Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

This assignment delves into the fascinating realm of cognitive development in young children. It examines key research articles exploring various aspects of this process, such as the influence of bilingualism, maternal sensitivity on infant attachment, and the role of evidence-based preschool programs. The provided texts encompass diverse perspectives from prominent researchers in developmental psychology, shedding light on theories like Piaget's stages of cognitive development and the interplay between social and cognitive growth.

Running Head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The aim of the essay is to explore the human development stages. These stages include
“prenatal development, infancy, childhood (early and middle), adolescent, adult (early, middle,
and late) and old age (death and dying)”. Understanding this stages is important as it
accompanies age related changes. Every stage is associated with unique capability that enables a
person to thrive, survive and grow matured. These changes occur beyond the physical realm and
are necessary to develop cognitive and social competence (Feldman, 2016). The essay discusses
the cognitive and social development of children and factors influencing this development.
Various brain related aspects mark cognitive development which includes information
processing, perceptual skills, information processing, language learning. These are important for
maximising the child’s wellbeing since early childhood. It will help attain full metal capacities
(Bjorklund & Causey, 2017). Jean Piaget theory explains four stages of cognitive development.
According to his theory, the first stage called sensorimotor stage is for 0-2 years old children. In
this stage a child responds to the sensory data (hearing, smell, touch) and learns the body
movements. In the second stage called pre-operational stage is for children of 2-5 years. In this
stage a child’s thinking remain egocentric but, gains capability to think about objects
symbolically. They demonstrate intelligence by constructing simple sentences. The third stage is
called the concrete operational stage for 7-11 years old children, is marked by logical thinking.
They demonstrate reversible mental actions and of systematic manipulation of symbols. The last
stage from 11 years onwards is marked by increase in the capability of children to grab abstract
concepts such as joy, love or grief (Modgil et al., 2013). In the given case study, Jack belongs to
pre-operational stage as he is 3 years old.
Social development in early life occurs by developing the emotional and skills and
continues across the lifespan. This development pays attention to child and adolescent stages.

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This development is essential for a human being to establish a positive relationship with society.
Erikson’s theory of social development involves eight stages that starts at birth and continues till
18 years (Serafica, 2015). Each of the stage is associated with a psychological crisis faced by the
child that ultimately helps to become socially competent. A child may struggle with trust vs.
mistrust during infancy until 18 months and autonomy vs. Shame during 18 months to 3 years
age. At the age of 3-5 years a child may experience “initiative vs. Guilt”, at 5-13 years, “industry
vs. Inferiority” and between 13-21 years children may deal with “identity vs. role confusion”.
Other sages indentified by Erikson are 21-39 years refers to “intimacy vs. isolation”, 40-65 years
“generativity vs stagnation” and lastly 65, and older, which refers to crisis of “Ego integrity vs.
despair” (McAdams & Zapata-Gietl, 2015). In the case study given, Jack belongs to the second
stage of social development and may experience the psychological crisis of “autonomy vs.
Shame”. This stage is marked by learning new concepts and acting independently. They may
tend to eat or dress themselves without external assistance. Relying on others for this activities
may create feeling of shame in children as they need to apply these skills in real life (Overton,
2013).
Jack is 3 years old and the normative cognitive developments, expected at this age are
rapid learning and expression of their interests in certain activities. For instance, a child can pick
up new words like “mom” and “papa” and form new simple sentence upto 500 words. This is the
first sign of thinking development. Children can recognise themselves in mirror at this age
(Bjorklund & Causey, 2017). Jack shows non-normative development as his speech is delayed.
He can only babble at this age. The normative social development expected at this age includes
performing daily activities of dressing, toilet training and eating independently. They may

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express interest in games and understand emotions like sharing of toys. Poor toilet training in
Jack is the sign of non-normative development (Overton, 2013).
Several factors determine the social and cognitive development. Delay in this
development can be due to biological (intelligence, heriditary) and environmental factors
(maternal support and family support, play). Children can learn new concepts if they have strong
sense organs to collect adequate stimuli from environment. Intelligence help achieve cognitive
development to its fullest. Children with low intelligence show delayed cognitive development
(Brown & Lan, 2013). Speech delay could be due to the biological factors in Jack. According to
dual language could be other reason for his speech delay. If the language spoken in day care and
the mother tongue of child is different, it may lead to delayed speech (Barac et al., 2014). Social
and cognitive developments are also controlled by the maternal support and the learning
opportunities in the child’s environment. A child can acquire better cognition, by spending more
with parents and family relatives. They become more expressive of their feelings and acquire
social skills and emotional skills faster then child without parental support. Poor maternal
support lead to poor mother-infant attachment as well as worry elaboration in children (Grist &
Field, 2012). This poor attachment can lead to alteration in temperament due to poor response
from parents. Lack of contingent parenting practice fails to help a child develop secure relation.
Therefore, they show less curiosity, independence and self-reliance (Hong & Park, 2012).
Applying the theories of Piaget and Erikson, it can be concluded that Jack’s cognitive and
social development is not occurring, as it should at the given age. It may be attributed to the
biological factors and environmental factors discussed above. Low intelligence or defect in sense
organs may be one of the reasons for speech delay. Vanessa can refer to speech therapist to
identify the root cause. Vanessa being working mother, Jack is attending the day care centre. It

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is evident that she is not able to spend adequate time with her son. Therefore, there is poor
mother-infant attachment in this case. Therefore, Jack is having poor toilet training. She may not
be able to provide enough learning opportunities at home. Similar, the caregiver at care centre
may have failed to establish strong relationship with Jack. Child’s social development is
determined by the carer-child relationship at day care and teacher-child relationship at
prekindergarten (Serpell & Mashburn, 2012). Therefore, these factors may have hampered Jack’s
temperament and his will power. These factors predicts the adaptive and social development in
children even when there is no developmental delays (Green et al., 2014). In case of Jack both
the carers, nurses and Vanessa must together modify the learning environment for Jack to
improve his psychosocial development. Jack needs more play and learning opportunities to
increase curiosity and self-reliance. Vanessa needs to increase attachment and emotional security
with Jack to improve his toilet training (Beebe & Steele, 2013).
Thus, social and cognitive developmental theories are important and nursing
professionals. In order to design appropriate interventions for children like Jack, it s necessary
for the nurses and midwifes to understand the developmental milestones of child. In case of Jack
the nurse can apply these theories and concepts to improve Jack’s speech and toilet training.
Further, the nurse can explain Vanessa about various factors that can delay cognition and social
development in children. These theories are useful to detect developmental defects at earl stage
and take immediate precaution (Bierman et al., 2014).
In conclusion, understanding human developmental stages is essential for nursing
professionals to take better care of child and maximise the well-being. The essay was useful in
developing meaningful insights of cognitive and social development and factors that influence

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this development. Strong maternal support is essential for effective transition from childhood
stage to old age growing competence in each stages involved.

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References
Barac, R., Bialystok, E., Castro, D. C., & Sanchez, M. (2014). The cognitive development of
young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research
Quarterly, 29(4), 699-714.
Beebe, B., & Steele, M. (2013). How does microanalysis of mother–infant communication
inform maternal sensitivity and infant attachment?. Attachment & human
development, 15(5-6), 583-602.
Bierman, K. L., Domitrovich, C. E., Nix, R. L., Welsh, J. A., & Gest, S. D. (2014). Integrating
evidence-based preschool programs to support social-emotional and cognitive
development. Promoting school readiness and early learning: Implications of
developmental research for practice, 231-252.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Causey, K. B. (2017). Children's thinking: Cognitive development and
individual differences. SAGE Publications.
Brown, C. P., & Lan, Y. C. (2013). The influence of developmentally appropriate practice on
children’s cognitive development: A qualitative metasynthesis. Teachers College
Record, 115(12), 1-36.
Feldman, R. S. (2016). Development across the life span. Pearson.
Green, S., Caplan, B., & Baker, B. (2014). Maternal supportive and interfering control as
predictors of adaptive and social development in children with and without
developmental delays. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 58(8), 691-703.

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Grist, R. M., & Field, A. P. (2012). The mediating effect of cognitive development on children's
worry elaboration. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 43(2), 801-
807.
Hong, Y. R., & Park, J. S. (2012). Impact of attachment, temperament and parenting on human
development. Korean journal of pediatrics, 55(12), 449-454.
McAdams, D. P., & Zapata-Gietl, C. (2015). Three strands of identity development across the
human life course: Reading Erik Erikson in full. The Oxford handbook of identity
development, 81-94.
Modgil, S., Modgil, C., & Brown, G. (Eds.). (2013). Jean Piaget. Routledge.
Overton, W. F. (Ed.). (2013). The relationship between social and cognitive development.
Psychology Press.
Schoenmaker, C., Juffer, F., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Linting, M., van der Voort, A., &
Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2015). From maternal sensitivity in infancy to adult
attachment representations: A longitudinal adoption study with secure base
scripts. Attachment & human development, 17(3), 241-256.
Serafica, F. C. (Ed.). (2015). Social-cognitive development in context (Vol. 27). Psychology
Press.
Serpell, Z. N., & Mashburn, A. J. (2012). Family–school connectedness and children's early
social development. Social Development, 21(1), 21-46.

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