increases at
this age and this determines partly how social development will progress. Children who attend pre-
schools usually have a large number of contacts with peers or friends and make better social
adjustments than children who have not had this pre-school experiences. Since in pre-schools children
are better prepared, for active group participation than children whose activities whose activities are
limited to mainly family members, the former develop faster socially
Relations with Adults

With each succeeding year, young children spend less time with adults and derive less enjoyment from
being with them. At the same time their interest with playmates increases.
With the growing desire to be independent, children become resistant to adult authority. It is not
uncommon to see an 8years old child complaining, oh she gives us so much home work; it does not
leave us any time to play
However, in spite of the desire to be independent, young children still try to gain attention and
approval from adults. Parents and teachers are still largely responsible for providing a model for
developing social attitudes

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Relations with other children

Before the age of 2 years, young children engage in playing alone or with adults. Even though two or
three children play in the same room and with similar toys, little social interaction takes place. From
the age of 3-4 years, children begin to play together in groups. They talk to one another while playing
and are selective about who they want to play with. Sex preferences for playmates can also be seen in
the later part of pre-school. Boys like to play with their own sex and similarly girls enjoy the company
of their own sex mates.
Much of the social development of children will depend on the kind of social atmosphere in which
they are learning. The social atmosphere with is found in the school and classroom can be broadly
categorized into three categories. These categories are explained below
 Atmosphere should by the autocratic domineering type of teachers.

The autocratic teacher believes in strict discipline, and no student can ask question to her. Her methods
are stereo typed. The children become overly submissive and they have inward hatred against such a
teacher. In the classroom of such a teacher, there are no chances of exchanging ideas. The children
learn to fear and they become recessive. The children may generalize the behavior of the teacher with
other adults and start fearing the. Such children may become scared to approach others or develop
healthy social contacts.
 Atmosphere created by submissive teachers possessing mean personality

Here the teacher is unable to maintain proper control in the class.

The children become over- assertive and here is total disorder in the class. The children used to such
an atmosphere become undisciplined. They may pick up wrong habits of cheating fighting and other
undesirable behaviours. There can be no healthy development in such an atmosphere.
 Atmosphere created by democratic teachers who are neither autocratic ….submissive

In the class of such teachers, the teacher and students work together. They decide upon topics to be
learnt by mutual discussions. They appreciate each other point of view. The children work in groups
and there is much give and take between the teacher and the children

STAGES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

1 Language development is necessary for social communication and development of the individual
2 Social behavior begins with non- discrimination responses
3 During early childhood, social responses are made in relation to only the adults in his environment
4 Social reactions initially are self centered aimed at fulfillment of his basic needs
5 Later he starts noticing other children, but does not communicate much with them
6 9-14months – the child’s more interested in things and play materials around his than people
7 13-18 months-attracted towards other children.
8 Play and social interactions pass through unoccupied behavior to cooperative and organized play.
(a) Initially watches other children and people. Aimlessly follows adults and other children
(b) Indulges in solitary play, showing no interest or desire to associate with others around him.

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 (c) Exhibits on looker behavior-watch others at play and tries to communicate with them. Does
not participate.
(d) Participates in parallel play- in the same way as others, and does not share toys or things.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The term emotional development denotes how the various emotions developing people. Some of these
emotions stay and some fade away. Let us see the pattern of emotional development.

PATTERN OF EMMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The ability to respond emotionally is present in new born infant. The first sign of emotional behavior
is general excitement due to strong stimulation. The new shows mass activity which stimulated. At
birth, however, the infant shows no clear cut responses that can be identified as specific emotional
states
By the end of two weeks the general excitement of the newborn becomes differentiated into simple
reactions that suggest delight and distress.
Distress is seen by abruptly changing the baby’s position, marking sudden loud noises, allowing the
baby the wear wet diapers etc. such stimuli causes crying and mass activity.
Delights is apparent when the baby sucks. This feeling can also be elicited by rocking, patting,
providing warmth and holding the baby snugly. The baby shows pleasure by general relaxation of his
entire body, and by pleasant sounds in the form of coos gurgles.
The initial emotions of distress and delights give rise to other emotions at different ages as the child
grows and develops. At six months of age distress is further differentiated in fear, disgust and anger.
At twelve months of age the child has become attached to significant people in his environment and
shows affection towards them. Also he expresses elation when he comes across a novel, wonderful
situation or when something amuses him.
At 18 months of age distress differentiates into jealousy and delights differentiate into affection for
adults and children. At 24 months delights differentiates into joy.
By years of age the emotions of shame, anxiety, disappointment and envy have been differentiated
from distress and emotions of hope and parental affection from delight.
Through maturation learning finer emotions are acquired in the subsequent years of childhood and
adolescence.
CHARACTERISTICS OF EMOTIONS

If children seen to be easily ………….we easily moved from tears to laughter, from sadness to joy
from emotion to jealousy. It is due to the influence of maturation and learning on emotional
development, and emotions of adults differ markedly from those of children and is to adults tend to
regard the young child’s emotional reactions is immature. These are certain characteristic features of
children’s emotions that make the different from those older persons, namely;

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1 Emotions are intense

Young children respond with equal intensity to a arrival event and to a serious situation. If a child is
angry he will push, pull, throw himself on the ground, bang the furniture, throw pillow and so on.
2 Emotions appear frequently

Children display their emotions frequently. Child laugh more frequently. Children laugh more
frequently than adults probably because they find more things amusing; they show more anger and
affection than adults. As they grow older, they discover that certain types of emotional outburst are
disapproved and some lead to punishment also. Thus they gradually learn to adjust to emotion-
arousing situations and control their emotional outburst which is socially disapproved.
3 Emotions are transitory

You must have seen that if a child is crying, diverting his attention to something interesting will stop
his tears. Young children’s rapid shifts of emotions from laughter to tears, from anger to smiles, or
from jealousy to affection make it easier for adults to handle them by diverting the child’s attention.
Young children’s rapid shifts of emotion attributed to three factors. One, their attention span is short;
two, they lack complete understanding of the situation, and, three they have limited experiences. These
factors make it easier for the adults to divert their attention.
4 Emotional responses reflect individuality

Children show different emotional reactions to a similar situation. One child will run out of the room
when frightened, another one will cry, and still another will hide behind a piece of furniture or a
person. Adults also have different individual responses but their behavior is more influenced by social
approval.
5 Emotions can be detected by behavior symptoms

Children may not show their emotions reaction directly but may show them indirectly by restlessness,
day- dreaming, crying, speech difficulties, and nervous mannerism such as nail bil and thumb sucking.
This pattern is carried on into adulthood.
6 Emotion change in strength

Emotions that are very strong at certain ages may not remain so, while others, formerly weak may
became stronger, as the child grows. These changes are due to change in interest and values of a child
and also due to this intellectual development.

IMPORTANT CHILDHOOD EMOTIONS

Fear

Fear is aroused when there are events with which the individual is unable to cope up with. Certain
fears are characteristically found at certain ages. The most common fears provoking stimuli in
babyhood are loud noises, animals, dark rooms, high places, being alone, pain and strange persons,
places and objects

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Young children are afraid of more things than either babies or other children. From 2-6 years of age
maximum fears develop. The reason for this is that young children are more capable of recognizing
dangers than babies are, but their lack of experience makes them less capable than older children of
recognizing that they are not personal threats.
Among older children, fears are concentrated on fanciful, supernatural, or remote dangers, on the dark
and imaginary creatures (associated with the dark) or injury. On thunder and lightening and on
characters recalled from stories, movies, comics and television. They are also afraid of falling, of
being different from others’. Besides this, they may also have fears related to self or status.
Regardless of the child’s age, an important characteristic of all fear stimuli is that they occur suddenly
and unexpectedly, and the child has little opportunity to adjust to them. As children grow older and
become mature intellectually, they can adjust more quickly to sudden and unexpected circumstances
and as a result many conditions that aroused fear when they were younger no longer do so.
Although fears are typical for a given age level, it does not necessarily mean that all children of this
age level experience the same fears with same intensity. These variations lead to differences in the
range and intensity of the fears experienced by different children. Some children, for example, have
many more and more intense fears than others. There are many factors responsible for this. These
factors are explained below;
(i) Sex. Girls as a group show more fear than boys as a group. Also it is more socially acceptable
for girls to fear certain things, such as snakes and bugs. You know, that if a boy is scared of
something people are more likely to say that “oh being a boy you are scare, shame.”
(ii) Socio-economic status. Lower class children at all ages have more fears than children of
middle and upper class backgrounds
(iii) Physical conditions. If children are hungry or in poor health, they will respond with greater
fear than they do normally and will be frightened in situations which do not normally excite
their fears.
(iv) Social contacts. Being with others who are frightened predisposes children to be frightened
also.
(v) Birth order. First borns tend to have more fears than latter borns because they are subjected to
greater parental over protection.
(vi) Personality. Insecure children tend to be frightened more easily than children who are
emotionally secure.

Jealousy

Jealousy is normal response to actual; supposed or threatened loss of affection. It is an outgrowth of

anger, giving rise to an attitude of resentment directed towards people. The jealous person feels
insecure in relationship with a loved one and is afraid of loosing status in that person’s affection.
One of the commonest form of jealousy is the older child’s attitude toward a newborn baby in the
family. Since the amount of maternal attention required for the care of the new infant increases the
older child feels neglected and jealous of the baby.
Let us see the factors that lead to feeling of jealousy in a child:

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(i) Parental favouritism results in jealousy. Without realizing it, many parents show a
disproportionate interest in a child who happens to be especially attractive, affectionate or
gifted;
(ii) Teacher’s favouritism results in jealousy. Teachers at times favour some children, especially if
they are attractive or gifted. Teachers should watch out, and show no-partiality which causes
resentment.
(iii) Envied material possessions of other children results in jealousy. Children feel deprived of
material possessions which other children have and it causes jealousy.

Affection

As soon as a child is born, he gets the affection of his mother and other relatives. This affection which
is shown towards him by others, and in turn his affection to them, play an important role in his
emotional development.
Children tend to like most those who like them and are friendly in their relationship with them.
Teachers, who show an interest in children and a willingness to help them, become their favorites.
Children make friends with those within the poor group, who show affection for them and do not
bully, these or criticize them.
Children who receive affection develop the ability to love others. Thus affection is a pleasant emotion
and contributes positively to a child’s self image and his ability to adjust with environments. As a
caution we may add that over affection or indulgence may have as undesirable effects on a child as
lack of affection or constant rejection by significant people in child’s life (parents, teaches, peers, etc)

Joy

Joy is pleasant emotion, which is accompanied by smiling or laughing. Pleasure and delight are its
milder forms. Physical well being, successful accomplishment of an activity, doing better than their
age-mates are some of the stimuli that give joy.
Children enjoy funny situations more in the company of other children and also laugh more when with
others, rather than alone. Hence a teacher should create conditions in class which children find funny.
For example, a teacher acting like a baby will be a stimulus for the children and will get their response
of laughter. Remember that laughter is contagious.

Curiosity
Pre- scholars are curious about unfamiliar objects in their environment, familiar objects of everyday
use, mechanical devices and unusual objects. They are also keen to know more about themselves e.g.,
their bodies etc. the questioning age begins at the 3 and reaches its peak at about the age of 6 to 7
years.
Heightening children’s curiosity will add to the learning of pre- scholars. Therefore a teacher should
help the child develop and satisfy his curiosity by explaining, manipulating, questioning and probing.
Defining emotion precisely is very difficult. There is no clear-cut distinction between emotion and
non- emotional behavior, nor are there sharp lines of demarcation between one emotion and other, for
the human emotions are found to blend into one another. Emotion is a complex state of feeling
involving conscious experience, internal and overt physical responses and power to motivate the
organism to action. An emotion is a subjective state, often accompanied by bodily and facial

30
expressions and has arousing and motivating properties. Some theorist claim that emotion is a just a
matter of the degree to which a person is aroused or surred up and use the sleep aroused scale of
activation as a central dimension of emotionality. At the arousal end of the scale, people’s most
intense emotional feelings occur, when they are highly activated. At the other end of the scale,
emotional feeling is usually at a very low ebb, when people are drowsy or a sleep.
As the nervous system increases its activity from deep sleep to intense activation certain definite
physiological changes occur. Direct observation by means of various recording instruments has given
us a great deal of information about the bodily changes in emotion. Psycho-physiologists measure the
heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to various parts of the body, activity of stomach and gastro-
intestinal systems, levels of various substances in the blood, breathing rate and depth, and many other
bodily changes in emotion. Degree of arousal is usually indicated by EEG (electro encephalogram),
GSR (galvanic skin response) and papillary reaction; and orientation reaction (tensing of muscles).
The reticular activating system (R A S) is the part of the brain responsible for controlling the level of
activation in sleep and arousal
All of the internal and many of the external signs of emotion are commanded by the autonomic
nervous system. The two divisions of this system, namely the sympathetic system and parasympathetic
system and parasympathetic nervous system, are activity in most emotional states. For the stronger
emotions at least different patterns of autonomic activity can be detected. The limbic system portion of
the brain usually controls the patterns of emotional expression.
Sub- cortical centers which are important in emotion are found in the thalamus, sub-thalamus and the
hypothalamus. For each primary drive there is an inhibitory and arousal centers. If strong emotional
reactions persist, the physiological changes brought on by the emotions can cause bodily disorders
such as high blood pleasure, ulcers etc. diseases that are a result of prolonged emotional reactions to
psychological stress are called psychosomatic. Psychosomatic medicine is concerned with the
treatment of ailments which results at least partially from sustained emotional arousal and which may
involve tissue damage as well as unpleasant symptoms. Some studies appear to indicate that
psychosomatic reactions are learned.
Psychosomatic disorders are explained by the general adaption syndrome; comprising of three major
phases:
1 The alarm reaction stage- the stage involves physiological symptoms.
2 The resistance stage-increased activity of body help the organism to adjust and disappearance of
original symptoms.
3 Exhaustion stage-the organism no longer able to maintain the resistance.
Both maturation and learning play a part in the development of our complex emotional behavior. The
basic emotions-gloom delight, love fear, anger-often combined in various degrees to produce complex
emotional patterns are governed by nature of stimulus, individual differences in emotional response
and role of maturation in emotional development particularly in the differentiation of emotions during
infancy. In general emotional development from infancy through emotion maturity is characterized by
an increasing variety and richness of emotional experience and by improved ability to control the
emotions, by expressing them in socially approved ways. In old age emotional response are typically
less intense and more rigid.

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Theories of emotion

There are many theories of emotion concerned with various aspects of emotional responsively,
emotional feeling and emotional expression. Some of these theories focus on the relationship between
felt emotions and bodily states. The James Lange theory maintains that the emotions we feel are result
of our perceptions of the changes taking place in the body during an emotion. But the trouble is that
bodily reactions are acquit similar in many emotional states especially for the less intense and subtle
emotions, besides people can seldom perceive the find differences in their bodily changes as they are
not very acute. The cannon bard theory states that the felt emotions and bodily changes are
independent of each other and are both controlled by activity in the central nervous system. The
schachter- singer theory holds that the state of aroused bodily conditions. We experience the emotion
that is appropriate to the situation in which we find ourselves. One theory of emotions and motivation
says that emotions are motives which keep behavior going.
Another such theory is that emotions are motives amplify drive to give them energy. A cognitive
theory of emotions is concerned especially with the way people appraise situations.
Depending on the appraisal the same situation may produce no emotions, strong emotion or different
types of emotion. Another major aspect of emotion is the role it plays as an energizer. In emergencies,
emotion makes possible action over a longer period of time than otherwise and enables the individual
to exert maximum strength momentarily and renders him less sensitive to pain. Emotions are like
drives and motives in their ability to arouse, sustain any direct behavior but typically occur in
emergency situations and depend on cognitive evaluation of an external situation.
Expression of emotion

The expression and perception of emotion is very important in our response to the other people. The
physical expression plays an important part in our interaction with the world around us. The overt
responses of the body parts, face and vocal mechanism are directly involved in manipulating the
environment. Some indications of others may be derived from facial expression and from the voice.
We express emotion verbally by the tone and other characteristics of the voice; we also express
emotions verbally by giving labels to our emotion. We express emotions non-verbally by gestures and
facial expressions. Facial expressions have been studied and a number of primary emotions judged
accurately by people from many diverse cultures; thus we know that expression of primary emotions
has an innate basis.
One’s own emotion and expression or repression of it affects one’s perception of emotion in others.
Patterns of overt emotional behavior include obstruction, (typical of anger), approach, (typical of
pleasant emotions) retreat, (typical of fear) and stopping of response, (typical of grief or gloom). Many
different situations trigger emotion whether pleasure or fear, the kind of situation responsible for it,
changes as babies grow into children, and children into adults. The infant responses to emotional
tension either pleasant or un pleasant is usually vigorous and uncontrolled, regardless of the strength
of the stimulus. Besides his emotional outbursts last for only a short time. In early childhood, variety
of responses increase with a widening of provocative situations. Crying still continues to be a common
response. With growth comes accurate perception and emotion control. Culture and society demand
accepted emotional expression through approval, praise attention and affection. The emotional
behavior of adults is richly carved and usually channeled more usefully than at any other time of life.

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Development of emotion

Excitement

Emotions start as general excitement due to intense stimulation i.e., they are diffused later on become
differentiated with age. Emotional responses become less diffuse and random although emotional
expressions are seen right from birth. Yet emotional development is a function of maturation and
learning. The intellectual development, the child perceives meaning in what he sees and thus responds
accordingly. Besides conditioning and imitation also influences emotional behavior. The learning
opportunities and differences in maturational levels is responsible for individual differences in
emotional development of a child. Patterns of emotional expressions changes. In later years he learns
to adjust to emotion arousing situations and react to then in socially accepted ways. Their emotions are
never disguised like adults. Their emotions are expressed in overt actions, thus it is very easy to know
whether a child is angry, afraid or happy. By and large children’s emotions are brief, but intense. They
react very strongly every minor emotional situation. They are transitory in nature, as the child’s span
of attention is very short. Learning and the environment of the child is responsible for the difference in
response to similar emotion arousing situation by different children. Listed below are some of the
situations responsible for a particular emotion.
(A) Fear. Fears are learned either by direct association or by experiencing some stimuli that naturally
arouses fear. They may also arise out of imagined experiences or learnt through unitation of
individuals objects in the child’s environment. Cause of fear is mainly due to suddenness and
unexpected appearance of stimuli, and being places and people can be the cause of fear in early
childhood. Pain and loss of support, high place, being alone, etc., are also fear producing
situations. Young children are afraid of more things than either babies or older children. Imaginary
fears increase with age children learn to fear ghosts, robbers, skeleton, characters from stories,
films comics, etc.
Fear can do a lot of harm to the child’s development and success in life.

Hence means and methods must be employed to reduce the occurrence of fear.

This can be achieved by the following methods

 Deliberate diversion of attention of the child from the fear causing situation.
 Explaining and assuring the child that fear of a particular object, person, or place in uncalled for
 Avoiding compulsion in acquaintance of child to a novel object or situation.
 Reconditioning the child- to undo- conditioned fears. Teaching the child healthy reactions to some
actual fearful situation.
(B) Anger unlike fear increases with age, anger is not only a means of showing resentment but also a
strong tool to fulfill desires and draw attention towards self. Temper tantrum are overt expression
of anger. They are greatly determined by the environment of the child. The children reared by
autocratic parents, subjects to excessive punishment for small wrongs, denial of wishes, plans and
purposes, desire for attention, are more prone to anger than children reared in democratic and
permissive set up. Discomfort, interference, teasing and ridicule are the vital causes for resentment
and anger. When a child is angry he throws up a temper tantrum, the child indulges in crying,
screaming, kicking, and other strong body movements indirectly, but later resorts to verbal and

33
 physical attack at the offending person or subject. Anger can be greatly reduced by ignoring
unhealthy responses and reinforcing healthy responses to a particular situation. Another method of
reducing anger in the child is by rechannelising the child’s responses to constructive activities.
(C) Jealousy. Any loss of affection results in jealousy. It is a means of showing resentment and anger
at being ignored or placed down the scale of preference. The arrival of a baby in the family may
make the older child feel unloved and unwanted. Parental favouristism, of one child with another,
a lack of confidence in self may be expressed directly by hitting, kicking, pushing, bitting etc. or
indirectly by bedwetting, thumb sucking, naughtiness, disobedience, destructiveness etc. the
parents and other adults must give the child due attention and importance, and avoid undue
comparison. They must teach the child to love and respect himself and accept and love him for
what he is and make him feel wanted and desired.
(D) Joy, pleasure and delight. These emotions are expressed in the form of cooing, babbling, laughing,
smiling, singing, talking, clapping etc. music, familiar sounds, objects and people teaching,
laughing, talking etc. are some of the stimuli for arousing joy, pleasure and delight.

EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS
Bed wetting

Bet wetting is quite a common problem, about 10% of the children are afflicted by it. Boys more often
than girls are afflicted by it. It is inaccurate to label a child bed wetter until he reaches the age of five
or so; as below that age he could simply be late in achieving control. But if he has started going to
school and still wets his bed, then he may indeed have a problem. Bed wetting may not occur only
because the child is disturbed. It is known to run in families. Parents who themselves were bed wetters
are far more likely to have a child who is so. It can occur in perfectly happy well adjusted children.
The wetting its self can disturb the child, and cause the problem, hence it is important to determine
which came first. Parental mismanagement is not the sole cause.
Treatment is first to help the child realize that he is not naughty. He needs understanding and
cooperation and not blame. When he realizes that his parents are on his side, he will find it much
easier to cope with his difficulty. A medical checkup will help reveal any physical problems that need
to be taken care of.
Make necessary arrangement for change of linen and night wear for the bed wetter. See that this can be
attended to with least fuss and delay. Do not try to alter his drinking habits. Stopping fluid intake in
the evenings as some people do, actually does not stop bed wetting, indeed it may increase it. The
urine becomes more concerned and therefore more irritating and bladder responds to smaller quality
inside it than it usually would. Use of rewards for every dry night may work for sometime with some
children, it does seem rather self defeating for one thing the child cannot help his bed wetting, so why
treat a dry night as though it were a success of will. Also the method implies goodness and boldness
and with it blame. A night without a reward means reproach, and this is not a very good treatment of
the problem. Usually the problem ceases by its as the grows up.

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Some children may dirty themselves during the day especially while returning from school their
trouser or clothes are soiled with a bowel movement. It is best to seek medical advice, for this is a sign
of deep distress and the family may need export help in resolving the cause. Avoid punishment, for
bed wetting is rarely due to laziness or sheer naughtiness. Such happening are really cries for help and
punishment makes the child un happy than ever.
Thumb sucking

This is labeled as an attention getting device, but it is not and may become so if they are allowed to.
This doesn’t start out that way. It is more of a comfort habit. All humans have or develop habits or
ricks which they use when they are under stress (cigarettes and cigars are adults dummied and
thumbs). The problem with such habits is that first there is the possibility of causing self- damage, and
secondly the way they irritate the onlooker. It is useful and advisable to offer replacement for the
thumb (it may not necessarily prove to be a success). Some dentist fear that thumb sucking may
displace the teeth but even so there is little that can be done to prevent it once it has started. Making a
great fuss about it by tying hands or elbows only prolongs the problem because he has to do without a
restraint sooner or later and once he does, he will start thumb sucking again, secretly may be.
It is perhaps possible to prevent thumb sucking ever starting by making sure a baby is allowed all the
sucking he needs in infancy. Do not discontinue breast or battle until he rejects it himself. Do not rush
the change from bottle to cup. If he seems to need to suck and uses this thumb after the age of eighteen
mother or so, it is best to use a dummy. Properly sterilized just as bottles and teats are, they are not
harmful as believed to be so. Certain it is fairly easy to eventually wean a child from a dummy, which
you cannot do from a thumb, since it is a part of him.
With thumb sucking, the one thing to remember is that it must not be made extra- difficult by being
turned into an attention getting device. Paying no attention to it is much better way of helping and
child is grow out of the need for it than by making a great fuss about it. It is important that we
recognize what the child wants, and try to satisfy to the best of our ability.
Nail biting

Biting nails is a nervous habit and manifested in middle childhood. It is during this period that there is
a dawning of self-awareness. They begin to evaluate their own qualities and begin to develop a sense
of self-esteem. Self esteem is the way we perceive our selves. Children tend to evaluate themselves on
the basis of other’s attitudes and opinions. Too many un happy experiences at home, during this stage,
constant criticism frequent scolding, and beating etc., often lead to a feeling of worthlessness and
nervousness. This feeling of incompetence manifests itself in the physical form of nail biting. The
child is worried and tensed and tries and desires to be appreciated and accepted.
The habit of nail biting is also a health hazards. The child continuously keeps biting the nails, and in
the process the nails are shortened, exposing the cuticle. He may also bite the cuticle, and thus expose
himself to the dangers of secondary infection through damaged and bleeding cuticles.
Parents and teachers contribute a great deal in helping the child overcome this embarrassing habit.
Children who are nail biters are usually hesitant and unsure of what expected of them. Most of the
time they feel that they just cannot succeed, whatever the effort they may put in. While children do
need guidance and discipline, but belittling them for not doing the right thing can leave them feeling
small. Parents and teachers can help by fiving them affection and a feeling security. These children

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need attention and encouragement. The expectation should be realistic. Such children need love and
patience.

Dealing with children’s Emotional problems

1 Teach the child techniques for coping up with situation in which he is inadequate.
2 Use the child’s spontaneous expression of fears in dreams, dramatic play and artistic productions
to gain insight into what he fears a why he does so in order to help him deal with his fears.
3 Prepare the child for dealing constructively with situation which are about to come up. Talking,
stories and dramatic play are that useful for this purpose.
4 Never force a child into a situation he fears. Minimize the threat and encourage him to approach
the stimulus in such a way that no harm occurs to him.
5 Always remember; never create fear of wrong things.
6 Set example to help overcome his fears when the child can see that others in meeting a situation
are successful and not afraid, he also in similar circumstances shall be able to dispense with fear.
7 Make the transition from home to school life as gradual as possible.
8 Provide a flexible routine with proper periods of rest and activity for the child.
9 Answer the child’s question and calls for help promptly.
10 Children should be provided with many opportunities where they achieve success and decide to
respond emotionally in approved ways.
11 Disapprove of hostile aggression and stop this behavior firmly.
12 Clearly express what behavior is –permitted and what is not.
13 Physical punishment must be avoided.
14 Be consistent in your expectations of behavior from children. You should not vary your
expectations of children’s behavior to suit your own moods.
15 Never give a task too difficult for the child to accomplish.
16 Children should not be engaged in a task for period longer than their attention warrants.
17 A child should be praised for his accomplishments and helped to overcome his resentment over a
particular issue.
18 Try to find out the cause of the problem. It should be kept in mind that sarcasm or humiliating a
child will serve no useful purpose.
19 An atmosphere of emotional warmth must prevail in the home.
20 Don’t make issue of a habit, or it may become an attention getting device.
21 Accept and appreciate each child as an individual.
22 Avoid comparisons between children.
23 Avoid the use of competition to motivate children. The children should be made to improve on
their previous performance and compete with their previous efforts.

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 SPEECH DEVELOPMENT
Meaning of speech

Many people use the term “speech” and “language” interchangeably, however they are not
synonymous. Language encompasses every means of communication in which thoughts and feelings
are symbolized so as to convey meaning to others.
Speech is a form of language in which articulate sounds or words are used to convey meaning. It is a
motor mental skill. It not only involves the coordination of different teams of muscles of the vocal
mechanism but also has a mental aspect, the association of meanings with the sounds produced.

ROLE OF SPEECH IN A CHILD’S LIFE

As soon as children are developmentally ready, they try to learn to speak because they find that speech
is a better tool for communication than other pre- speech forms they had to use earlier.

1. Satisfaction of needs and wants

Being able to explain their needs and wants to others instead of having to wait for them to be
understood, eliminates much of the frustration of babyhood

2. Attention from others

All children like to be in the limelight of attention. They discover that this can be achieved by asking
questions using forbidden words, expressing unconventional ideas or merely by dominating the
conversation

3. Social relationship
Children who are able to communicate well are better accepted by their peer groups and have a better
chance of playing leadership roles, than those who lack the ability to communicate or who are afraid to
use it

4. Social evaluation
Children, like adults are evaluated by members of the social group in terms of what they say and how
they say it

5. Self evaluation
Children can tell from the comments of their listeners how they feel about what they have said and
whether others are favourably or unfavorably impressed. This provides a basis for self evaluation

6. Academic achievement
Children whose speech performance in terms of pronunciation and grammatical structure is below that
of their classmates are usually judged to be intellectually inferior to them. Size of vocabulary also
influences children’s abilities to express themselves in speech and writing, both of which are essential
to school success.

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7. Influence on feelings of others
Saying pleasant things and being appreciative of others makes children popular with their age mates
and adults. Making derogatory comments and saying unpleasant things about others makes them un
popular.

8. Influence on behavior of others

Children who speak well and with confidence can influence their peers and make them behave as they
want them to than those who speak hesitatingly and with a limited vocabulary or poor grammatical
forms.

PRE – SPEECH FORM OF COMMUNICATION

Learning to speak is a long and complicated process. Babies use four pre – speech forms of
communication in early stages before they are ready to talk. These four forms are crying, babbling,
gestures and emotional expressions. Of these four, the second i.e babbling is the most important
because it becomes the basis for real speech. Pre – speech forms as communication are stop gap
measures and should be abandoned when their usefulness ends. If children continue to use them after
they are developmentally ready to learn to speak, it will be damaging to their social and personal
adjustments.
1. Crying
This is one of the first forms of speech in which an infant communicates with the world at large.
Through cries, babies make known their needs as for example for hunger and also express their bodily
states like whether they are tired or in pain. Through crying they also express their desire for attention.
The variety in the tonal quality of their cries makes it possible for them to express different emotions.
For example they cry of pain is different from the cry of hunger

2. Cooing and babbling

These are the first vowels combined with consonants; a child produces like “ma”, “da”, “ta”. Later
with practice, vocal centers make it possible for the baby to repeat these sounds by stringing them
together as “ma-ma”, “da-da”. “ta-ta”

3. Gestures
These are movements of the limbs of the body which serve as substitutes for supplementary speech.
As a substitute for speech, gestures take the place of word. An idea is conveyed to others by
meaningful movements of limbs others can understand. He is unable to understand the words, gestures
or written symbols of others.
The early years are critical for future communicative ability. It is at this stage that the foundations for
later development are laid. Even if some of the deficiencies can be compensated to some extent, they
are likely to leave permanent mark on the individual’s pattern of communicating. It is therefore
important that the teacher provided good foundation and environment for development of language.
Moral development; the terms “moral” and “immoral” are loosely used that their true significance is
often overlooked or ignored. It is therefore important to discuss what morality means. It means
conforming to social standards voluntarily. Sooner or later, most children learn that it is to their
personal advantage to conform to group moral, even though they may not always agree with them.

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Some children however feel that they have the right to do so as they please and they are “above” the
law. It is for the teacher to foster this in the children more so if parents are unable to set good models.
Aesthetic development; the young child regards people he likes as beautiful, no matter how they may
be judged by objective standards. His likes and dislikes can be shaped to a great extent by the
experiences provided by the environment of some part of the body. When a child reaches out for an
object, it means that he wants to have it or when a child pushes nipple from mouth with tongue. It
means that the child is either satisfied or not hungry. Before children enter school, their vocabularies
should be large enough to enable them to make themselves understood without the use of gestures.
Emotional expressions
This form of communication is the expression of emotions through facial and bodily changes. The
pleasant emotions are accompanied by pleasant vocabulizations in the form of cooing and chuckling
sounds while unpleasant emotions are accompanied by whimpering and crying. Like gestures,
emotional expressions continue to be a useful form of communication even after children have learnt
to speak. They reinforce words, as gestures do and as such become supplements to speech rather than
substitutes for speech as they were when babies had not yet learnt to speak.

Major categories of speech content

Children’s speech can be classified into two major categories. These are
1. Egocentric speech
2. Socialized speech

Egocentric speech

When children talk for their own enjoyment, they are using egocentric speech; they make no attempt
to exchange ideas or to pay attention to the other person’s point of view. It is like monologue. Its
major value in speech development is that it helped children to acquire facility in speaking and to
discover how people react to what they have to say. It is an aid to socialized speech
Socialized speech
This speech is adapted to the behavior or speech of a person to whom the individual is speaking. It
occurs when children are able to shift their mental perspectives and are able to view a situation from
other than their own view points. They are then able to communicate and to engage in an exchange of
ideas. Much of early socialized speech is in the form of asking questions.
Essentials in learning to speak
For the proper development of speaking skills;
Physical readiness to speak; This means that unless vocal mechanism of a child ready, the child
cannot speak. At birth, the oral canal is small and the tongue too large for the oral clarity. Until the
nerves and muscles mature, they cannot produce the sound needed for words.
Mental readiness to speak; this is dependent on the maturation of the brain. The readiness usually
develops between the age of 12 to 18 months and is regarded as the “teachable moment” in speech
development

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A good model to imitate; if children are to learn to pronounce words correctly and later make correct
sentences, they must have a model of good speech to imitate. This model could be people, speakers on
radio or television actors.
Opportunities for practice; if children are deprived of opportunities to practice speaking they
become angry and frustrated because they cannot make others understood them. This weakens their
motivation to learn to speak
Motivation; if children get what they want without speaking and using gestures or prescribed forms of
behavior, their motivation to learn to speak decreases
Guidance; the best ways to guide learning to speak are, first; to provide a good model, second; to say
words slowly and distinctly enough that children can understand them, the third; to provide help in
following this model by correcting any mistakes children may make in imitating the model.
MAJOR TASKS IN LEARNING TO SPEAK
Learning to speak involves three separate and yet interrelated process. These are;
 Learning to utter words
 Building a vocabulary
 Forming sentences
As these processes are interrelated, failure to master one of them will hinder the whole speech pattern
Utterance
This is the task in learning to speak. It is learnt by imitation. Some educators contend that early
childhood is a proper time to begin learning different languages due to the child’s flexibility in sound
imitation. This is because of the plasticity of the vocal mechanism and the absence of well developed
habits of pronunciation
Vocabulary building
In vocabulary building, children must learn to associate meanings with sounds. Children first learn the
meanings of these words for which they have the greatest need. They learn two kinds of vocabularies –
the general vocabulary and multiple special vocabulary. The general vocabulary consists of words
which can be used in a variety of different situations. The special meanings that can be used only in
certain situations. At every age, the general vocabulary is learnt before the specific vocabulary. For
example a child learns to associate orange with the fruit first and with colour later.
After children enter school, their vocabulary grows very fast because of direct teaching, new
experiences and leisure reading. Individual differences in vocabulary size at every age are due to the
differences in intelligence, environmental influences, learning opportunities and motivation to learn.
Sentence formation
The third and the most difficult task in learning to speak is combining words to form complete
sentences that are grammatically correct and can be understood by others. Between 12 to 18 months of
age children use one word sentence. At two, their sentences are often incomplete, containing a noun or
two, a verb and occasional adverb or adjective with the omission of pronouns, prepositions and

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conjunctions. It is only by the time they are 4years that their sentences are nearly complete with all
parts of speech being used.
One of the most common forms of sentences children use are questions initially their questions are
concerned only with “what”, “why” of the physical realities around them. You will find children
asking questions like “why is the sky blue” or “why we have day and night?’, “where does the sun go
at night? As they grow, their questioning behavior reflects a higher level of categories. It is therefore
logical to assume that bright children will use longer and more complex sentences
SPEECH DIFFICULTIES
We have seen that learning to speak is a complex process, having many dimensions. At each stage of
learning, there are various types of difficulties that may contribute to speech defects. The most
common among them are excessive crying, difficulties in comprehension, delayed speech, defective
speech disorders and bilingualism.
Difficult in comprehension
This is when a child cannot understand what others are saying to him. The three common reasons for
this difficulty are;
First, the child’s vocabulary may be very limited and the child may not know the meaning the meaning
of long words
Second, when people speak rapidly, young children have difficulty in comprehending the words
Third, very often children fail to listen attentively to what others are saying. This is true of young
children who are so egocentric that they are more interested in what they want to say than in what
others are saying to them.
Delayed speech
When children continue to use ”baby talk” and gestures at a time when their age mates are using
words, this is a time when their speech is delayed. This harms not only their personal and social
adjustments but also their ability to read and later to spell. The most common causes of delayed
speech are low grade intelligence, lack of motivation, limited opportunities to practice, constant
association with younger children who use “baby talk” and the use of a foreign language. In many
cases most of these factors are present in low income groups .In places where English is not common
or a known language (and English is the medium of instruction) this factor could also be the cause of
delayed speech. Unquestionably one of the most important and common causes is failure to stimulate
children to speak when they start babbling.
Defective Speech

This means that speech varies qualitatively form the norm for the child’s age because of faulty
learning. Since speech defects are due to faulty learning, their groups are categorized into defects in
word meanings, defects in pronunciation and defects in sentence structure. Corrective measures have
to be made by the teacher in the category of the error.
Defects in meanings are common when the child does not cultivate the habit of listening carefully and
comprehending what is said to him. Defects in pronunciation are also due to faulty learning and are

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corrected relatively easily. It should be noted that unless corrective measures are taken, they do not
automatically disappear, though they may become less frequent. Defects in sentence structure arise
due to the inability of children to use grammar.
SPEECH DISORDERS
Speech disorders differ from defective speech in the following two main ways;
1. First they are not caused by faulty learning but by some defect in the vocal mechanism or by
persistent emotional tension.
2. Second they cannot be corrected by merely learning pronunciation but by removing the cause of the
trouble which has led to these disorders.
Speech disorders can develop at any time during the span. However, they are likely to occur in the
pre-school years, when children are trying to learn to speak and when any emotional disturbance is
likely to upset this learning. The common disorders are;
1. Lisping- the lisper finds it difficult to sound certain letters. This could be due to “baby talk” habits,
lip or jaw. The habit formation of baby talk can be corrected, but the deformity problem needs the
services of a speech expert to help the child acquire new pattern of speech formation.
2. Slurring- Unintelligible speech may result from slurring or running words together like sometimes
in the form of mumbling jargon. Various conditions may be responsible for slurring. A shy young
child may be tongue tied in the presence of stranger and may slur in front of strangers. Another reason
for slurring may be that a bright child, who is interested in things about him, may be so eager to talk
that he finds it difficulty to say all that he has to say as quickly as he wants to. Consequently the
rapidity of his speech interferes with distinct enunciation. The children learn to control the slurring
tendency as they grow into adults.
3. Stuttering and Stammering-
These are the most serious forms of speech disorders and sometimes defy correction. They are
articulatory defects that are caused by emotional difficulties; fear of failures, anxiety, frustration,
insecurity, hostility and over prodding by adults. Any attempts at therapy need to start with the
emotional roots of the difficulty rather than the overt symptoms
Speech behavior differs even though stuttering and stammering disorders tend to be linked together. In
stammering there appears to be difficulty in producing a speech sound. The stammerer gasps,
hesitates, gasps again and then mouths the words, but may or may not be able to produce sound.
Spasmodic movements and facial grimaces usually accompany efforts to intensify the difficulty. The
stutterer can articulate but may be unable to enunciate the first consonant letter of a word as “g-g-go”
or is under compulsion to repeat words or phrases with which he has difficulty.
There need to be a good rapport and cooperation between the speech therapist and the child if these
defects are to be overcome. Sometimes it is helpful to seek the guidance of a counselor. The most
important aspect in the treatment is the release of the emotional tension present in the underlying
causes of the disorder.

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