Introduction
When children reach the age of two, they are no longer toddlers but in their early childhood years. These years run through to the age of six. This age bracket involves growth in their body size and in their mental capacity. These children quickly grow and lose their toddler fat with a notable increase in height. These developments are integrated and occur in the physical, cognitive, and language areas ((Kathleen, 2008).
Language Development
In early childhood, the understanding, synchronizing, and generating language in children grow at a very fast rate. In the beginning, when a child is 6 months he or she can respond to his or her name but can not speak. Between the ages of 2-6 years, old children have the ability to understand what they are told than they can speak. However, as they grow, the ability to speak goes up and thus matches with their ability to understand. A child starts by talking the easy words in plurals and uses possession when using the noun (Hurlock, E.B. (1974). Between the age of one to two, he or she tries to remember and repeat words that have been used by the adult previously to express their reaction.
This may lead to discomfort and embarrassment to the parents as the child may repeat a word that is not appropriate. Thus the adults should be very careful about the words they use around the child such as incorrect grammar or swear words. When a child goes beyond the use of more than two words (this s at the age of the tree), he or she starts to understand grammar, the child may use a different kind of words to form difficult sentences that cannot be understood by the adults.
This s because the sentences formed have irregular verbs like “she come” rather than “she came” (Hurlock, 1974). Children at the age of three can speak vocabularies of about 900 words which increase drastically to 8000 to 1400 words by the age of six. Children at this age also try to refine their word pronunciation and this is easily achieved when a child starts to go to school. As the child grows, language becomes more complex and mature; he or she starts to use basic metaphors such as “white as snow” on ideas that have been put before him.
The child also starts to recognize the different ways of talking to the adults and to the peers and age mates. By the age of six, the child can be able to give a word for a certain definition that the adult has put across. At this age also, the child is able to laugh at jokes that have been told by the adult (Kathleen, 2008).
Physical Development
Preschoolers tend to grow at a slower but even pace than toddlers whose growth goes on and on. The kind of physical growth that these children experience involves their brains growing and acquiring motor skills along with health changes. (Dinkmeyer, 1965). Children lose their toddler features of looking chubby and look more sporty. The male children tend to have more physique than the females even in their childhood years.
Physical proportions also tend to change with the head still being larger than the rest of the body but to a lesser extent compared to toddlers. Children who are aged three should be averagely 38 inches in height and their weight should be around 32 pounds (Hurlock, E.B. (1974). Consequently, when they are six the expected height and weight are 46 inches and pounds respectively depending on their parent’s social and economic ability and the kind of feeding they are getting since this will directly affect their health. (Kathleen, 2008).
According to Dinkmeyer (1965), Motor skills are physical abilities. There are two types of motor skills gross and fine. Physically involving tasks like dancing and running make up the gross motor skills while tasks involving cognitive application such as drawing and writing are the fine motor skills. Fine motor skills take a longer time to perfect because they involving the brain more compared to gross motor skills. Children in this age bracket learn through observation and repetition of what they see and in learning new behaviors.
Preschoolers are generally healthy but may develop ordinary illnesses such as colds and stomachaches which on average are expected to last around 14 days. Their lungs are underdeveloped making them prone to respiratory complications. Some of the illnesses that last more than 14 days in children include influenza, Pneumonia, cancer, and HIV and AIDS. However, children born in large families face the risk of getting infections from other family members and other issues prevalent in large families like poverty and family stress (Seidman, 1958).
Cognitive Development
In the attempt to understand, organize, build and forecast the space around them, children have developed cognitive insight. During the age of 2-6, the child has improved in the use of the language, symbols and has started emulating the behavior of the adult; this is demonstrated when children build cars by the use of empty cartons and play the family games (Seidman, 1958). In cognitive development when a child is at the age of two, he or she cannot differentiate between his or her opinion and the opinion of others. This is however overcame when the child goes to school and starts learning about the views, emotions, and desires of other people.
At the age of four and five, the child can be able to explain the views, experiences, thoughts, and feelings of others and communicate like an adult. At the age of five, the child can be able to understand the mind of others and the eventual consequences and by the age of six, the child can be able to explain situations and the surrounding (Kathleen, 2008).
In conclusion, preschoolers have a lot of development in their cognitive, physical, and language areas. This is an active age characterized by rapid growth to support learning, memory, movement, intelligence, and attention where and when needed.
Reference
Dinkmeyer, D, C. (1965).Child Development: The emerging self. Prentice hall.
Hurlock, E.B. (1974). Developmental Psychology. 4th Edition. McGnaw-Hill.
Seidman, M.J. (1958).The child: A book of readings. Rinehart.
Kathleen, S. (2008). The Developing Through the Life Span7th Edition. Worth Publishers.