EARLY

CHILDHOOD
(The Preschooler,
3-5 years of age.)
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Big ideas about the Physical Development of Preschoolers

1.There are significant changes in physical growth of preschooler.

2. The preschoolers physical development is marked by the acquisition of gross and

fine motor skills.

3. Preschoolers can express themselves artistically at a very early age.

4. Proper nutrition and the right amount of sleep are very important for the
preschoolers.

5. Caregivers and teachers can do a lot in maximizing the growth and development of
preschoolers.

6. Preschoolers with special needs in inclusive classrooms cam thrive well with the
appropriate adaptations made in the classrooms, materials and activities.
 Significant Changes in
Physical Growth
● Physical growth increases in the preschool years, although it is much
slower in pace than in infancy and toddlerhood. At around 3 years of
age, preschoolers move.

GROSS AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS

● Locomotor- involves going from one place to another, like walking,
running, climbing. skipping, hopping. creeping, galloping, and
dodging.
● Non- Locomotor- are those where the child stays in place, like
bending, stretching. turning and swaying.
● Manipulative Skills- are those that involve projecting and receiving
objects, like throwing, striking, bouncing, catching, and dribbling.
Preschoolers’ Artistic Development
Stage 1. Scribbling stage. This stage begins with large zig-zag lines which
later become circular markings. Soon, discrete shapes are drawn. The child may
start to name his/her drawing towards the end of this stage.

Stage 2. Pre-schematic stage. May already include carly representations (This

also becomes very significant when we discuss about cognitive development).
At this point adults may be able to recognize the drawings. Children at this
stage tend to give the same names to their drawings several times.

Stage 3. Schematic stage. More elaborate scenes are depicted. Children usually
draw from experience and exposure. Drawings may include houses, trees, the
sun and sky and people. Initially, they may appear floating in air but eventually
drawings appear to follow a ground line.
Cognitive Development
Preschoolers Symbolic and Intuitive Thinking

There are two substages of Piaget's preoperational thought, namely,

symbolic substage and intuitive substage.

● Symbolic stage- being able to draw objects that are not present, by their
dramatic increase in their language and make-believe play.

● Intuitive substage- preschool children begin to use primitive reasoning

and ask a litany of questions. The development in their language ability
facilitates their endless asking of questions.
Language Development
Symbolic thinking involves language,
literacy and dramatic play. Children
rapidly conclude that sounds link together
to make words and words represent ideas,
people, and things. Throughout the
preschool years, children's language
development becomes increasingly
complex in the four main areas:
phonology (speech sounds), semantics
(word meaning), syntax (sentence
construction), and pragmatics
(conversation or social uses of language).
Language and Social Interaction
Vygotsky believed that young children use language both to communicate
socially and to plan. Guide, and monitor their behavior in a self-regulatory
fashion called inner speech or private speech (Santrock, 2002).

For Piaget, private speech is egocentric and immature, but for Vygotsky it is an
important tool of thought during early childhood. Full cognitive development
requires social interaction and language.

Vygotsky asserted that preschool children are unable to achieve their highest
cognitive development (language development included) on their own and that
they can improve their cognitive development through use of scaffolding from
more-skilled children and adults.
He introduced the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to refer
to tasks too difficult for a child to master alone but can be mastered
with the guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children
(Santrock, 2002).

Closely linked to the idea of ZPD in cognitive and language

development is the concept of scaffolding, a term that refers to the
"changing support over the course ol a teaching session, with the more
skilled person adjusting guidance to it the child 's current performance
level" (Santrock, 2002).
Information Processing Theory-Attention and
Memory
The Information Processing model is another way of examining and understanding how
children develop cognitively. This model conceptualizes children's mental processes
through the metaphor of a computer processing encoding, storing, and decoding data .

But one deficit in attention during preschool years is that attention is focused only on
aspects that stand out at the expense of those that are relevant to solving a problem to
performing well on a task Preschool children recognize previously encountered
information, recall old information, and reconstruct it in the present .

She will be able to. Among the interesting questions about memory in the preschool years
are those involving short-term memory In short-term memory (STM) information for up to
15-30 seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal, which can help keep information in STM for
a much longer period (Santrock, 2002).
Socio-emotional Development
Preschoolers' Initiative Erikson's view of initiative
aptly portrays the emotional and social changes
that happen during the preschool years.
Preschoolers deal with the psychological conflict
of initiative versus guilt. Initiative, the tendency of
preschoolers to want to take action and assert
themselves.

Self-Concept and the Preschooler

By the end of toddlerhood, preschoolers come out
with a clear sense that they are a separate and
distinct person. With their ability to make
representations, they can now think and reflect
about themselves. Self-concept refers to the way
one sees himself, a general view about one's
abilities, strengths, and weaknesses
Environmental Factors and Gender in the
Preschoolers' Socio-emotional Development
As the preschooler's ability to create schemas develop, they become capable of
gender typing, the process of forming gender roles. gender-based preferences and
behaviors accepted by society. They come to form gender stereotypes.
Preschoolers begin to associate certain things like toys, tools. games. clothes,
jobs, colors or even actions or behaviors as being only for boys" or "only for
girls. Consequently, they form their own gender identity, the view of oneself as
being masculine or feminine.
 Parten’s Stages of Play
1. Unoccupied. The child appears not to be playing but directs his attention on
anything that interests him.

2. Onlooker. The child spends time watching others play. He may talk to them but does not
enter into play with them.

3. Solitary Play. The child plays independently.

4. Parallel Play. The child plays with toys similar to those near him, but only plays
beside and not with them. No interaction takes place.

5. Associate Play. the child plays with others. There is interaction among them,
but no task assignment, rules, and organization are agreed upon.

6. Cooperative. The child plays with others bound by some agreed rules and roles.
Caregiving Styles
● Caregiving styles affect the socio-emotional development of the children. Caregivers
here refer to both parents and teachers and even other adults that care for the child.
Baumrind gave a model that describes the different types of caregiving styles.

Responsiveness refers to caregiver behaviors that pertain to expression of affection and

communication. It refers to how warm, caring, and respectful the adult is to the child. It
involves openness in communication and the willingness to explain things in ways that the
child will understand.

Demandingness refers to the level of control and expectations. This involves

discipline and confrontation strategies.

1. Authoritative: high demandingness/high responsiveness

2. Authoritarian: high demandingness/low responsiveness
3. Permissive: low demandingness/high responsiveness
4. Negligent: low demandingness/low responsiveness