EARLY CHILDHOOD

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● Early childhood starts at age 2 and goes to around age 5 

 
Physical Development 
Here we see much of the focus of physical development in a refinement stage, rather than focusing 
on development overall. This can begin with improving walking skills by learning how to run, skip, or 
gallup between ages 3 and 6 years of age (Berk, 2013). This is the timeframe of life in children 
when there is more of an emphasis on the gross motor skills which are more of bigger movements 
that are not as specific like kicking a ball, or jumping rope! What tends to happen is that their 
action change into ​dynamic systems of action ​which basically means that they are integrating 
movements and skills they already know into their constantly changing and growing bodies (Berk, 
2013). It is also important to add that actual physical development such as height and weight take 
a slower pace during the early childhood phase of development. What occurs is about a two to three 
inch increase in height and a five pound weight gain per year (Berk, 2013). If the growth rate from 
infancy and childhood stayed that same rate, all our young children would be taller than their 
parents before puberty even hits!

Language Development 
While language is something that is mostly developed in the early years of life, as mentioned with 
physical development, there is more of a focus on refinement. While a lot of phonological 
development had been obtained by the age of five, stress patterns of works have yet to be fully 
developed (Berk, 2013). Even when children reach the later stage of early childhood, this can still 
be a skill that is not quite mastered. For example, the words “greenhouse” and “ green house” a child 
in this age group will not totally understand the difference due to an inability to understand stress 
patterns, or the lack of a space between the word. What can also be seen in early childhood is 
 improvement in storytelling. Between the ages 
of three and five, children are able to tell and 
understand stories in more of a chronological 
order rather than bits and pieces at a time 
(Berk, 2013). This continues to improve later in 
this stage and into middle childhood. Around 
ages 6 to 8, children have the ability to use 
more advance conversations strategies which 
can help adults communicate with them more 
effectively (Berk, 2013). 
 

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Cognitive Development 
In early childhood, we see a development of connecting symbolic representation to things to 
establish memories! Children in this age group are using objects and associating them with actions 
and this can be seen according to Piaget’s theory, as the preoperational stage of cognitive 
development (Berk, 2013). Due to children knowing and understanding certain things from their 
younger years, they have the ability to improve upon previous knowledge and in this age group, this 
can be very easily seen. Due to this previous knowledge, a children can modify current 
understandings and develop a more advanced base, which helps also establish make believe and 
pretend play (Arrington, 2017). This process is known as accommodation and it happens quite often 
in this age time frame to help children understand the world around them. In early childhood, 
there is also evidence of increased attention span and memory. The prefrontal cortex continues to 
grow, and with that growth, we see that children within this age group can begin to establish goal 
based play (Berk, 2013). This can begin in toddlerhood, then can develop onward through life. This 
can be attributed to experience or mental 
representation that occurs in earlier years 
of life (Berk, 2013). 
 
Social/Emotional Development 
In early childhood, young ones are finally 
learning and effectively developing their 
self-conscious emotions. This is typically 
seen when a child does something wrong, 
thus showing the feelings of guilt (Berk, 
2013). Feedback for kids in the age of 
development are working towards looking at 
themselves in a different light. Having 
emotions such as embarrassment, shame, 
envy or pride is showing these children can  
 
 
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be self-conscious of their own actions at this young of an age and are reacting to those emotions in 
different ways (Berk, 2013). It is important for us as adults to teach our children that these 
emotions are okay, because sometimes it can be very overwhelming for them With that confusion 
can come tantrums based on confusion of said emotions. 
Moral Reasoning/Self-Regulation 
Near the end of early childhood, we see our children in this age of development begin the concept 
of ​heteronomous morality. ​This basically means that children see rules as unchanging and passed 
down by authoritative figures in life (i.e. parents, god, school) (Berk, 2013). With this 
understanding, children feel the rules must be followed as they know them to be and that leads 
them to have a moral understanding at a more conscious level. Children in the later stages of early 
childhood are understanding emotions like anger or fear and they act out on those emotions through 
aggression First ​proactive aggression​ which is based simply on fulfilling desire and ​reactive 
aggression​ which is more angry and defensive form that is based on being halted from completing a 
goal (Berk, 2013). In the early stage of childhood, self-regulation is low, but through intervention, 
the aggression can be diminished and strategies can be implemented to create positive solutions. 
 
Signs of look for 
When trying to understand what can be deemed as concerns in early childhood, the signs can 
become more visible than in the previous years of life. One area that signs of atypical development 
that a parent might notice is in language development. Language development is one of the issues in 
early childhood development that is very common (Visser, Gerrits, Der Schans, Reijneveld, & Luinge, 
2017).​ ​In these ages, there is almost an expectation for reactionary speech, If you are speaking to 
your child, and there is no interaction that might indicate an issue with language development, but 
can also indicate hearing issues, or Autism Spectrum Disorder (Visser, Gerrits, Der Schans, 
Reijneveld, & Luinge, 2017). It is always important to trust instincts as a parents and seek 
professional evaluation if you feel something may not be right. 
 
Social and cultural Factors 
As these young children are beginning to gain some self-awareness in themselves and those around 
them, it makes it easier for them to take in things which can affect them developmentally. How 
others act around them can create an environment that can or cannot be conducive to their 
development. It is important for us as caregivers to ensure the environment that they encounter is 
one that is positive for social interaction to occur and that social development is flourished. As 
these children age, the influence of culture is always increasing. The awareness of the culture’s 
influence is also beginning to be understood. Rituals or traditions are being implemented and the 
children in this stage are able to hold that information and implement it with further family and 
community influence. 
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Play Strategies for families 
Children within these ages need stimulation to 
improve aspects of attention, memory, and 
language. A strategy that can be implemented 
from the home to encompass these concepts is 
using memory cards. Memory cards allow for 
children who may have atypical development can 
 improve multiples domains. This includes improvement of fine motor skills by picking up the cards, 
attention and memory by finding the matching cards and, if the cards have pictures and words, 
language development can occur with assistance from an adult! Many aspects of development in this 
time frame and even those that follow, most aspects of learning require teamwork! Another 
strategy that may help 
children in this stage is the the use of open play. Children who are left to do their own thing, 
without adult involvement, tend to use play as a means for exploration and learning (​Jaruszewicz, 
2012). Allowing for children to play and explore to their hearts content brings enjoyment to their 
learning and will promote effective development in all the domains (physical, cognitive, 
social/emotional, and language). 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 References

Arrington, E. G. (2017). ​Cognitive Development​ (education). Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=891

64111&site=eds-live&scope=site

Berk, L. E. (2013). ​Child development.​ (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Retrieved from

https://content.ashford.edu/

Jaruszewicz, C. (2012). Curriculum and methods for early childhood educators [Electronic version].

Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Visser, B. M. I., Gerrits, E., der Schans, C. P., Reijneveld, S. A., & Luinge, M. R. (2017). ​Atypical

speech and language development: a consensus study on clinical signs in the Netherlands​.

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(1), 10–20.

https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1111/1460-6984.12251