Cognitive and Moral Development in Early Childhood

Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
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EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT1
Cognitive development in early childhood refers to the child’s mental capacity to
solve the problems. Cognitive skills are important in children as it helps them to understand
better about the world around them. On the other hand, moral development is the procedure
by which the children develop proper attitude towards other people in the society. Cognitive
development is enhanced by the surrounding space of a child like greenness outside the
classroom. This affects the cognitive development in school children (Dadvand et al., 2015).
Moral development in school children is necessary to make them understand about the social
skills and also to develop the sense of right and wrong among them. Thus, for the proper
development of a child in their early childhood it is necessary for the parents to inculcate a
sense of morale in the mind of the child and also to find out ways to develop their motor
skills.
Kohlberg’s theory can be explained by the story of Heinz whose wife was suffering
from cancer and Heinz had to steal the drug as he was not able to buy the drug due to lack of
money. The students reacted differently to this story according to their age and level of moral
development (Thoma & Dong, 2014). Vygotsky’s theory can be applied by the teachers in the
classroom for early childhood education as the classroom education is much more dependent
on the zone of proximal development as the students learn through the assistance from a more
knowledgeable person. The students are assigned to classroom as per their developmental
demands and age. Thus, schools have classroom with a multi-age order to provide quality
education to every child (Blake, 2015). It becomes very important to understand the
development in young children because it is clearly linked to their mental as well as physical
health. The poor health of a neonate affect the cognitive development of the child at different
stages (Figlio et al., 2014). According to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development a child
follows an adult and gradually gains the capability to perform some tasks without any kind of
help or guidance. This process of the overall development of the child can be encouraged by