Essay: Cognitive, Physical, and Socio-Emotional Development Stages

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional development stages, focusing on infancy, preschool, middle school, and adolescence. The essay highlights the key differences in how children develop across these stages, considering biological maturation, social interactions, and emotional attachments. It discusses the cognitive development, including problem-solving, learning, and abstract thinking capabilities, while also examining physical changes like growth, motor skills, and hormonal shifts. The essay further explores the socio-emotional aspects, such as attachment styles, moral understanding, and the influence of social interactions on personality. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of cultural influences and the need for tailored support from educators and family members to nurture each child's unique developmental journey.

Running head: COMPARE AND CONTRAST
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The different stages of development are defined by social institutions, laws as well as
customs. The boundaries of an infant, preschool, middle school and adolescent child are
malleable. The ideas of society about the developments changes with time. The essay aims to
compare and contrast between different stages of life according to the cognitive, physical,
socio-emotional growth in these stages.
The social and personality development in infancy develops through biological
maturation, interaction and the representation of the child with the self. Emotional
attachments form the emotional bond during infancy with those who care for them.
Psychologists believe that these attachments are biologically natural. They develop an
emotional bonding due to a sense of security they have on their parents and caregivers (Steele
et al., 2018). On the other hand, in the psychosocial development, according to Erik Erikson
of a preschool child, he/she tries to be self-sufficient and independent. At this stage, the
children start imagining and broaden their skills. According to Erikson if the child cannot
fulfil the above goals, then he will feel socially excluded and limit himself. Furthermore, for
infants, the experiment Strange Situation is about a brief separation from the caregivers.
Depending on the emotional bonding of the child with their caregivers, the former may either
reject or welcome the parent. Safety and security are required for the emotional and
personality development of the infants (Meins, Bureau & Fernyhough 2018). The preschool
child, on the other, develops a sense of morality where, according to Piaget, the child morally
understands their parent's control on them. They start thinking from distributive justice,
where all goods should be shared equitably. They know the moral consequences of their
actions that will lead to the punishment that is not possible in infancy. According to the
objects-relations theory of Melanie Klein, the personality of an infant is formed due to the
first relationship with his mother whereas Freud stated that it was the child's fear from father
that developed his character. In this theory, the girls can adjust quickly than the boys. Social

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deprivation can have negative consequences on the child's personality and emotional
development. On the other hand, the social development of a preschool child is formed by
interaction with other children, where they try to express their thoughts and feelings. They
also understand others and welcome strangers and interact with them, unlike an infant (Stern,
2018). The recent scientific finding states that a mother's attachment with the infant increase
oxytocin hormones in the child. The head odours from an infant, according to scientists, show
the olfactory importance in infants that enables them to recognise their kins (Cortez et al.,
2018). On the other hand, the scientific discoveries of preschool child state that parentese is a
style of speaking that draw's the attention of a child. This way, the child quickly learns
language skills than others. Another discovery shows that while a child plays with their
parents, their brains interact with one another (Shumovskaya et al., 2019). Both experience a
familiar brain activity. The most common similarity between the two is that children in both
these stages need the support of their parents to grow and develop quickly.
The physical development of a preschool child includes an increase in height, growth
of muscles and bones as well as an increase in weight. They are taller as well as leaner
compared to toddlers. The physical growth of a preschool child improves the cardiovascular
fitness of the child and helps in developing efficient motor, thinking as well as concentration
skills. The physical development also includes dancing, hopping, jumping and walking. On
the other hand, the physical development of a middle school child includes athletic
appearance where both male and female look similar. They appear to be more awkward, and
their muscles and bones start to broaden. There is an increase in nutritional demands. Their
development is slower than a preschool child. Their brain and nervous system development
and their motor skills are better than a preschool child. Furthermore, the physical growth in
adolescents is rapid, and they enter the puberty stage, where there are a lot of hormonal
changes in the body. They experience the highest rate of physical development than the other

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two. The female breast is developed, and boys experience a crack in their voice (Wierenga et
al., 2018). For the preschool child, cognitive development is about learning and questioning,
problem-solving and imitating. They begin to differentiate between objects, can understand
between fact and fiction and. On the other hand, this development in a middle school child
includes flexible thinking, organising ideas that a preschool child is unable to do. Piaget
states that middle school child also improves their logical skills (Dhuey et al., 2019).
Cognitive development of the adolescents, on the other hand, includes growing of new cells
in the brain where the brain becomes less efficient than a preschool and middle school child.
Their memory becomes sharp, unlike the above two stages. They start learning about abstract
ideas, whereas the middle and preschool child has limited reasoning where they only
understand love and justice. The adolescents in their cognitive development also acquire
metacognition, where they begin to reflect on their actions, unlike a preschool child. Studies
suggest that too much time on the screen reduces the cognitive development of a child and
poor language skills also affect the mental health of a preschool child (Madigan et al., 2019).
Listening to songs improves the academic achievement of a middle school child (Benítes,
2018). Furthermore, negative experience during PE classes for a middle school child
generates negative responses (Bartholomew et al., 2018). Access to the internet alters the
structure of the brain in an adolescent that leads to strong memory and proper social
behaviour (Firth et al., 2019). Another key finding in the adolescent development is that girls
experience more distress than the boys due to mensuration (Moksnes & Lazarewicz 2019).
Similarity among the above stages is that the children develop their cognitive skills and go
through physical and mental development, depending on their age.
Thus to conclude, it must be noted that the three stages regarding development are
based on cultural influences. It should be kept in mind that growth depends on the context
and that schooling is the first step to that context. Educators and family members should be

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aware that the reasoning of a preschool child will be different from that of an adolescent and
that every child must be given care and support as they go through a lot of external and
internal changes.
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