Child Development: Essential Characteristics of Psychosocial Skill Improvement in Children of Age 2-5 Years

Running head: CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Child development
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CHILD DEVELOPMENT1
Children during their early childhood show excessive curiosity towards the outside world.
Early childhood is an important phase for children to develop their physical, cognitive and
psychosocial areas. It is also important for their parents and other family members to develop a
happy, hale and hearty and a strong relation with their children. Childhood is a period of a
continuous change, but also as the child grows into an adult they keep on growing steadily and
develop further. It is a constant procedure with a continuous procession. The purpose of this
essay is to discuss the essential characteristics of psychosocial skill improvement that happen in
children of age 2-5 years, and what encourages this improvement.
Psychosocial word refers to the different stages of human life that is influenced by
various environmental aspects. Children in their early childhood become very much active both
from physically and socially as there are various psychosocial transitions happening in their time.
There are various theories, papers and stage models that have described the mechanism of social
and psychosocial development in children. According to Piaget’s theory, a kid’s childhood
generally comprise of preoperational and concrete operational phase (Carpendale, Lewis &
Muller, 2019). Erik Erikson, as a psychologist worked in the area of psychology development
and psychoanalysis. He had an assumption that from the phase of early childhood to death, an
individual need to move through eight different stages (Syed & Lean, 2017). Erikson stated that
a child will experience his autonomy and initiative during their early childhood phase. According
to Erikson individuals experience a certain level of difficulty in each stage that works as a
development point in their progress (Syed & Lean, 2017). In this case-study Andrew should be
cheered and assisted in his self-dependent toilet practice, such that he can be more self-
dependent and self-assured in doing this activity on his own in the future. In this scenario, if
Andrew is assisted in his toilet training then, it will help him to develop his senses of autonomy

CHILD DEVELOPMENT2
which will help him grow and provide an understanding of the sense of independence (Boyd &
Bee, 2015). However Andrew will have to take the initiative on his own so as to whether he
wants to discover his social skills by communicating with the surrounding members or not (Boyd
& Bee, 2015). During these phases, kids will form an idea of self-initiation and will be more
assured about their capabilities. This will help them to guide and encourage others in a detailed
environment (Benoit et al., 2016).
According to Erickson a child will form a intellect of inventiveness and will be more
confident if the child is assisted and if the stage is treated well, which is referred as ego power or
ego value. However, if the stage is not controlled properly, then the child will grow with a
feeling of inadequacy (Syed & Lean, 2017). In the case study, the Child and Family Health nurse
stated that Andrew is experiencing all his development goals properly which allows him to grow
properly. Since Andrew was able to communicate his needs which allowed his parents Maria and
Tom to understand his needs. Though, toilet training was an issue for Andrew.
According to a research children between the ages 2-5 years have the ability to develop
sociocultural skills through the use of objects or actions to represent other objects or actions
(Bardid et al., 2016). This type of play allowed the children to show attitudes and behaviors
which were difficult for their age such as children playing with dolls and acting as parents
reflected there social and cognitive abilities. Thus, through this type of activities children can
review their home setting and provide an effort to maintain the relation with their parents and
balance family function (Clark, Griffing & Johnson, 2017). Thus, through the role-playing
activities children can develop their levels of social competency, admiration, supportive,
openness and perseverance will enhance significantly (Clark, Griffing & Johnson, 2017).