Psychology of Child Development Assignment

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Assessment of the Maria’s cognitive development
Cognitive development relate with how the psychology of child develop with age in term of
perceptual skills and conceptual learning. The child is less interactive with mother, refused to get
assisted by her, show clingy behaviour, and become impatient and stubborn, which in indicative
of her cognitive, behavioural and psychosocial issues (Hardan et al., 2015). The assessment of
Maria cognitive development and the current point of development can be done by the Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development which is used to evaluate how the children thinks and response
to their environment. It is evident that child grow and their brain develop, which can be better
assessed through four stages of the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development that includes
sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages (Demetriou,
Shayer & Efkli, 2016). The stage of concrete operational and formal operational stages occurs
above the age of 7 years old hence, sensorimotor and preoperational stage will be included in
assessment of cognitive development.
Sensorimotor stage- Investigation will be done to examine the functioning of sense organ at birth
time from the parents. Children will made to play with music box, make her to throw block and
put it back and she will be given food to taste and smell. The behaviour displayed will be
recorded and noticed. It is evident that positive change in Sensorimotor give idea about the
child’s healthy cognitive development (Hanfstingl, Benke & Zhang, 2019). Child was able to
response positively when around her father.
Preoperational stage- Child will be made to play with words and images to assess their language
development and logical thinking ability. The care giver will try to interact with the child to
know the level of cognitive development. The behaviour and response in such activity will be

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noted. It will help the care giver to know what make her obstruct from playing with her mother.
It is evident that the finding will reveal behaviour of child with respect to situation and its
adapting function (Ghazi & Ullah, 2015).
Assessment of Maria’s Psychosocial Development
Noted in the case study the child was not interactive with her mother and shows tantrums when
she is around her. However, the child is in calm state of mind where her father and try to explore
new thing. Therefore, Erikson theory of psychosocial development can be utilize to assess the
child’s psychosocial development (Knight, 2017). The theory suggest that children have impact
of the parents, society and external factors on their personality development. The stages that is
applicable for the Maria is limited to stage 2 (Schachter, 2018).
The stage 1 of psychosocial- trust and mistrust- It is noted from the case study that Maria interact
well with her father rather her mother. She shows clinging behaviour and stubbornness when her
mother assist her washroom, eating and changing dress. It can occur due to development of
mistrust with her mother as child’s primary care giver is her father. Therefore, the care giver will
make the child to play with her mother with some toys and then will be made to play with her
fathers. Further, the caregiver will try to interact with child. The change in behaviour to assess
level of trust will be noticed (Krop & Greene, 2017).
Stage 2 refers to the autonomy and shame- At the stage of 1-2 years child develop self-esteem
and autonomy where the child new skills of sense of personal control. As it is noted M aria
refused to sit in the potty seat when assisted by her mother and starts to yell and cry, which is an
indicator of loss of sense of independence in child. In order to assess autonomy and shame, child
will be given several activity to play, different type of toys and food choice and she will be