Early Childhood Development: Stages, Theories, and Impact on Lifespan

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the early childhood development stage, focusing on the period from ages two to six. It delves into the key developmental changes during this time, including physical growth (brain development, motor skills), cognitive development (reasoning, proble...Read More

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT STAGE
(Early childhood stage of the human)

Introduction/oral presentation data
The human development stage ranging from year two to five or six is
considered to be the ‘early childhood development stage’ (Otto, 2015). Even some
researches consider early childhood as a period starting from conception to birth to six
years of age making it the most critical human development stage for study and
research (El-Kogali & Krafft, 2015). In the early childhood development stage, a
child undergoes mainly physical, cognitive and language development making them
key development changes at this stage.
This development stage is considered to be the most intensive and sensitive
stage of brain development that works throughout the lifespan (Otto, 2015). The
chemical functionality of the human brain plays a very crucial role in the early
development stage that is explained in this study. Further, the study focuses on the
theories, facts, ideas and research explaining early childhood development are
detailed in this piece of work.
Key concepts
The studies explain that a person’s physical and emotional development holds
its roots in upbringing at the early childhood development stage. If the early
childhood development stage of a person is perfect then one can expect a satisfactory
settlement in adolescence and adult life (El-Kogali & Krafft, 2015). According to
Carson et al. (2015) studies, both nurture (environment) and nature (genes) influence
early childhood development. The environment here describes the care and love
children get from their parent. These nature and nurture are considered determinants
that architect the brain development of children in the early childhood stage. The
better learning outcomes skills at school, good attainment of education, proper
employment and health are outcomes of proper early childhood development.
Key development changes
Physical development
In the early childhood stage, a child shows continuous changes in the body
shape, structure, height, colour and weight. The brain is the most important part that
shows the fastest growth in this stage due to increased interconnection numbers
between brain cells (Valentine, 2015). At this stage, the two left and right hemisphere

of brain discriminate and mature to perform their individual specific functions. This
dramatic and fast change in the brain makes it most vulnerable to its surrounding
environment at this development stage (Montroy, Bowles, Skibbe, McClelland &
Morrison, 2016). According to Cumming, Sumsion & Wong (2015) studies,
chemicals in the brain at early development stage of child response at per nurture
(outer environment) provided to the children by their parents. For example – Cortisol
is a hormone that ensures relaxation and stress less childhood if the child gets
sufficient love and support from parents. A further, bodily change involves burning
fats; stronger bones and muscle gain as a child begins to grow at this stage (Dunst,
2015). Lastly, children develop gross and fine motor skills at this stage. The gross
motor skill development induces physical activities like running, jumping, hopping
and leaping. The fine motor skill development induces activities like drawing, solving
puzzles, crafting, undo clothing and eating food (Otto, 2015).
Cognitive development
The cognitive development at the early childhood stage involves the
development of a child’s capabilities to learn, explore, exploit and adapt to its
surrounding environment. At 3 years of age, children learn reasoning abilities like
telling difference between column and rows. Further, getting older children learn to
develop mathematical learning, understanding numbers and answering open-ended
questions (Valentine, 2015). Further, Black et al. (2017) stated that as per
preoperational stage theory, children develop questioning skill mostly in their early
childhood stage where a repeated question of “why?” is always surrounding their
cognitive development abilities. According to Carson et al. (2015) studies, at early
childhood stage, literal thinking and egocentrism are two most important
characteristics of children that generally vanish when logical and reasoning thinking
abilities develop only after the age of 8 years.
Language development
The language development is in a most active form at this early development
childhood stage. As per studies, a child has the power to catch and learn up to 16
languages at this stage (Daelmans et al., 2017). This language development helps
children to connect with the surrounding environment and people. First, they string a
sentence together including use of tenses, plurals etc. irrespective of grammar which
they learn afterward in their young childhood stage. Children engage in self-talks,
private speech, experimenting thoughts and solving problems at this stage (Valentine,

2015).
Ideas
In the early childhood development stage the infant and toddler experience life
in a most holistically manner where they gain language, social, emotional, cognitive
and physical lessons to develop in a proper manner. The adults help children in
learning by paying attention, giving affection love, motivation, mental stimulation and
encouragement. The parents provide perfect nutrition and hygienic environment that
helps in the growth of the body and brain of children. Improper nutrition leads to
biological risk factors like diseases in adulthood (El-Kogali & Krafft, 2015). Further,
Britto et al. (2017) indicated that every personal and social relationship is important at
this stage of life. Children develop a close bond with every social (friends, peers) and
personal (parents, siblings) individual at this stage of life. Therefore, healthy
relationships in surroundings are very important at this stage for the proper
development of a child.
Further, Black et al. (2017) state that quality of parenting and family
environment plays a most sensitive role where children can develop environmental
hazards like blinking reflex, reaction time, memory loss, mental misbalance, earning
defects, lacking motor skills etc. if not managed properly. The quality of parenting
and family environment involves loving and supporting parents behaviour, their time
and attention, mother’s feel and touch, parents mutual cooperation and disciplined
behaviour. According to Britto et al. (2017) studies, parent’s educational background
also plays a very important role in developing a quality-parenting environment.
Lastly, Jones, Zaslow, Darling-Churchill & Halle (2016) indicated that proper
language development is possible only when a child gets more company to perform
proper language communication (number of people talking to the child). Only a smart
and attentive parent can raise a proper speech therapy for their child. These are some
of the most prominent ideas that work during early childhood stage of life.
Research/Statistical findings
The studies on early childhood development last since ancient times where
researches and psychologist proposed some most important theories that explain
development milestones, specific achievements and development aspects (cognition,

learning and growth) at this stage of life (Valentine, 2015). According to Carson et
al. (2015) studies, The Erikson psychological child development theory describes the
importance of social environment on child development considering it as the most
important aspect. Further, as per Watson’s Behavioural child development theory, any
behaviour can be learned only at the early childhood development stage of life.
Lastly, The Piaget’s cognitive development theory explains that children at early
development stage are like “little scientist” that performs self-construction of
knowledge and understanding their surrounding world. The Piaget’s theory divide
childhood stage in four sub-stages, that are sensorimotor stage (birth-2years,
development of brain), Preoperational stage (2-6years, growth and development),
Concrete operational stage (7-11 years, development of logical and reasoning process)
and Formal operation stage (12-early adulthood, emergence of hypothetical thoughts).
Some of the data below describe recent researches on early childhood
development
As per recent researches, early childhood education plays an important role in
attaining better development of children. The number of children joining early
childhood education has increased from 78,480 to 104, 271 from 2013 to 2017 in New
South Wales (NSW) Australia (Education.nsw.gov.au, 2019).
The graph describes human brain development stages as per age where mostly
the brain develops in the early childhood development stage of life (Center on the
Developing Child at Harvard University, 2019).

Mental, behavioural and development disorders (MBDD) are found to be
outcomes of deprived early childhood development. The below-provided two graphs
explain the characteristics and factors related to this MBDD issue affecting childhood
(El-Kogali & Krafft, 2015).
The graph below describes the lasting effect of early childhood education
(Mineo, 2019).

Conclusion
The early childhood development stage study on its key concepts,
development changes, and ideas of development, research and findings clearly
describe the sensitivity and importance of this stage on the overall development of a
human. The physical, cognitive and language development changes are most
prominent at this stage of life where children constantly explore their new world
surrounding them like curious scientist exploring their research. The ideas like early
education; good development stimulus, love, care, support and attention help children
in proper early childhood development.

References
Books
El-Kogali, S., & Krafft, C. (2015). Expanding Opportunities for the Next Generation:
Early Childhood Development in the Middle East and North Africa. The World
Bank.
Otto, B. (2015). Literacy development in early childhood: Reflective teaching for
birth to age eight. Waveland Press.
Valentine, C. W. (2015). The psychology of early childhood: A study of mental
development in the first years of life. Routledge.
Journals
Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu,
C., ... & Devercelli, A. E. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age:
science through the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), 77-90.
Britto, P. R., Lye, S. J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A. K., Matthews, S. G., Vaivada, T., ...
& MacMillan, H. (2017). Nurturing care: promoting early childhood
development. The Lancet, 389(10064), 91-102.
Carson, V., Kuzik, N., Hunter, S., Wiebe, S. A., Spence, J. C., Friedman, A., ... &
Hinkley, T. (2015). Systematic review of sedentary behavior and cognitive
development in early childhood. Preventive medicine, 78, 115-122.
Cumming, T., Sumsion, J., & Wong, S. (2015). Rethinking early childhood workforce
sustainability in the context of Australia's early childhood education and care
reforms. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 9(1), 2.
Daelmans, B., Darmstadt, G. L., Lombardi, J., Black, M. M., Britto, P. R., Lye, S., ...
& Richter, L. M. (2017). Early childhood development: the foundation of
sustainable development. The Lancet, 389(10064), 9-11.
Dunst, C. J. (2015). Improving the design and implementation of in-service
professional development in early childhood intervention. Infants & young
children, 28(3), 210-219.
Jones, S. M., Zaslow, M., Darling-Churchill, K. E., & Halle, T. G. (2016). Assessing
early childhood social and emotional development: Key conceptual and
measurement issues. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 45, 42-48.

Montroy, J. J., Bowles, R. P., Skibbe, L. E., McClelland, M. M., & Morrison, F. J.
(2016). The development of self-regulation across early childhood. Developmental
Psychology, 52(11), 1744.
Website
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2019). InBrief: The Science
of Early Childhood Development. Available at:
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-science-of-ecd/ [Accessed 9
May 2019].
Education.nsw.gov.au. (2019). Data and research | What's happening in the early
childhood education sector. Available at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/early-
childhood-education/whats-happening-in-the-early-childhood-education-sector/
data-and-research [Accessed 9 May 2019].
Mineo, L. (2019). Ambitious Harvard study aims to discover how children grow,
learn, thrive. Harvard Gazette. Available at:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/02/early-learning/ [Accessed 9 May
2019].