Page 9 - LESSION 9.pmd

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

Children at this stage can verbalise conflicting emotions. They also understand
more complex emotions, such as confusion and excitement. Although they can
Notes verbalise the importance of their family for them, yet they also value their
privacy. This can be seen in their preference and claim for their own spaces and
toys. As their peer groups are expanding at this time, they engage in competition
and play competitive games with their friends. They uphold their friendships and
value teamwork.

Some of the other socio-emotional capacities of children during this phase are:

• Developing sense of right and wrong
• Wanting emotional freedom and space from parents

• Becoming better at controlling and concealing feelings
• Beginning to form a broader self-concept based on recognition of one’s
strengths and weaknesses, especially with regard to social, academic and
athletic skills

• Sustaining peer group interactions and friendships

9.2.3 Cognitive Development

In middle childhood, children start thinking more logically than before. Their
thinking becomes flexible but they are able to think about concrete situations
only. They have yet not mastered abstract thought. They can now think of more
than one aspect of an object, although they have not mastered it at this stage.
Now then can remember routes to familiar destinations and have an idea of how
long it takes to reach from one place to another. They may walk back from school
independently. They are now also able to conserve number, length, liquid, matter,
weight, area and volume. They also have reversible thought. Children of this
age are no more egocentric.

Some the cognitive abilities of this age are:

• Ability to describe experiences and talk about thoughts

• Ability to focus on the past and future as well as the present
• Increasing attention span and developing selective attention

• Planning ahead

• Questioning based on observation and anticipation of events

• Ability to read and write and to acquire information through the media

128 EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION