Early Childhood Education and Care: Physical, Cognitive, Social and Emotional Development

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
Introduction
The report deals with the particular age group of 4 to 6 years and how with the
advancement of their age, they adapt with new learning capabilities. The purpose of the paper
is to find out the different aspects of learning abilities that a child can adapt at this age. The
paper tries to provide what happens during this age in different aspects like physical,
cognitive, social and emotional. The report first explains how their physical development
takes place. Then it describes the cognitive changes the children go through at this age. It has
a section which deals with the social growth and further explains how emotional
transformation is a major phenomenon for the children at this age. Finally the report also
provides a pedagogical strategy for each aspect discussed in the report.
Discussion
Physical Development in the Selected Age Group
Implications
Children between 4 to 6 years undergo some basic physical changes that have been
found out and elaborated in the paragraph. A change of height about a couple of inches is
evident in the body of the children and there is a gain of a little bit of fat along with the
growth in the skeletal structure. There is a visible improvement in the posture while they start
learning how to sit and stand properly at the beginning of this age group and the children start
acquiring what balance is. Therefore the ability of having grip on things rises. The
metabolism in brain touches its climax around the age of 4. Brain development is a major
function that happens in this period. The style of walking improves and the speed also

2EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
increases. They start running faster than before. Children can even hop and gallop and the
stiffness is reduced gradually. The legs become stronger and boys face a muscular growth
(Nippold, 2016 pp. 178). They adopt some skill of self-help. They learn to do things by their
own. Most importantly the interest in knowing new things heightens at this age because of the
occurrence of development in brain. Dressing up, writing and performing different physical
activities take place during this time. The aspect of drawing starts with scribble and finally it
takes a shape when a child is about 6. They start with drawing lines where some might draw
straight lines while some fails in doing so. It is slowly modified into something bigger.
However it has to be kept in mind that this is a much generalized concept but this might not
be true in case of all the children. In some cases the growth of the boys are faster than girls
but that is also very superficial because girls have better growth in some aspects sometimes.
There are some children who do not acquire the physical growth with the same
intensity. Some have stiff muscles, some can be found in trouble or in difficulty with
managing their zippers or shoelaces. Some might not find interest in writing or drawing
which also generate the idea of inability to fit the words properly adjusted between the ruled
parts of the paper (Smith& Wong, 2016 pp.333). Some might face problems in holding
pencils or objects which are tiny in size while some absolutely dislike the concept of little
objects because it becomes impossible for them to handle.
Pedagogical strategy
The strategy one should apply to promote the physical growth of the children is to
give them enough space to explore properly. The children should be encouraged in all the
activities they seek to achieve. Hence the children having problem with fitting words properly
in between the lines can be started with big boxes where they have to fit their writing and
gradually the size of the box will be reduced to paper size. Children should be encouraged to
play with objects like lego or anything that is tiny. This will help the kids to learn and

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differentiate between objects improving the capacity of the brain. The teacher or the parents
might not always find it very convenient to make the children do whatever they want because
sometimes it can be harmful and dangerous for the children. That again might injure the
mental condition of the children. Hence the teachers who are in the responsibility of the
children have to be very careful in case of providing with the idea of development. The
children should get an ambience of freedom to do whatever they wish to in order to explore
new things with the newly acquired development in brain.
Cognitive Development in the Selected Age Group
Implications
Cognitive development is basically where children start adapting with new schemes,
organization, adaptation method, equilibration and disequilibrium. Piaget has showed that
children of the age group from 4 to 6 learn to behave in an arranged pattern while they choose
to be systematic and behave in that system only (Piaget, 2013 pp. 175). They somehow can
place themselves between expectation and reality. When they move towards equilibration
they have a better comprehension of experiences they face. They also learn to make the
difference between existing method and the new ones they are acquiring every day.
According to Piaget, the adaptation takes place by assimilating experiences into the current
arrangement and accommodating experience by altering the prevalent system. Vygotsky has
emphasized more on the social influence on cognitive development. The children seek to
solve problems with the cultural aspect. They seem to identify colors and associate them with
their names. They seem to understand the relation between two objects and tend to delve into
complicated problems. Their culture sometimes influences them to analyze decisions and it
also helps them to shape their thought process. Cognitive development also gets affected by