Cognitive and Social Development: Nursing Implications, Ages 2-5

This essay delves into the cognitive and social development of children between the ages of 2 and 5, exploring the psychological, biological, and emotional changes that occur during this critical period. It uses Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory of social development to explain how children learn, think, and interact with their environment. The essay examines factors influencing development, such as parental interaction and environmental stimuli, using case examples to illustrate key concepts. Furthermore, it highlights the relevance of understanding this developmental stage for nursing and midwifery practices, emphasizing how healthcare professionals can apply theoretical knowledge to promote the healthy cognitive, social, and emotional growth of young children. The essay concludes by summarizing the importance of both cognitive and social development and its impact on a child's overall well-being.

NURSING
ESSAY

Development in human beings is the complete set of psychological, biological and
emotional changes taking place from birth to end of adolescence. This essay is about the social
and cognitive development taking place in the children from the age between 2-5 years. This
development are explained by taking example of theorist. Piaget theory of cognitive
development and Bronfenbrenner's social development theories are used to explain the social and
cognitive development in the children in age between 2-5 years. It also explains the various
factors the influence the process of development and relevance of understanding this life stage to
nursing practices.
1. Cognitive development taking place in child (age 2-5 years)
The term cognition states, thought processing of information, application of knowledge
and changes in the preferences. Cognitive development focus on development of children in the
form of language learning, information processing, perceptual skills and many other sides of
development of brain and cognitive psychology (Cognitive Development: The Core of Child's
Intelligence, 2017).
Cognitive development that take place in children's during the age of 2-6 years are:
development reasoning and thinking skills, understanding related to letters and counting and
recognise the colours. They start learning symbolic function and engage themselves in the
symbolic play. Parents play the major role in all the development taking place in children
through their interaction with them.
For example, in case of Jack he has to stay in day care 2 days a week for 5 hours a day.
Due this he is not able to get the parental care and as a result he is facing the problem of babbling
in communication. Through the communication with parents children learn the skills of speaking
the words and start making command over the language. But this lacks in the case of Jack as her
mother remain engaged in her work and not able to communicate with him properly.
According to the Piaget theory of cognitive development, there are four stages of
cognitive development (Brown and Lan, 2013). Second stage i.e. Pre-operational stage of Piaget
theory describes cognitive development that take place in children within age between 2-7 years.
According to him children's at this stage are egocentric and assume that everyone around them
thinks and feel the things the way they do. Children begin thinking symbolically and learn the
skills related to using words and images to depict objects. At this stage children become highly
skilled regarding pretend play but still lack constancy.
1

2. Social development taking place in child (age 2-5 years)
Social development is the process through which a child learn how to interact with people
around them. They start developing their own individuality in community and learn skills to
communicate with other people and start processing actions. Social development that take place
in child between the age 2-5 years are: they start showing variation in their emotion, they tell
about what they like and dislike and start developing interest in things and become more
independent. They also start liking singing, dancing and acting (The Ages and Stages of Child
Development, 2015). They start cooperating with their other friends and show concern for them.
At this stage parents acts as primary teachers who helps their children to master over basic
communication skills and make them learn about new concepts of life.
For example, in case of jack her mother is not able to interact and communicate with him.
As a result he is lack social development and is not able to speak about his problem and interest.
Jack lacks the toilet training and is not able to gain continence over it. At the age between 2-5
children show good development of brain and motor skills. Parents at this stage start training
their children regarding toilet practices. But due to lack of parental care jack is not able to gain
proper training.
According to Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory of social development, microsystem and
mesosystem are the two ecological system that play major role in the social development of a
child. Microsystem is the system that contain people closer to children like parents, people at
daycare and friends (Beebe and Steele, 2013). These people play important role in the children
social development through their interaction and communication. Mesosystem consists the
connection of different people in microsystem work together for the social development of
children. For example, relationship between parents and teacher, parents take active part in
school meeting and interact with teacher. This creates a positive impact on the development of
child.
3. Factors influencing cognitive and social development
Below are the factors that influence social and cognitive development in infants aged 2-5
year:
Cognitive Development: The process by which infants evolves their psychological skills such as
remembering, problem solving and decision making is known as the process of cognitive
development. As per the theory of cognitive development by Piaget, there are various factors that
2

influence the transformations in mental abilities of a child such as environmental factors, sensory
development, nutritions, stimuli, genetics, etc (Siegler, 2016). For example, according to the
scenario, due to environmental stress and lack of appropriate parenting, Jack remains
underdeveloped and could not improve his toilet practice. Thus, it implies that environmental
stress impacts upon the toilet training of Jack. Environmental enrichment can strongly affect a
child's cognitive development (Barac and et.al., 2014). Parents frequent communication with
their children can improve the listening, speaking and reading skills in infants. For Example,
according to the case, as mother of Jack was constantly engaged in work and does not spend
effective time with Jack to improve his communicating skills, leads to lack of development of
speaking skill in him.
Social Development: According to the theory of social development by Erikson, social
development is the process of emotional development in infants of age 2-5 years. There are
multiple factors that influence in the transformation of social growth in young children's such as
home environment, socio-economic status of family, love and affection, role of schools, etc
(Shirk, 2013). For example, children who grow in positive and healthy environment with love
and affection, tend to become responsible, sincere and disciplined whereas children who live in
unsafe communities may become fearful, violent and insolent in nature. Thus, it implies that
culture and family plays an important role in social development in infants. Learning in schools
also impact on social development in child behaviours. As children have tendencies to observe
other children and adopt their habits. For example, bad influence of child leads to poor
development of social skills.
4. Relevance of understanding life stage to nursing and midwifery practice
Nursing and midwiferies can implement stages in their practices which are developed by
theorists Piaget and Erikson for cognitive and social development to promote growth and
development of mental, psychological and emotional abilities in their infants. The first two
stages of cognitive development assist in improvement of sensory skills and psychological
conditions of infants aged 2-5 years. Development of cognitive skills related to sensory
reflections in infants requires constant efforts from nurses and midwiferies (Strain, Guralnick
and Walker, 2013). For this, they need to expose their child in open, bright and enthusiastic
environmental conditions. This will lead to increase in curiosity in child psychology and will
3

assist in development of sensory and interacting skills in him. For example, child can show
interest towards music, if he has been exposed to music earlier by nurses or midwifery practice.
The various stages of social development can leads to increase in growth of emotional
skills and mental abilities in child. Nurses and midwiferies should expose their children in
friendly and healthy community or environment, so that it will assist in development of love and
affection in them which makes them more interactive and responsible (Hammond and
Carpendale, 2015). Moreover, midwiferies duty is to maintain efficient social environment which
impact on positive development in child emotional status. Nurses should develop friendly
environment in nursing schools, so that children from age 2-5 years can improve their mental and
emotional stability (Leonard and Hill, 2014). For example, playing games, singing songs,
interaction with child, etc. can lead to efficient development of emotional, mental, psychological
and social development in infants. Thus, it implies that nurses and midwiferies by implementing
these stages in their practice of child care, can lead to efficient growth and development of
cognitive as well as social skills in infants.
From the above essay, it can be concluded that both the cognitive and social development
is very important for child growth and transformation in behaviour. Various examples which
impact on development of cognitive and social skills based on the theory proposed by Piaget and
Erikson described briefly. Further the relevance of understanding life stages to nursing and
midwiferies practices was explained in the essay.
4

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barac, R. & et.al., (2014). The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A
critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.12. 699-714.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.0003
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. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2013.841050
Brown, P. B., & Lan, Y-C. (2013). The Influence of Developmentally Appropriate Practice on
Children's Cognitive Development: A qualitative Metasynthesis. Teachers College
Record, 115, 1-36.
Hammond, S. I., & Carpendale, J. I. (2015). Helping children help: The relation between
maternal scaffolding and children's early help. Social Development. 24(2). 367-383.
Leonard, H. C., & Hill, E. L. (2014). The impact of motor development on typical and atypical
social cognition and language: a systematic review. Child and Adolescent Mental
Health. 19(3). 163-170. doi:10.1111/camh.12055
Shirk, S. R. (Ed.). (2013). Cognitive development and child psychotherapy. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Siegler, R. S. (2016). Continuity and change in the field of cognitive development and in the
perspectives of one cognitive developmentalist. Child Development Perspectives. 10(2).
128-133.
Strain, P. S., Guralnick, M. J., & Walker, H. M. (Eds.). (2013). Children's social behavior:
Development, assessment, and modification. Elsevier.
Online
Cognitive Development: The Core of Child's Intelligence. (2017). [Online]. Available through
<http://www.childhealth-explanation.com/cognitive-development.html>. [Accessed on !
8th September 2017].
The Ages and Stages of Child Development. (2015). [Online]. Available through
<https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/ages-stages/#.Wb9LcnV95CU>. [Accessed on !8th
September 2017].
5

6