Child Development

Child Development

The development of human beings begins the moment they are born and then continues throughout an individual’s life span. The most significant influence on the child’s development is the environment surrounding him. Thus, social and cognitive aspects regarding a child’s development become molded at a very young age. Also, while at this early age, development of speech, language, motor skills, and perception occurs (Santrock, 2007). As a result of the influence from the child’s surroundings, the families of the child will have a significant influence on the child’s development, specifically the parents. Later, when the child starts attending school, the atmosphere of the school will as well influence him. As such, the new atmosphere will have a greater influence on the child’s social skills and cognitive development. Thus, this paper discusses child development and challenges faced by children as they grow.  

A child’s health and development solely rely on the early years of his/her life. Effective growth of children requires parents, health professionals, educators, and other people surrounding the child to work together to help the young child grow and reach their maximum potential. Children developing skills such as taking the first step, smiling for the first time, and waving “bye-bye” are referred to as developmental milestones. When children reach their milestones, they start playing, learning, speaking, behaving, and moving (for instance, crawling and walking). Even though every child develops at a specific own pace and rhythm thus, it is impossible to find out the time when the child will learn a particular skill. However, the milestones offer a general understanding of the various changes and stages to expect as the child develops to adulthood. 

According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, children do not think like adults, and as a result of this assumption, he developed a theory of cognitive development as based on the observation he made on his own children (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). Based on his belief, cognitive development starts with the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years of age). At this stage, children are only aware of sensations and their own movements. Through exploration of the world, children develop schemas regarding the way the world operates. Through the process of assimilation, children integrate new information learned from experience into their existing understanding of the world. As a result of experience, they are able to modify or develop new theories in a process referred to as accommodation. Usually, infants start life with no concept of object permanence, the comprehension that objects continue to exists even when they are out of sight. According to Piaget, he believed that object permanence developed at around nine months of age. 

Piaget also believed that children enter the preoperational stage at about two years of age, during which a preliminary understanding of the physical develops. A young child lacks the concept of conservation, the comprehension that the quantitative properties of an object are constant despite the changes in the object’s appearance.  For instance, if children are shown three equal sets of objects (e.g., plates or spoons) arranged in two rows, they will agree the objects are equal in number. However, when the objects in one row are spread apart to make the row longer, they will claim that the longer one has more objects. Additionally, the preoperational stage marks the beginning of egocentrism, a stage where a child is able to comprehend that other people differ in their knowledge and perspectives (Fischer, 1980). When a child begins to tell a lie, it demonstrates an emerging understanding that he/she may have knowledge other people do not share. In the stage of Concrete operational, which is the next of development, a child understands which actions can or cannot affect concrete objects. 

In this stage, they are able to comprehend that math has clear links to the world of objects, such as adding or multiplying. The final stage, known as the formal operational stage (age of 11 years and beyond), involves a child acquiring the ability to reason about abstract concepts. In this stage, a child is capable of complex mathematical reasoning. He/she is also able to evaluate abstract ideas such as freedom or justice. 

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development 

 Based on Freud's psychosexual development theory, personality development in children occurs during the five psychosexual stages. These stages include oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. In every stage, sexual energy (libido) is expressed in different ways and through different parts of the body (. Each stage represents the fixation of libido, commonly referred to as sexual drives or instincts on a different area of the body, thus called psychosexual stages. As a child ages physically, a given part of his/her body becomes vital as sources of potential frustrations (erogenous zones), pleasure, or both. As postulated by  Freud (1905), life is built around tension and pleasure. He also believed that all tension resulted from the build-up libido and that all pleasure resulted from its discharge. 

In order to describe human personality in relation to psychosexuality, Freud demonstrated that what comes out is the way in which the libido of the id accumulates and is discharged as we age biologically. He also stressed that the first five years of life are very important in the formation of the adult personality. As such, the id should be controlled to help satisfy social demands. This will consequently create a conflict between frustrated wishes and social norms. As a result, ego and superego have developed in order to exercise this control and direct the need for gratifications into socially acceptable channels. Gratification is found in different parts of the body and at different stages of growth, making the conflict at each stage of psychosexuality (McLeod, 2019). 

In the oral stage of psychosexual development, the libido is found in the baby's mouth. At this stage, much of a child's satisfaction comes from putting all sorts of things in his/her mouth to satisfy his/her sexual energy. In this stage, activities such as sucking, breastfeeding, and biting are seen, which occurs during birth to one year of age (McLeod, 2019). The anal stage involves sexual energy becoming concentrated on the anus, and thus, a child finds pleasure from defecating, which occurs from year one to year three. During this stage, children are taught potty training, in which adults introduce restrictions on when and where to defecate (Freud, 1905). Such measures might make a child get accustomed to cleanliness, punctual, and respectful to authority. 

The phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual development, where the child's sexual energy is found in their genitalia as the erogenous zone, which occurs in year 3 to year 6.  In this stage, the child realizes the anatomical sex differences, which sets in motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy, and fear. This conflict was called by Freud's Oedipus complex in boys and the Electra complex in girls (Freud, 1905). Such conflict is resolved through the process of identification, which means a child has to adopt the attributes of the same-sex parent. The latency stage is the fourth stage of psychosexual development, which occurs at year 6 to puberty. In this stage, the libido is dormant, and thus, no further psychosexual development takes place. This is as a result of sexual energy being channeled into developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge, and participating in activities such as school work, hobbies, and friendships. The genital stage is the stage of psychosexual development and begins in puberty. In this stage, adolescent sexual experimentation occurs. Here, sexual energy is directed towards heterosexual pleasure rather than self-pleasure, like during the phallic stage. The proper channel for expressing sexual energy in adults is through heterosexual intercourse (Freud, 1905). As a result of fixation and conflict, sexual perversions may emerge. For instance, in the case of fixation occurring at the oral stage, an individual may primarily gain sexual pleasure from kissing and oral sex rather than sexual intercourse. In order to come up with his own theory about human stage development from birth to death, Erik Erikson utilized Freud's work as a starting point. Just like the way Sigmund Freud came up with his five stages of development, Erikson did the same with his distinct stages of development.  His stage demonstrated his belief that personality develops in a prearranged order. As a person ages, he or she progresses in development (McLeod, 2013). As each stage builds upon the former stage, Erikson explains that if a person is not able to complete a stage, the consequences are that he or she might have difficulty or inability to complete further stages in a healthy manner. 

According to Erikson, the psychosocial crisis is the process where each stage has a specific psychological need for the individual. In case of an individual not meeting or not completing any of the psychosocial stages by a person can be resolved later in life as one comes of age. The first stage described by Erikson occurs in the early years of childhood, specifically at around the age of one to three years. This stage is called autonomy versus shame and doubt. In this stage, the child becomes confident and secure in his/her own capabilities, thus becoming autonomous. Initiative versus guilt is the second stage of Erikson's psychosocial theory that occurs at the age of three to six years and is seen mostly among preschool children. A parent is advised to e encourage the child to explore, discover and make their own choices. With this, a sense of initiative in the child, rather than guilt (Hockenberry, 2017). 

In his model, Erik Erikson explains the eight different stages, which he explained and described throughout the entire life-span of a human being. In every developmental stage, each developmental stage, each developmental task presents a catastrophe for the person. According to Erickson, catastrophe is defined as "a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential" (Wiggins, 2011). When children transition from toddler to being infant, they start to give to discover and experience the world in absolutely different ways based on the new skills and abilities that are being developed. Such skills and abilities are more likely to be successfully obtained and developed through having caregivers or parents, teachers, and all the surroundings giving their encouragement to potentially create a sense of individuality and autonomy. As the toddler develops, he or she is driven to explore his/her surroundings through various actions such as, but are not limited to, climbing, walking, running, and jumping. As such, toddlers should explore their surroundings. Toddlers are required to express autonomy, normally by showing disinterest in something or someone by saying "no." As a way to test boundaries and their independence, toddlers begin to have tantrums.  

Although the child at this age may start expressing his/her need to be independent, the child still does look for his/her caretaker for things such as a helping hand, reassurance, and, or praise. However, the way caretaker(s) respond to these things matters a lot since the caretaker's response aids the psychological and psychosocial development of the toddler. A child at this age has the desire to make their own decision, and it is advisable for parents to encourage and let them explore their options, as this important for autonomy and self-esteem to flourish in the growing toddler.  In case of a toddler not getting encouragement from the caretaker(s) to such independent behaviors, the child will feel shame and guilt for not accomplishing a specific task (Nielsen, 2014). Throughout the stages explained by Erikson in his theory of human psychosocial development, the caregiver(s) should be careful when handling the children since this is the stage where these toddlers want to try everything, and thus in the process, they might get injured. Therefore, the caregiver(s) should be watchful and always be near to the child to avoid getting the toddler harmed.   

As a child grows, his/her mental health is the most vulnerable body part during growth. This shows that children's mental health is easily affected if subjected to trauma. Studies show that when a child is exposed to trauma at an early age, there is a likelihood of the child developing depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Such disorders are mostly associated with child abuse. Today a lot of children in the U.S fall victim to the abuse and neglect of their caregiver(s) that results in being left with a long life of development issues. Child abuse can many forms, such as physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, neglect, exploitation, and more. As a result of child abuse, a lot of children end up in foster or due to neglect every year in United States (Anda, 2004). The observable characters you will see in an abused child is poor performance in class and also have significant struggles in retaining the information. Also, such children are more likely to get involved in crimes or end up endangering people around them. 

Although it is hard to tell if a child will be able to succeed in these struggles that emanate after psychological torture, the risks of child abuse happening are very high, and therefore, it is important careful observation and handling of young one should be embraced by every caregiver. However, help for such children is on the way since a lot of research to help prevent child abuse is ongoing. Normally, most individuals don't know the need to look for in the future of a child.  It is well known that the Child Protective services are likely to overlook the abuse that children could be undergoing, at times incidentally. Children are negatively influenced if they are kept in such environments, especially the future population's safety. Some children may inherit some behavioral problems from their parents, who once victims of child abuse. However, all children who have psychological disorders should be treated like a fragile issue, and thus, immediate help should be offered to them. An abused child may deeply get affected in their soul and their perspectives towards life. As such, there is a high likeliness of an abused child getting involved in criminal activities (Courtney et al., 2011). Such children will further be inclined to engage themselves in violent and abusive relationships. This is a result of feeling as though they are not worthy of being treated well since they have been told hateful things in their entire life from the time they were brought forth. However, as a result of increased child abuse cases in the U.S, Child Abuse Centers have been initiated to come in aid of these vulnerable children. Some of these child care associations include Youth Villages and Carl Perkins. Such organizations have played a significant role in protecting children who are victims of child abuse. These associations have helped reduce the cases of child abuse in America, making child development a huge priority in the U.S. 

In conclusion, as children develop, they are influenced by their immediate surroundings, which shows that a child at birth will copy what his/her caretaker(s) do or the people they mostly associate with. As such, an abusive parent will as well bring forth an abusive child. This brings a need to be careful when taking care of the young ones since they learn from what their parent does and behave almost the same as their caregiver(s). 

References 

Anda, R. F., Fleisher, V. I., Felitti, V. J., Edwards, V. J., Whitfield, C. L., Dube, S. R., & Williamson, D. F. (2004). Childhood abuse, household dysfunction, and indicators of impaired adult worker performance. The permanente journal, 8(1), 30. 

Courtney, M. E., Dworsky, A. L., Cusick, G. R., Havlicek, J., Perez, A., & Keller, T. E. (2007). Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Outcomes at age 21. 

Fisher, S. & Greenberg, R. P. (1996). Freud scientifically reappraised: Testing the theories and therapy. New York: Wiley. 

Fischer, K. W. (1980). A theory of cognitive development: The control and construction of hierarchies of skills. Psychological review, 87(6), 477. 

Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition 7: 123- 246. 

Nielsen, L. (2014). Parenting plans for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers: Research and issues. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 55(4), 315-333. 

Hockenberry, M. (2017) Wong’s Essentials of Pediatric Nursing. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Wiggins, L. J. (2011). Group work to enhance emotional intelligence in vulnerable children in middle childhood (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria). 

McLeod, S. A. (2019, July 18). Psychosexual stages. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.htmlMcLeod, S. (2013). 

Erik Erikson. Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2003). Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Educational psychology interactive, 3(2), 1-5. 

Santrock, J. W. (2007). Child development. New York: McGrow.