Page 4 - LESSION 9.pmd

Stages of Child Development Three to Six years and Six to Eight Years

conditions and they are now able to express and verbalise their emotions. They
have a vocabulary of words associated with emotions. It is worthwhile mentioning
that at this stage, they may not be able to name and understand complex emotions Notes
and hence may need assistance from parents and other adults in managing their
emotions. During experiences that bring on aggression or shame, they may not
know how to act.

According to Erikson (1950), this is the stage when children want to take
initiative in planning and doing things for themselves. Being able to do that
brings positive feelings in children, but if children are constantly stopped from
doing things on their own, they may develop guilt within themselves and this
may be detrimental to their growing sense of self.

Some of the socio-emotional skills of preschoolers are :
• describing oneself

• emerging concept of self
• talking about one’s feelings and emotions

• complex emotions such as guilt, shame and pride emerge
• telling stories and narrating events

• display initiative, curiosity and exploration

9.1.3 Cognitive Development
Preschoolers are often filled with questions about the world around them. They
may sometimes apply rudimentary logic and at times may look confused about
particular situations. The preschooler's growing awareness about the world
around them, their logics and insights present to us the gateway to their minds.

In this section, you will read how development of cognition takes place in pre-
schoolers and how their growing cognitive abilities make them understand the
world around them.

The complexity of children’s thoughts increase considerably by the end of infancy
and at the beginning of pre-school. You have read in an earlier lesson that
according to Jean Piaget, the period between two and seven years of age is
termed as pre-operational stage. At this stage, their thinking is illogical, rigid
and unsystematic. One of the abilities that develops is their ability to engage
in symbolic thought i.e. they no more need to be in actual contact with an object,
person or event in order to think about it. In fact, they can imagine about an
object or person and use their representational abilities to remember and
conclude about the properties of that object or person.

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION 123