Cognitive and Social Development of Children : Essay
Added on 2020-03-23
6 Pages1588 Words34 Views
1Running head: NURSINGNursing Name of student:Name of university:Author note:
2NURSINGLife transitions refer to the continual change in physical and mental health along thelife span that every individual has to go through. It is the passage from one status, conditionor phase to another, and indicates the outcomes of person-environment interactions. Humanrelationships come into the limelight in this regard as relationships existing between twoindividuals are a result of the transition phase an individual is going through (Fraser et al.,2017). Nursing practice demands an in-depth understanding of the concept of life transition,especially when it comes to child care. The essay put forward in here is an attempt tohighlight the transition of a three-year-old child Jack from social and cognitivedevelopmental viewpoint. The paper includes the theories of Piaget and Erikson. The nextsection of the essay would focus on the association between cognitive and socialdevelopment concepts. Lastly, the significance of understanding the implications of thedevelopment of this age group in nursing practice is highlighted. Jean Piaget, a well-known psychologist, had outlined the famous life span theory ofcognitive development that is widely referred to while analysing different case studies.Cognitive development is an essential component of human development. The theoryprimarily focuses on how factors guide its development (Overton, 2013). The second stage ofhuman development, as mentioned in theory, is termed as the ‘Pre-operational Stage’. Thisstage considers children of age between two years and seven years. The mental representationof the previous stage enables a swift transition to this stage. It implies that a child can owexhibit a representation of self through different modes, particularly language. A child movesforward from using only words for self-expression to using sentences that are structuredappropriately. The relationship a child forms between language is evident, and actions dependon the ability to express self. A key feature of the stage is egocentrism, as defined by theperception of surrounding in relation to self. A child might be struggling to perceivingsituations from viewpoint of others (Carey et al., 2015). Drawing facts from the given case
3NURSINGstudy it is to be mentioned that Jack has not been able to achieve the milestones pointed outin the theory of Piaget. This can be explained by the fact that Jack is not capable of speakingin complete sentences and instead uses two or three words to raise his views. As he babblesconstantly, it is perceived that he is not willing to communicate with others. Limitation inlanguage development and can be attributed to lesser support from his mother Vanessa, a keyreason for being egocentric. Another important feature of this stage is conservation. This means that a chid mightbe finding it difficult to understand the measurements of different situations (Beilin & Pufall,2013). In the present case, the child could be having difficulty in measuring the time hespends at the day care unit and home, compelling him to think that he is away from the bestcare source, that is his mother, for a longer period. This could give rise to feelings of solitudeand rejection. Erik Erikson is known to explain child development concepts through his theory ofsocial development. Erikson has divided a life span of human into eight distinct phases eachwith a discreet set of features. As per this theory, a child of three years age is considered to bein the second life stage, that has the virtue of will. Socialisation at this stage is evidentlystrong as motor skills develop. A child is torn between doubt and shame on one hand andautonomy on another. Eliminative function improves significantly at this stage with the hepand support form parents (Johnson & Anderson, 2016). Hockenberry et al., (2016) in thisregard state that a child relies on the support and guidance of the mother for improving theskills he is taught. If the assertion is provided by the mother, a child will consider imbibingthe social skills he is taught and demonstrating them to the outer world. Autonomy of a childis only evident when the parent is there constantly to drive him towards positive change. It isan important aspect that a child would want to explore his surrounding if he is permitted to doso.
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