Early Childhood Development

Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTSocial and emotional developments of a child are the contributing factors that accelerate
early childhood growth. Emotional development of a child refers to the ability of the child to
comprehend the feelings, gestures of other people and facilitate social interaction. Again, social
development impacts the interaction of a child with the family members, friends and educators
(Samerojf, et al., 2014). Fruitful social interaction helps a child to adopt behavioral skills and
learn through experiments. As a child goes through the emotional social as well as psychological,
development, the child will become capable of forming a perception about its own self
(Larzelere, Morris & Harrist, 2013).In other words, the social development, psychological
growth as well as emotional maturity of a child will guide a child to create self-identity. The
purpose of this study is to delve deep into the overall growth process of children aged between
births to 5 years, including the social, emotional, and psychological development which leads to
the creation of the self-identity of the children. Another objective of this study is to demonstrate
the contribution of educators as well as childhood settings to influence social and psychological
wellbeing of children. Finally, there is concluding section which provides an overview of the
entire discussion in a condensed manner.
Social development of a child aged birth to 5 years is considered as one of the
fundamental steps to foster emotional as well as psychological development. Social development
will enable a child aged birth to 5 years, to be engaged in meaningful interaction with people
around them-parents, educators (Sluckin, 2017). Social development of a child occurs through
several layers or aspects. In case of children aged 2 months, social development occurs through
identification of the face the child is familiar with. It is obvious that, at the age of 2 months a
child becomes familiar with its parents as well as caregivers. Hence, the social development at
this stage reflects when the child starts smiling or reacts positively by observing the faces of his

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EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTor her parents or caregivers. Another trace of social development of the children aged above 2
months to 8 months can be found, through stranger anxiety. Stranger anxiety. Stranger anxiety
refers to the fear that arises in the children when he or she encounters people they are not
familiar with. Stranger anxiety can be considered as one of the positive symbols related to social
development. Separation anxiety is observed in a child aged 3 months to 8 months. Separation
anxiety implies the insecurity that a child feels at the time of leaving their parents or caregivers.
Both the anxieties prove the capacity of the children to recognize faces. Secondly, the
engagement of the children to objects or animals they are comfortable with can also be
considered as one of the signs of social development. Other aspects of social development are –
the urge of the children to learn the traits of the adults as well as other social skills by imitating
the adults the child is familiar with. The duties of the parents as well as the educators to foster
social development are to make eye contact with the child, and try to communicate with the child
through gestures, introducing the child to the other family members and relatives. This will be
effective to foster social development in the children aged from birth to 2 months. As the child
will start developing stranger and separation anxieties, the parents or the educators should play
some sort of games with the child in order to reduce the impact of both the anxiety. For example,
“peekaboo”, a game to make the child realize that, parents will come back to them even if they
disappear for a while. This will accelerate the social development in children aged from 3
months to 1 year. Further social development will be supported by playful interaction. For
example, playing the game popular as copycat, with words as well as actions, babbling and
attempting to talk to the child. This will be fruitful to accelerate social development of children
aged from 6 months to 2 years (Isaacs, 2013). In order to support the social development of the
children aged from 2 till the time before they are admitted to playschool, parents should make