Your child’s first few years of life are an important stage in development. They help build self-esteem and social skills that are essential for learning in school and later life.
A recent study found that children who attend subsidized public preschool tend to do better than those who don’t. But this may be a problem with how the system works rather than an issue with the kids themselves.
1. Social and Emotional Development
In preschool, children learn how to establish and maintain positive relationships with adults and peers. They also develop social problem-solving skills.
Social and emotional development is not something that happens in a linear fashion, so each child will have different milestones. But it is important to note that most young children develop many of these skills in a predictable way over the course of early childhood.
As a parent or teacher, you play a huge role in helping your child’s social and emotional development. Be sensitive to your child’s cues, follow their lead and build on what they say.
2. Language Development
Language development is an essential part of early childhood and is critical to a child’s future learning and social development. It involves receptive and expressive language skills, which are crucial to emerging literacy and the ability to communicate.
Receptive language development is the ability to understand spoken language, while expressive language development is the ability to use words to tell stories, talk about emotions and share opinions with others. Children develop their receptive and expressive language skills at different rates, and it is important to recognise the differences between them so that you can provide appropriate support.
Receptive language development is best encouraged through play, which helps children to explore their surroundings and increase their vocabularies. For example, you could create a list of objects and have your preschooler hunt around the house to find these items for a game or activity.
3. Physical Development
As children grow, they develop both gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills involve the coordination of large muscle groups, like arms and legs, and include activities like walking, running, and jumping.
Your child’s development of these physical skills will depend on how well they are engaged in active play and exercise. Your preschooler should be getting at least three hours of activity per day.
Early childhood physical development is an important part of a child’s overall development, as it links to other areas of growth. For example, if your one-year-old has limited physical development and motor skills, it may limit their exploration of their environment, which can impact their cognitive and social development.
4. Cognitive Development
During preschool children develop several important cognitive skills, such as the ability to distinguish the building blocks of speech. These skills are critical for learning to read later on.
The traditional structuralist approaches to cognitive development (Piaget and Inhelder, 1966/1969; Werner, 1957) are based on a model of systematic change in behavior that explains development primarily in terms of gradual reorganizations of mental processes. Similarly, the functionalist approach (Flavell, 1971; Gelman, 1978) predicts that development is primarily the accumulation of learning experiences in the context of specific behavioral tasks.
However, the environment is also a critical factor in development and is often overlooked by Piaget and other cognitive-developmental theorists. One of the most striking facts in cognitive development is that performance does not strictly adhere to developmental stages. This phenomenon, called horizontal decal-age, has been documented repeatedly in research.
5. Social Skills
Social skills development is a critical skill for children to learn in preschool. It involves learning empathy, communication, generosity, teamwork, helpfulness, conflict resolution, and problem solving.
Preschoolers are often egocentric, which can make it difficult for them to share, empathize, and collaborate with other children. However, teaching sharing is an important part of social skills development and can be done in many ways, including through play.
Children develop their social skills through playing with other children of their own age and older, as well as those of different ages. They also learn about friendships and mentoring through this type of play.