Stages of Development

Infancy
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS
ONE MONTH

• Turns head from cheek to cheek

when lies on stomach
• Lifts head momentarily when on
stomach
• Lifts head (bobbing) when held
vertically at shoulder
• Kicks legs rhythmically 2-3 cycles while lying on back
• Looks at faces and objects

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Arms move randomly when a toy is shown

• Arms move together symmetrically
• Grasps rattle/finger when placed in baby’s hand
• Randomly brings hand to mouth
• Follows a moving face with eyes while lying on back
• Makes eye contact
• Relaxes body when held, cuddled
• Enjoys and needs lots of physical contact

TWO MONTHS

1
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Turns from side lying to back by turning head

• Brings hand to mouth when on back and lying on side
• Lifts head and turns to sides when on stomach

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Looks at a toy in 180 degree continuous arc

lying on back
• Shows awareness of hands when holding rattle
• Looks from one object to another
• Involuntarily drops objects
• Brings hand to mouth
• Responds to social interaction with smiling

THREE MONTHS

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Holds head in midline when on back

• Lifts head and upper trunk while placing weight on forearms
• Glances at toy that is placed in hand when on back
• Holds hands open or loosely closed when on back

• Brings hand together (midline) when lying on back (supine)

• Able to see with downward gaze when on back or supported sitting (chin tucking)

2
FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Hands more open

• Tries to reach for object but cannot grasp it
• Holds rattle momentarily when placed in hand
• Brings hands/objects to mouth
• Follows/tracks moving object with eyes in supported sit (past midline)
• Enjoys social play
• Socializes/engages with anyone
• Vocalizes in response to adult talk and smile

FOUR MONTHS

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

 Rolls from back to side
 Holds head steadily and erect with support
 Plays while on side
 Reaches the toy with both hands
 Brings rattle to mouth with both hands

FINE MOTOR/ SELF-HELP/ PLAY SKILLS

• Brings both hands to toy over chest and plays with fingers
• Reaches and grasps a toy/block
• Clasps hands together
• Hands open most of the time
• Grasps objects with contact to palm
• Pats bottle

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• Recognizes parent
• Repeats enjoyable activities

FIVE MONTHS

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Brings feet to hands and holds for 3 seconds when on back

• Begins to roll from tummy to back
• Extends both arms fully when on tummy

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Transfers objects from hand to hand

• Holds 2 objects at a time (one in each hand)
• Drops objects
• Holds bottle independently

• Displays stranger anxiety

• Lifts arms to parents
• Explores parent’s facial features

4
SIX MONTHS

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Rolls from tummy to back purposely

• Rolls from back to tummy purposely
• Sits alone for 5-10 seconds while placing hands forward on surface to support own
self
• Pushes entire chest off surface with extended arms and open hands
• Reaches with 1 hand for toy and another extended arm while lying on tummy
• Brings feet to mouth when on back
• Catches self forward by extending arms forward and opening hands in sitting when
losing balance

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Reaches with one hand/arm at a time

• Bangs object/block on table
• Follows objects with eyes without head movement
• Holds small objects between index/middle fingers and palm (radial palmer grasp);

may not use thumb yet

• Brings bottle to mouth with hands

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• Shows separation anxiety

NINE MONTHS

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Raises to hands and knees position and rocks
• Creeps on hands and knees 5 feet using alternating arm and leg movement
• Transitions from hands and knees position by turning via side-sitting to sitting on
bottom
• Pivots on bottom when sitting using arms or legs
• Sits steadily and unsupported for more than 1 minute
• Catches self to side by extending arm to side with open hand in sitting when losing
balance
• Stands while holding on to furniture with wide base of support

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Bangs 2 blocks together and starting to clap hands together

• Voluntarily releases objects
• Takes cube out of cup/container
• Points/probes with index finger

• Grabs small objects with thumb and side of index finger (lateral pinch)
• Finger feeds
• Extends toys to show/share
• Holds spoon

TWELVE MONTHS
6
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

• Pulls to standing at furniture by leading with 1 leg

• Lowers self to sitting on floor from standing at furniture without falling
• Stands alone 3-5 seconds
• Walks with 1 hand held 4 steps

• Walks along furniture (cruising)

• Catches self backwards by extending arm in backward direction with open hand
when losing balance
• Flings tennis ball by straightening shoulder or elbow when standing
• Rolls ball forward in sitting by using hand or arm contact

FINE MOTOR/SELF-HELP/PLAY SKILLS

• Claps hands together well

• Puts 3 or more objects in container
• Stacks 2 blocks
• Points with index finger
• Uses pincer grasp to pick up objects (index finger and thumb)
• Marks paper with crayon
• Starting to bring spoon to mouth
• Gives toy to familiar adult upon request
• Shows toy preference

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• Imitates clapping/waving

Infant Motor Development

The term "motor development" refers to age related changes in our capacity for
voluntary physical movement. Although these changes occur throughout the lifespan,
the most important changes for parents occur between birth and 18 years of age.
Gross motor skills help to control the large muscles of the body. These are associated
with the movement of the torso, arms and legs. Fine motor skills are the ability to
move the smaller muscles of the body. These are associated with the control of the
tongue and fingers. In general, gross motor skills develop before fine motor skills.
One of the first and most important parts of the body the newborn must gain control
of is the head. Control of the head is essential to direct attention. The eyes can only
see what is within a certain range of vision, generally in front of the head. It takes
the first four weeks of life for babies to learn how to control and lift their head,
though some babies may take as long as five months to achieve
this. A major type of behaviour that develops during infancy is
reaching. At birth, infants reach without a real intention. They
reach for a stimulus, and there is no coordination of reaching and
grasping. As a result, infants reach for objects and fail to grasp
them because they have not learned how to control or synchronize their grasping with
their reaching. Between 3-5 months of age there is a type of intentional reaching that
is called ballistic reaching.
It is called ballistic because it seems as though the infant is throwing his/ her hand at
the target. It is not very accurate, and infants often miss their target. In addition,
even when the hand does reach the target, it often fails to grasp the target. Between
5-7 months of age infants improve their ability to coordinate their vision and have a
control of their reaching. As a result, reaching becomes more deliberate and
accurate. This type of reaching is called guided reaching. However, it is still
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somewhat imprecise due to the persistent problem of coordination. Finally, by about
11 months of age, infants succeed in coordinating their reach and grasp, with a
corresponding increase in the accuracy of reaching and grasping. Infants also appear
to use both hands equally for reaching and grasping until about nine months of age.
However, between 9-13 months of age, infants develop a preference for one hand
over the other. By 13 months of age most infants tend to display a clear preference
for their right hand.
Another major type of behaviour that develops during infancy is walking. By about

four months of age most babies can sit with support. They can
sit and grasp by about five months, and they can sit without support by about seven
months of age. By about eight months, most babies can crawl. They can also stand
up if they have help. By the end of the eighth month most babies develop the ability
to pull themselves up to a standing position. However, it takes them another 2-3
months to learn how to stand alone. By about 12 months, most infants have learned
how to walk alone. During the next few months infants refine their walking abilities
by learning how to walk sideways and backwards (between 13-18 months). They
expand these abilities still more by learning how to run between 14-20 months of age,
though they may not be able to run smoothly until about two years of age. Further
developments, such as turning while running will take a little longer, and occur during
the childhood years.
Fine motor skills are the ability to use the small muscles of the body, especially the
hands and fingers. Although these skills develop at the same time as gross motor
skills, they tend to lag behind a bit, because the large muscles must be able to put
the body in place for the small muscles to play their part.

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Between 4-6 months of age infants become fairly successful at reaching for and

grasping objects, though a few trials and errors may be common.

An important milestone is reached at about nine months of age when infants develop
the ability to hold small objects between the thumb and forefinger. This is called the
pincer grasp. It is important because it eventually makes many other behaviours
possible, such as writing or buttoning clothing. Between 10-12 months of age infants
typically are able to hold a spoon in their hands and feed themselves, though their
aim may still be rather poor.
As the baby learns how to control his/ her eyes and head, and other muscles, it soon
finds that he/she cannot always achieve his/ her goals without coordinating different
parts of the body at the same time. Infants must learn how to control their eyes and
head before they can intentionally grasp objects, or catch a ball. From this point of
view, the development of the infant is a function of their innate physical
characteristics and the relatively constant state of the physical world they inhabit,
e.g., in terms of the laws of physics. In addition, the infant must learn how to control
each subsystem (e.g., the eyes) before it can coordinate the activities of several sub
systems (e.g., the eyes, legs, arms, and hands) to accomplish goals (e.g., catch a
ball).

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:
An infant's physical development infant begins at the head, then moves to other parts
of the body (for example, sucking comes before sitting, which comes before walking).

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Newborn - 2 months
 Can lift and turn the head when lying on his or her back
 Hands are fisted, the arms are flexed
 Neck is unable to support the head when the infant is pulled to a sitting
position
 Primitive reflexes include:
o Babinski reflex -- toes fan outward when sole of foot is stroked

o Moro reflex (startle reflex) -- extends arms then bends and pulls them in
toward body with a brief cry; often triggered by loud sounds or sudden movements
o Palmar hand grasp -- infant closes hand and "grips" your finger
o Placing -- leg extends when sole of foot is touched
o Plantar grasp -- infant flexes the toes and forefoot
o Rooting and sucking -- turns head in search of nipple when cheek is
touched and begins to suck when nipple touches lips
o Stepping and walking -- takes brisk steps when both feet are placed on a
surface, with body supported
o Tonic neck response -- left arm extends when infant gazes to the left,
while right arm and leg flex inward, and vice versa

3 - 4 months

 Better eye-muscle control allows the infant to track objects

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 Begins to control hand and feet actions, but these movements are not fine-
tuned. The infant may begin to use both hands, working together, to accomplish
tasks. The infant is still unable to coordinate the grasp, but swipes at objects to bring
them closer
 Increased vision allows the infant to tell objects apart from backgrounds with
very little contrast (such as a button on a blouse of the same color)
 Infant raises up (upper torso, shoulders, and head) with arms when lying face
down (on tummy)
 Neck muscles are developed enough to allow the infant to sit with support, and
keep head up
 Primitive reflexes have either already disappeared, or are starting to disappear

5 - 6 months
 Able to sit alone, without support, for only moments at first, and then for up to
30 seconds or more
 Infant begins to grasp blocks or cubes using the ulnar-palmar grasp technique
(pressing the block into palm of hand while flexing or bending wrist in) but does not

yet use thumb

 Infant rolls from back to stomach. When on tummy, the infant can push up with
arms to raise the shoulders and head and look around or reach for objects.

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 6 - 9 months
 Crawling may begin
 Infant can walk while holding an adult's hand
 Infant is able to sit steadily, without support, for long periods of time
 Infant learns to sit down from a standing position
 Infant may pull into and keep a standing position while holding onto furniture
9 - 12 months
 Infant begins to balance while standing alone
 Infant takes steps holding a hand; may take few steps alone

TODDLERS’

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:

Throwing and kicking a ball (12 months)

Soon after his first birthday, the child shows interest in ball play -- first by throwing,
then by kicking at age 2

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Pushing and pulling (12 to 18 months)
Once the child becomes a confident walker, he can discover the joy of dragging or
pushing toys along. He improves his coordination while walking forward and
occasionally looking back.

Squatting (12 to 18 months)

Till now, the baby has had to bend down to pick things up off the ground. But soon,
he will attempt to squat instead.

Climbing (12 to 24 months)

Toddlers climb up on the kitchen table (or on the desk or the bed) for the obvious
reason: Because it's there. Kids this age are trying to find a balance between risk and
challenge. Climbing is an important physical milestone, though. It helps the child to
develop the coordination he needs to master skills like walking up steps.

Running (18 to 24 months)

Some kids seem to go from crawling to sprinting in two seconds flat. Others
take more time. That is because kids fall a lot when learning to run, and some are
quite willing to risk it.

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Jumping (24 to 36 months)
Between 2 and 3 years, toddlers learn how to jump off low structures, and gradually
how to jump from a standing position. Both these skills require bilateral coordination,
or the ability to use both sides of your body to do something different.

Developmental milestones include:

By the 1st year
 he can use his feet to push himself along on a ride-on.
By 15 months
 he can walk without help, though he will have his feet wide apart and his arms
up to maintain balance
 he can move from sitting to standing by using his hands to push himself up and
stand up from sitting by using his hands
By 1 half years
 he can push a wheeled toy in front of himself
 he has mastered the pincer grip and can now pick up small objects

 he can build a tower

 he can climb up onto low furniture such as chairs, coffee tables and lounges
 he can scribble on paper

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 he can drink from a cup without any help
By two years:
 he can get up off the floor without having to use his hands
 he can pull a toy by walking backwards
 he can run in a direction and stop when he needs to
 most toddlers can walk down stairs while holding onto a support by placing
both feet on each step
 he can push buttons and turn knobs

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT:

Gross Motor Skills

Gross Motor development involves the larger, stronger muscle groups of the body. In
early childhood, it is the development of these muscles that enable the baby to hold
his/her head up, sit, crawl and eventually walk, run and skip.
Between the ages of 12–18 months, a toddler
 Starts walking independently
 Attempts to run, or runs with stiff posture
 Squats down to pick up something

 Crawls up stairs and creeps back down

 Can sit by ownself on a small chair
 Pulls a toy behind himself/ herself while walking

Between the ages of 18 months – 2 years, a toddler

 Can walk up and down the stairs while holding someone’s hand
 Can run quite well, though not very fast.
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 Jumps with feet together
 Can jump down and forward

 Likes to stand on tiptoe with support

 Loves to throw a ball into a box
 Able to kick a ball forward

Between the ages of 2 – 2 ½ years, a toddler

 Stands on tiptoes if demonstrated by elders
 Jumps from bottom step

 Begins to ride a tricycle, moving forward with feet on the floor

 Catches a large ball with arms straight out

Between the ages of 2 ½ - 3 years, a toddler

 Can stand on one foot for some time

 Walks downstairs with two feet on the same step
 Loves to walk tiptoe
 Starts riding a tricycle using the pedals
 Can catch a ball with arms bent

 Kicks a ball forward

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 PHYSICAL COGNITIVE SOCIAL

NEW BORN:

Uncoordinated, reflexive movements Physically explores Baby loves the

the environment, comfort of mother,
Repeated movements Toddlers feel safe
lead to stimulation of with the mother.
brain cells.

4- 5 MONTHS:

Can grasp with a purpose, reach and Curious and Responds to social
transfer objects from one hand to interested about the stimuli, shows
another, roll over, plays with feet. environment emotions through
facial expressions

9 MONTHS:

Crawls, can stoop down and then Starts interacting

recover, eye and hand coordination Can differentiate socially, likes to
without any preference for hand between parents and play with parents
others, problem and family members
solving skill develops.

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12 MONTHS:

Starts walking Anxiety seeing

Points at pictures strangers, likes to
relating to verbal cue, play alone
receptive language is
better than
expressive language,
beginning of symbolic
thinking

15 MONTHS:

Development of more complex skills Attachment towards

mother increases
Learns through and can easily
imitating complex recognize the near
behaviour, can ones at home
recognise known
objects
Parallel and
symbolic play, starts
imitating
2 YEARS: Can arrange toys and
puzzles in order, uses
Can climb up stairs first and then two word phrases
down

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20
PRE SCHOOLERS

Physically active, cannot sit in one Have vivid Co operative in

place for long imaginations, cannot playing, can have
differentiate between imaginary play
fantasy and reality mates
Hopping, jumping, climbing, running,
riding on big wheels and tricycles Receptive language is
better than Develops fine and
Improves fine motor skills with eye- expressive language gross motor skills
hand coordination, can hold scissors till 4 years of age along with social
and draw shapes skills

Toilet trained between 3-3 half years Have an accurate

memory
Understands good
and bad behaviour,
feels bad for
disobedience with
Ego centric and parents
illogical

Curious about their

own bodies and may
even explore for
Does not have a curiosity

21
 proper understanding
of time and sequence Curious and has no
of events sense of privacy

Vocabulary explosion
Less emotional
outbursts

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PRE SCHOOLERS

Skills that develop between the ages of 2 and 3

-runs forward
- walks up and down stairs, alternating feet
- jumps in place with both feet together
- kicks a ball forward
- uses one hand consistently in most activities
- stacks up to 6 blocks
- turns pages in a book one by one
- imitates vertical, horizontal, and circular strokes
Skills that develop between the ages of 3 and 4
- walks stairs without support
- runs around obstacles
- hops/balances on one foot for up to 5 seconds
- pedals and steers a small tricycle
- catches a bounced ball
- holds a writing utensil between first two fingers and thumb
- copies a cross and a square
- uses scissors to cut on a line
Skills that develop between the ages of 4 and 5
- balances on one foot for 10 seconds or more
- jumps over objects 5 to 6 inches high
- hops in a straight line on one foot
- turns a somersault, swings, and climbs
- gallops, may be able to skip
- copies a triangle and other geometric shapes
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- draws a person, prints some letters, colors within lines
- cuts out simple shapes

Perceptual Development
While the ability to see, hear, and integrate sensory information is well established by
six months of age, more complex and less obvious perceptual abilities develop
throughout early childhood, for example, precision of visual concepts such as shape
and size increases. Another aspect of perception often taken for granted is the ability
to interpret pictorial representations of objects and people in the environment.
Research shows that 3 year olds respond to depth cues like shading and the
convergence of lines. Sensitivity to such cues, however, improves with age. The
ability to obtain accurate information from pictures reflects children's eye movement
fixation patterns. Young preschool children tend to have shorter eye movements and

24
focus their gaze to small areas near the middle or edge thus ignoring or missing much
of the information available.
The study of children's art provides some insight into the integration of their growing
perceptual, cognitive and motor abilities. The 2.5 year old grasps a crayon in his hand

and scribbles while the 4 year old can draw a recognizable

human form know as the "tadpole person." The tadpole person is characterized by a
big head, sticks for legs, and no body. The transition from drawing scribbles to the
tadpole person usually occurs sometime between the 3rd and 4th year.

Increased motor control and eye-hand coordination is one of the

factors involved in this achievement. Drawing skills undergo a second transition
sometime between the 4th and 5th year and the tadpole person is transformed into a
complete person with a body as well as a head. Like the preschool child themselves,
their art is delightfully full of life, energy, and creativity. . Drawings by youngsters of
this age are characteristically colourful, balanced, rhythmic, and expressive.

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: PARADOXES OF THE PRESCHOOL MIND
According to Piaget, children's language acquisition reflects their emerging capacity
for representational thought. The ways in which children think about the world are
still primitive -- dreams come from street lamps, we think with our ears, clouds are
alive, and the sun follows us when we move. Piaget proposed that 3, 4, and 5 year old
children make errors because they are still unable to engage in true mental
operations. This type of thinking therefore was termed "preoperational." According to
him, the key feature of preschool thinking is that children can only focus their
attention on one particular aspect at a time. This limitation is overcome at 6 or 7
years of age, when the transition to concrete operational thinking emerges. When this
occurs, children are able to combine, separate, and transform information mentally in
a logical manner. They know that the sun does not follow them and dreams do not
come from street lamps.
According to Piaget, preoperational thinking not only lacks logic but it is also
egocentric. Another characteristic is known as complexive thinking, which is a chain
of ideas in which each is linked to the preceding one but the whole is not organized
into a unified concept. A third characteristic of preoperational thought is the capacity
for deferred imitation which allows children to engage in pretend games.

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Representation
The ability to pretend is linked to the capacity for representation-the ability to think
about the property of things without acting into it directly. The development of
representation is the crux of all cognitive development during the preoperational
period. Recent research shows that preoperational intelligence develop at two
distinct levels, which are single representations that occur between the ages of 2 and
4, and the second between 4 and 6 years when children are capable of combining two
or more representations (Case and Khanna, 1981; Gelman 1978; Kenny 1983). The
transition from one of these levels to the next corresponds to a spurt in brain
development.
Observation of children in pretend play indicates that children at 2 years of age can

control only one representation at a time. For example, in

making a doll act as a person the child can represent the person doing only one thing
at a time- a child walking, a man eating, a woman washing her hands. As the child
matures single representations begin to include a set of related actions. Children
combine characteristics into concrete social categories. For example, the child can
make a doll perform a series of activities like putting on a saree, applying makeup on
the face, and make her look like a bride.
At about 4 years of age children begin to understand some relationships and
complexities of social behaviour. They begin to understand other social relationships
like husband-wife, mother-father, mother-child, etc. By relating various
representations, the child now begins to understand relationships. This ability is
reflected in the child's new attempts to influence behaviour. Strategies like "If you let

27
me play with your doll, I'll let you play with my basket," are quite common among 4
year olds. The preschool child is concerned about the people around them and how
they relate to each other.

Imitation
Imitation is one of the most important ways children learn about the social world.
During the sensorimotor period, before the capacity for representation develops,
infants can imitate an action only at the moment it is observed. One result of
representation skills is the capacity for deferred imitation-the process by which a
child observes represented to themselves, and then at a later time called up from
memory and actively imitated. Imitation also requires the ability to take another's
point of view. Piaget pointed out that children often make serious mistakes by
assuming that another person shares their own view of things. Everyone who has spent
time with young children is aware of this egocentrism or the inability to take
another's point of view. Even when preschool children are shown another person's
perspective, they cannot keep it in mind and coordinate it with their own. They are
not selfish but simply strongly believe in their own viewpoint.
As cognitive skills increase, perspective-taking skills improve. At 2 and 3 years of age,
children can take someone else's perspective only in the sense that they can
understand a characteristic. By 4 and 5 years, children are able to understand the
difference between another person's perspective and their own as long as they need
to keep track of only one or two simple concrete factors. Thus, by 4 or 5 years of age,
most children have taken a major step away from egocentrism.
Memory

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In order to understand another's perspective, the child must be able to remember.
Memory is the ability to encode information, store it, and retrieve it. There are two
kinds of memory, namely short-term and long-term. Short-term, also known as the
working memory processes information retrieved within a few seconds or minutes of
its being encoded. Preschoolers can use both short-term and long-term memory. For
example when they have heard a brief list of words or seen a small group of pictures
presented by an experimenter, 4-and 5-year-olds can often recall them immediately
after presentation as well as older children can. Their long-term memory is amazing.
Early development is characterized by changes in memory that are related to changes
in cognitive development, including the increasing ability to focus attention, the
ability to connect ideas with each other in a more logical way, and the ability to
devise strategies for remembering. Although memory improves throughout childhood,
important developmental changes take place during the preschool years. A major
advance in memory abilities seem to begin at about 4 or 5 years when children start
to recall items of some complexity and when they begin to monitor and manipulate
their own memories.

Play
Preschool children love to play and they spend hours building and knocking down
towers. They love to play house and act out stories with their playmates. Play in
infancy consists mainly of imitations of repeated actions and sometimes with
variations. In the preschool years, play becomes an important part in the child's life.
Preschoolers love to play games that test and fine-tune their physical characteristics
like running, climbing, swinging, throwing etc. They like to build things with mud,
sand or blocks and they love to pretend. They make believe about all kinds of things
everyday concerns, new things they have learned, and imagined adventure.

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During the preschool years, children gradually play less by themselves and more with

other children. At 2 years of age, solitary play is common and social

interaction with other children remains simple. Parallel play is often seen among 2
year olds and becomes common by age 3. In parallel play, a child is influenced by the
activities of other children but they do not actually cooperate in finishing a task. Two
children may play with sand and imitate each other activities, but they will not work
together to build the same castle.

With an increase in thinking abilities, the complexity of children's

solitary and social play also increases. At about 4 years of age cooperative play
becomes the most important. In this form of play, many children create a city of
blocks or play a game in which each child takes the role of a family member and
together they act out the daily events. The content of play shows a new level of
understanding and the child begins to play games with simple rules. At any age,
children's problems are reflected in their play. Play provides a time when children can
control things themselves.
Piaget's view on the preschool child's development makes the child at the centre of
his or her own world. Through active interaction, exploration, and observation of the
environment, the child actively creates his or her own learning. Play facilitates the
transition to higher levels of cognitive development. Play fosters a sense of self-
esteem. That reinforces the actions of the children. As a result, in play, a child is
always above his/ her daily behaviour.

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Complex Thinking
Play is mostly under the child's control and it clearly indicates some of the paradoxes
in children's thinking processes. Preschool children usually have difficulty controlling
or coordinating their thoughts. Even when they are capable of representational
relations, they can deal with only simple, crude connections between ideas, so their
thoughts tend to wander. One result of these difficulties is a thought pattern known
as complexive thinking--the stringing together of ideas without a unifying concept or
system. While there are connections between ideas, a single concept that ties them
all together is lacking.
Personification is an attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, which
is often taken as a characteristic of children's thinking. Preschool children are not yet
able to distinguish clearly between properties of objects and characteristic of people
because they have recently learned to separate their own actions from those of other
people.
During the preschool years, many cognitive-developmental changes take place. Before
this period, infants cannot differentiate between themselves and their actions in the
surroundings. At about 2 years, children are able to do representation, can think
about the properties of things without having to act on them directly. This shows the
beginning of the first level of the preoperational period. At this level, the child can
deal with only one representation, one idea or thought at a time. At the second level
of the preoperational period, which begins at about 4 years, children develop the
ability to deal mentally with more complex things. During the preschool years the
child moves through these two levels, building increasingly complex and sophisticated
schemes. The egocentric, complexive, magical thinking of infancy gradually gives way

31
to more logical thinking-perspective taking, a better memory, and an ability to
separate oneself mentally from one's immediate environment.

Stages of Language Development

Prenatal Development
Babies do not speak before they are born, yet language learning appears to begin
before birth. During the last trimester of prenatal development the foetus can hear
its mother’s voice as shown by changes in foetal heart rate and motor activity when
the mother is speaking, and this affects its preferences for language after birth in a
number of ways. Of course babies do not speak before they are born, yet language
learning appears to begin before birth.

Shared Attention, Gestures, and Sign Language

In the first months after birth, infants focus mostly on their own bodies and on the
interaction with the people in their world. At about 6 months, they begin to develop
more interest in the objects and events around them. When babies look or point at
what they see, adults tend to label what it is for them.
Nonverbal “signs” are representations that have meaning, like words. Using signs can
reduce frustration for both parent and child. One concern some people have is that
babies will rely on these signs and this will delay development of spoken language,

32
but research shows that it is not true. In fact, babies who can show sign, may have a
slight advantage in their early spoken language learning.
Toddlers’ Development of Words and Sentences
Babbling sometimes leads directly to babies’ first words. The sounds they play with
while babbling may be the sounds they use for the first words they say. Through
interaction, they associate words with familiar objects and people.
Growth of Vocabulary
At around 2 years of age, word development undergoes a drastic change. After the
second year of a child’s life, the vocabulary suddenly expands and that is why it is
known as naming explosion, word spurt or vocabulary burst. During this vocabulary
expansion, a child learns 10 words a week. This goes on through the preschool, early
school, and elementary school years. The vocabulary burst is remarkable in the sense
that the children do not get help from word learning but picking up words from the
environment.
Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
Learning to speak a language is a complex, cognitive task, so learning to speak two
different languages is even more cognitively complex. Children, who learn two
languages simultaneously, reach language milestones approximately as the same age
as of the children who are monolingual.
Young children learn a second language at a fast rate. There is evidence that target
language words are more effectively learned by unknowingly acquiring it, through
reading story book or conversing regularly, rather than making a deliberate effort of
memorizing the words. The choice between learning new words in real life situations
or making a deliberate effort to learn words makes the difference in intentional
vocabulary learning or incidental vocabulary learning.

Bilingual Acquisition

33
Between three to five years, all children become fully competent in at least one
language. This is accepted as totally normal. Even more remarkable are those
children who simultaneously acquire proficiency in two, or more languages during the
preschool years. It takes the same time frame for monolingual children to learn one
language as well as the bilingual children to learn two languages and become good at
using them in social and personal surroundings.
Bilingual children may learn their languages primarily at home, like monolingual
children, or in the daycare, or neighborhood. Bilingual children's exposure to their
languages can also differ greatly, as, for example, if the child is learning one language
from parents, who each speaks in a different language. Their language exposure can
fluctuate greatly over time.
The studies and researches by Warwick Elley suggests that young language learners
learn new words through interesting books than by doing vocabulary exercises.
Children learn new words better in natural contexts and situations.

What are the most important things for parents or early childhood educators to
know about early childhood bilingualism?

There are number of important things to keep in mind:

 bilingual acquisition is a common and normal childhood experience

 all children are capable of learning two languages in childhood

34
 knowing the language of one's parents is an important and essential component
of children's cultural identity and sense of belonging
 bilingual acquisition is facilitated if children have sustained, rich, and varied
experiences in both languages
 proficiency in both languages is more likely if children have sustained exposure
in the home to the language that is used less extensively in the community; the
language that is used more widely will get support outside the home
 parents can facilitate bilingual proficiency by using the language they know
best and by using it in varied and extensive way.

A dramatic accomplishment
This is the period of the acquisition of language. In late infancy, children learn to say
a few individual words and by paying attention to context, they can also understand
some of the language used around them. At about 2 years of age, their ability to use
language suddenly increases rapidly. The size of the vocabulary increases and they

35
begin to string words together in short sentences. The ability to represent objects,
people and events through language, develops at about the same time as
representation in children's imitation, play and other actions. While representation is
not required in uttering simple individual words, it is necessary for organizing words
into simple statements.
The growth of children's vocabulary and their increased ability to use complex
sentence structures along with the corresponding growth in their ability to engage in
conversation made according to the listener's needs, requires both participation in
responsive human interactions and exposure to a rich language environment (Bruner,
J. 1983). Most research on language development has focused on how children acquire
the rules that govern our use of language.
The two types of rules that have been most investigated are pragmatics, rules for
communicating in social contexts, and grammatical rules for combining words.
Another device is the use of a question as an indirect request. Because of egocentric
thought and social inexperience, young children do not fully understand the indirect
requests. For children, the simple pragmatic functions of language are often more
important than the specific meanings of sentences. When English speaking preschool
children meet in small groups with preschool children who speak another language,
they may play together for days without seeming to notice their language differences.
An English speaking 4 years old walked up to French speaking 3 year old and spoke in
English. The 3 year old answered in French and they proceeded to play, acting as if
they both understood, taking turns, nodding in agreement, and so forth. This
interaction emphasized the similarity of pragmatic rules between languages while the
meaning of words is generally obvious from the context and from other nonverbal
cues like the tone of voice.
Children in the early preoperational period believe only in their own viewpoint, and
they think that what interests them interests everyone. This egocentrism leads
children to endless self-reporting and a strong feeling that other people know what
they themselves know. They frequently conduct a conversation as though it were a
36
monologue, changing the subject without being aware of the listener's response. At
about 4 years of age, children begin to master some of the more complex pragmatic
rules that were so difficult when they were younger.
Children must also learn grammar and the rules for forming words, phrases, and
sentences. They must be able to express such states and relations as possession,
negation, past action and conditional action. One of the most basic concepts is
organization of words into sentences. In order to distinguish one sentence from
another, each group of words in a sentence has a certain pitch, and stress, so that
listeners can distinguish one sentence from the next. English speakers generally drop
the pitch at the end of a statement and raise it at the end of questions. Most children
recognize and can infer meaning from intonation patterns sometime in the first year
of life. This enormous accomplishment reflects the special adaptation of the human
species for acquiring language.
Some psycho-linguistic researchers believe that we inherit species-specific strategies,
or operating principles, for perceiving speech. These language operating principles
are similar to the newborn's rule for visual scanning. In the same way, young children
listen to the language in ways that help to discover its meaning. These strategies for
perceiving speech make it easier to understand the rules of speech production. Three
important operating principles have helped to explain two of the best known
characteristic of children's early speech- telegraphic speech and overregulation.
These operating principles include paying attention to the endings of words, paying
attention to the order of words and word segments, and avoiding exceptions to
language rules.
Telegraphic speech refers to a child's tendency to use only the two or three most
important words to express meaning. For example, a child says; "Mommy rice," rather
than "Mommy, I would like to have some rice." The average length of sentences
steadily increases during the period from 2 to 6 years. Telegraphic speech in different
languages has many differences as well as similarities. Since telegraphic sentences are
often ambiguous, interpretation often relies on contextual information.
37
The operating principle of avoiding exceptions to language rules, results in over
regularization as children apply a language rule to a word or phrase that does not
follow the rule. Statements such as "I goed out and throwed my ball at those gooses"
are common from English speaking children at this stage of language development.
Children speaking the same language seem to acquire rules in a similar order. Rules
that are simple and used often are acquired first followed by an understanding of and
an ability to combine more complex rules. Some grammatical forms that are not
particularly difficult to understand may enter a child's speech late because they are
difficult to hear. Since young children can only listen to language, they often make
mistakes due to the way a word or phrase sounds.
Preschool children are completely in love with language. They listen to it carefully
and chatter away for hours. By the age of six or seven they have acquired and
mastered most of the rules for speaking in their native language. This suggests that
there is a critical time, or sensitive period for acquiring language that begins at one
or two years of age, goes high in the later preschool years, and continues to some
degree until 13 to 15 years of age. This special human sensitivity for learning language
in the preschool years seems to correspond to certain systematic changes in the brain
and in the rest of the nervous system at about this time, which are closely related to
speech. The best documented of these changes are called myelogenetic cycles. Each
cycle is a period in which myelin forms in a particular system within the brain. There
are three myelogenetic cycles in the system that is important to language (Lecours,
1975). The first cycle, which occurs in the primitive brain (the brain stem and the
limbic system) starts before birth and ends early in infancy. It seems to be associated
with the development of babbling. The second cycle, which begins around birth and
continues until 3.5 to 4.5 years of age, takes place in a more advanced part of the
brain. This cycle appears to accompany the development of speech in infancy and the
early preschool years. The third cycle takes place in the association areas of the
cortex of the brain, which play a central role in intelligence. Although myelination of
these areas begins at birth, it is not fully completed until age 15 or later.
38
Language develops very efficiently for the majority of children. Parents can help in
getting natural language development by providing an environment full of language
development opportunities. With young children, for example, one helpful style of
interaction is a highly responsive one, in which the adult lets the child decide what to
talk about, expands on that topic, works hard to figure out what the child means,
suggests new activities, and pays more attention to what the child wants to say than
whether it is being said correctly. A good language teacher imparts the role of a
cooperative conversational partner rather than taking an explicitly didactic or
directive role.
Language teaching is most useful to young children when it is presented in the
context of their own activities. Older preschool children can learn language and they
no longer need to encounter each new language skill within a meaningful context.
They can also learn intentionally, benefit from explicit instruction, and use models as
sources of learning. At this stage simply responding to the child's interests may not be
enough to stimulate optimal language development. Talking about a wide variety of
topics, modeling an enriched vocabulary, engaging in talk about talk itself, discussing
word meanings, challenging children to explain themselves and to justify their own
thinking, setting higher standards for comprehensibility, and explicitly correcting
errors: all these are important in the language development of 4, 5, and 6 year old
children. Children at this age range are also expected to control certain language-
related literacy skills that probably emerge from being read to, from experience in
looking at books with adults, and from experience with letters, with pencils and
paper, and with observation of adult literacy activities. Parents can organize the
environment to provide and encourage the use of pre-literacy learning materials to
foster such skills.

Stages of language acquisition in children

In most cases, children's language development follows a predictable sequence.
However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a given
39
milestone. Each child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition of
particular abilities. Thus the correct use of English verbal inflection will emerge over
a period of a year or more, starting from a stage where verbal inflections are always
left out, and ending in a stage where they are nearly always used correctly.
There are also many different ways to characterize the developmental sequence. On
the production side, focusing primarily on the unfolding of lexical and syntactic
knowledge, it is:

Stage Typical age Description

Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive CV patterns

One-word stage
(better one-
9-18
morpheme or one- Single open-class words or word stems
months
unit)
or holophrastic stage

18-24 mini-sentences with simple semantic

Two-word stage
months relations

Telegraphic stage
or early multiword Telegraphic sentence structures of
24-30
stage lexical rather than functional or
months
(better multi- grammatical morphemes
morpheme)

Grammatical or functional structures

Later multiword stage 30+ months
start

40
Vocalizations in the first year of life
At birth, the infant vocal tract is
in some ways more like that of
an ape than that of an adult
human. In particular, the tip of
the velum reaches or overlaps
with the tip of the epiglottis. As
the infant grows, the tract
gradually reshapes itself in the
adult pattern.
During the first two months of
life, infant vocalizations are
mainly expressions of discomfort
(crying and fussing), along with sounds produced as a by-product of reflexive or
vegetative actions like coughing, sucking, swallowing and burping. There are some
non-reflexive, non-distress sounds produced with a lowered velum and a closed or
nearly closed mouth, giving the impression of a syllabic nasal or a nasalized vowel.
During the period from about 2-4 months, infants begin making comfort sounds, in
response to a good interaction with a parent or close one. The earliest comfort
sounds may be grunts or sighs, with later ones being more vowel-like "coos". The vocal
tract is held in a fixed position. Initially comfort sounds are brief and produced in
isolation, but later appear in series separated by glottal stops. Laughter appears
around 4 months.
Between 4-7 months, infants typically engage in vocal play, manipulating pitch (to
produce squeals and growls), loudness (producing yells), and also manipulating tract
closures to produce friction noises, nasal murmurs.
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At about seven months, "canonical babbling" appears, where the infants starts making
extended sounds that are chopped up rhythmically by oral articulations into syllable-
like sequences, opening and closing their jaws, lips and tongue. The range of sounds
that are produced are heard as stop-like and glide-like. Fricatives, affricates and
liquids are more rarely heard, and clusters are even rarer. Vowels tend to be low and
open, at least in the beginning.
Repeated sequences are often produced, like bababa or nanana, as well as
"variegated" sequences in which the characteristics of the consonant-like articulations
are varied. The variegated sequences are initially rare and become more common
later on.
Both vocal play and babbling are produced more often in interactions with the near
ones, but infants also produce them when they are alone.
No other animal does anything like babbling. It has often been hypothesized that
vocal play and babbling have the function of "practicing" speech-like gestures, helping
the infant to gain control of the motor systems involved, and to learn the acoustical
consequences of different gestures.
One word (holophrastic) stage

At about ten months, infants start to utter recognizable

words. Some word-like vocalizations that do not correlate well with words in the local
language may consistently be used by particular infants to express particular

emotional states: one infant is reported to have used to express pleasure, and

another is said to have used to express distress or discomfort. For the

maximum number of times recognizable words are used in a context that seems to
involve naming: dog when the child hits a toy dog , wash while the child washes

42
clothes under running water, car while the child looks out of the window at cars
moving on the street below.
Perception vs. production
Clever experiments have shown that most infants can understand some words at the
age of 4-9 months, often even before babbling begins. In fact, the development of
phonological abilities begins even earlier. Newborns can distinguish speech from non-
speech, and can also distinguish among speech sounds .Within a couple of months of
birth, infants can also differentiate speech in their native language from speech in
other languages.
Early linguistic interaction with mothers, fathers and others at home is almost
certainly important in establishing these early abilities, long before the child gives
any indication of language abilities.
Rate of vocabulary development
In the beginning, infants add active vocabulary somewhat gradually. Here are
measures of active vocabulary development in two studies. The Nelson study was
based on diaries kept by mothers of all of their children's utterances, while the
Fenson study is based on asking mothers to check words on a list to indicate which
they think their child produces.

Nelson 1973 Fenson 1993

Milestone
(18 children) (1,789 children)

15 months 13 months
10 words
(range 13-19) (range 8-16)

20 months 17 months
50 words
(range 14-24) (range 10-24)

186 words 310 words

Vocabulary at 24 months
(range 28-436) (range 41-668)

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There is often a spurt of vocabulary acquisition during the second year. Early words
are acquired at a rate of 1-3 per week (as measured by production diaries). In many
cases, the rate may suddenly increase to 8-10 new words per week, after 40 or so
words have been learned. However, some children show a steadier rate of acquisition
during these early stages. The rate of vocabulary acquisition definitely does
accelerate in the third year and beyond. An estimate average of 10 words a day
during pre-school and elementary school years are noticeable.
Perception vs. production again
Benedict (1979) asked mothers to keep a diary indicating not only what words
children produced, but what words they gave as an evidence of understanding. Her
results indicate that at the time when children produced 10 words, they were
estimated to understand 60 words; and there was an average gap of five months
between the time when a child understood 50 words and the time when (s)he
produced 50 words.

Combining words: the emergence of syntax

During the second year, word combinations begin to appear. Novel combinations
(where we can be sure that the result is not being treated as a single word) appear
sporadically as early as 14 months. At 18 months, 11% of parents say that their child is
often combining words, and 46% say that (s) he is sometimes combining words. By 25
months, almost all children are sometimes combining words, but about 20% are still
not doing so "often."
Early multi-unit utterances
In some cases, early multiple-unit utterances can be seen. Children tend to combine
two naming words together into one and speak. However, these combinations occur in
an order that is appropriate for the language being learned:
1. Doggy bark
2. Jane water (for " Jane wants to drink water”)
3. Hit cat
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Since the earliest multi-unit utterances are almost always two morphemes long -- two
being the first number after one! This period is sometimes called the "two-word
stage". Quite soon, however, children begin sometimes producing utterances with
more than two elements, and it is not clear that the period in which most utterances
have either one or two lexical elements should really be treated as a separate stage.
In the early multi-word stage, children who are asked to repeat sentences may simply
leave out the determiners, modals and verbal auxiliaries, verbal inflections, etc., and
often pronouns as well.
Acquisition of grammatical elements and the corresponding structures
At about the age of two, children first begin to use grammatical elements. In English,
this includes finite auxiliaries ("is", "was"), verbal tense and agreement affixes ("-ed"
and '-s'), nominative pronouns ("I", "she"), complementizers ("that", "where"), and
determiners ("the", "a"). The process is usually a somewhat gradual one, in which the
more telegraphic patterns alternate with adult or adult-like forms.
Over a year to a year and a half, sentences get longer, grammatical elements are less
often omitted and less often inserted incorrectly, and multiple-clause sentences
become a very common fact.
Perception vs. production again
Several studies have shown that children, who regularly omit grammatical elements in
their speech, nevertheless expect these elements in what they hear from adults, in
the sense that their sentence comprehension suffers if the grammatical elements are
missing or absent.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

45
Social development is a two-sided process in which children become increasingly
integrated into the larger social community as distinct individuals. The process of
acquiring the standards, values, and knowledge of communities and society is known
as socialization. The way in which individual children develop a characteristic sense of
themselves and a unique way to think and feel is known as personality formation
(Damon, 1983). Socialization which begins as soon as a child is born is especially
important during early childhood as the first understanding of the child's community is
made. It is a process that requires the active participation of both adults and
children. Parents set expectations for children's proper behaviour as well as the
rewards or punishments for their conduct. They also select and create the social
contexts within which children experience their environments and learn the rules of
behaviour. Children are active participants in this process. Their learning depends on
their interpretation of their environment and on what they choose to be important.
Children need to understand the social categories, roles, rules and expectations of
their families and communities in order to function in a social world. Effective
socialization assures that if a child comes to consider herself a girl, she will acquire
the appropriate behaviour for girls as defined by a particular social group. In order to
understand the requirements of this role, however, she must have certain skills and
abilities.
The particular characteristics of personality for each child are unique because of the
particular genes and personal experiences. Some elements of personality are present
just after birth as when infants display a particular temperament. Personality is more
than individual temperament as it includes the way people conceive of themselves
and their characteristic style of interacting with others.
Individual personality development and socialization are two sides of the same coin.
Social development during the preschool years is closely linked to achievements in
cognitive and linguistic skills. The social environment is important during the
development of self. One of the most remarkable facts about social development is
the extent to which children adopt as necessary the rules defined by their social
46
group. By the time children reach their 6th year, a lot has been learned about the
roles they are expected to play and how to behave, how to control anger and
aggressive feelings, and how to respect the rights of others.

Social Identity

Psychologists believe that socialization occurs through

identification -- a psychological process that gives a feeling of who one is and who one
wants to be. But they disagree about the process by which it is achieved. The four
proposed mechanisms that help in our understanding of this basic process are
differentiation, affiliation, imitation and social learning, and cognition. According to
Sigmund Freud, children recognize that some objects in the external world are like
themselves and they therefore "endeavour to mould the ego after one that had been
taken as a model.” Identification follows a different course for males and females.
Male identification requires differentiation from the mother, while female
identification requires continued relation with the mother.
Social learning theorists have a different view on how children identify and adopt
adult roles. According to them, the process of identification is not driven by inner
conflict but occurs through observation and imitation. Behaviour is shaped by the
environment and children observe that male and female behaviour is different.
Further, children learn that boys and girls are rewarded differently and choose to
behave in sex-appropriate behaviours that will lead to rewards.

47
The belief that a child's ability to perceive the world is central to socialization is the
basis of the cognitive-developmental approach to sex-role acquisition proposed by
Lawrence Kohlberg (1966). In this view the crucial factor in sex-role identification is
the child's developing ability to categorize themselves as "boys" or "girls." This process
begins at about 2 years of age as children acquire a distinctive sense of self and the
beginning of complex concepts. According to this viewpoint, children form a
viewpoint about their sex and in spite of the environmental changes; they do not
change their perception.
There have been some conflicting theories about sex-role identification and
psychologists have traced the developing relationship between the earliest signs of
sex-typed behaviour and children's earliest concepts of what adults mean when the
label "girl" or "boy" is applied. The existing evidence suggests that during the
preschool years children gradually develop a well-articulated concept of what it
means to be a boy or girl in their culture and their behaviour is shaped by this
knowledge. Between 2 and 6 years children are still piecing this conceptual structure
together. Both biological and social factors seem to play important roles in promoting
both sex-appropriate behaviours and the development of basic sex-role categories
themselves.
Developmental theorists disagree about the parents’ power to shape the final results,
yet, they do agree on two points concerning the children's discovery of social
categories and initial mastery of behaviour considering their sex and include: (1)
children conduct some kind of mental "matching" operation that allows them to
isolate key features that they share with others; (2) later ideas of sex-appropriate
behaviour are closely tied to children's ability to categorize, observe, and imitate.
Children of 5 or 6 have acquired the idea that they are members of one sex or the
other. Children use these abilities to learn other roles and about the possible roles
they may need to play in future.
Self Regulation

48
 While making their basic sense of identity, children also
learn which behaviours are considered good and which bad. They are expected not
only to learn and adopt the rules of proper behaviour, but also to follow these rules
without constant supervision. Piaget proposed that children's beliefs grow out of their
experience of the restriction placed on them by powerful adults. From the child's
perspective, older people make the rule, compel the children to do so, and decide
what is right and wrong. According to Piaget, as children enter middle childhood and
begin to interact with their peers other than situations that are directly controlled by
adults, the morality of constraint gives way to a more autonomous morality.
By the end of infancy children can plan their own actions according to the standards
of the society as to which are good and bad. In order to behave according to social
standards, children must acquire the capacity to control their own behaviour. Self-
control includes both the ability to inhibit action and to carry through actions
according to pre established rules even when one does not wish to do so. Preschoolers
are popular for their lack of self-control and the necessary need for supervision.
Behaviour is simply a direct response to the environment; they are being controlled
"from the outside." The direct response to being hit is to be angry and hit back.
Children who inhibit the impulse to hit back and seek an alternative response are
displaying a degree of self-control. Children who do not understand short-term versus
long-term cannot measure "short-term" versus "long-term" gain.
During the preschool period, children begin to spend a lot of time interacting with
their peers. Through this process children learn to be accepted by their social group.
They also show their anger when their goals are challenged; at other times their
personal desires will be subordinated for the good of the group. Learning to control

49
aggression and to help others is two of the central processes in preschool social
development.

Aggression and Prosocial Behaviour

Soon after birth, children begin to display both aggression and

socially constructive behaviour. The earliest signs of aggression are the angry
responses of newborns when their rhythmic sucking is interfered by others. The first
signs of helpful social behaviour appear just as early when newborns react to the cries
of other babies and start crying themselves. It is believed that this crying is the
earliest form of empathy, sharing of another's feelings which is the beginning for a
number of helpful or prosocial behaviours.
Aggression is a kind of behaviour that is difficult to define and it generally refers to
situations where one person commits an action that hurts another. As children
mature, two forms of aggression are common, like instrumental aggression and hostile
aggression. Instrumental aggression is directed at attaining something desirable, like
threatening or hitting another child to get a wanted object. Hostile aggression is more
specifically aimed at hurting another, either for revenge or as a way of showing
dominance. Observations reveal that by 2 years of age, children are concerned with
their ownership rights. Possessing and the possibility of winning are new elements in
their interactions.
Between 3 and 6 years, the way of expressing aggression goes through several other
changes. Physical charge over possessions decrease but the amount of verbal

50
aggression like threats or insults increases. During this stage, hostile aggression that is
where a child attempts to hurt another also appears.
Generally it is assumed that punishment suppresses children's aggressive behavior.
Some child development specialists argue that parents who control children's behavior
through physical punishment or threats actually create more aggressive children.
Others have suggested that when punishment is used as a means of socialization, it
helps to suppress aggression, only when the child identifies strongly with the person
who does the punishing and when it is done quite often. If punishment is used
inconsistently, it may provoke children to further aggression. Since young children use
aggression to gain attention, one strategy is to ignore the aggression or to pay
attention to children only when they are engaged in cooperative behaviour. Another
strategy is to engage children in a rational discussion making them aware of the
feelings of the aggressed. The most successful techniques for teaching self-control of
aggression go beyond suppression of aggressive impulses and children are requested to
stop their direct attacks and consider other ways to behave.
Pro social behaviours like altruism, cooperation, and empathy are quite common
among preschool children in addition to aggressive behaviour. A major stimulus for
pro social behaviour is empathy, the sharing of another's emotional response. Infants
are born with an ability to empathize and this capacity increases with age. Preschool
children become skilled at interpreting and responding appropriately to the distress of
others. Research seems to suggest that the development of empathy in the preschool
period results from the child's increasing command of language and other symbols
(Hoffman, 1975). Language allows children to empathize with a wider range of
feelings that are more subtly expressed, as well as with people who are not present.
Children love to empathize with people whom they have never met by getting
information indirectly through stories and pictures.
Parents become anxious to encourage pro social behaviour and eventually develop
many strategies to promote this goal. Two methods that seem to be helpful include
explicit modelling in which adults behave in ways they want the child to imitate, and
51
induction, where they give explanations that appeal to children's pride, their desire to
grow up and their concern for others. In reality, strategies to increase pro social
behaviour do not happen in keeping away from efforts to decrease aggressive
behaviour. A great variety of techniques combine with each other and therefore a
number of socialization patterns is created.

52