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Essay about Early Childhood Stage of Development

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Early Childhood Stage of Development

The developmental period known as early childhood ranges from the years two to six. These years are often called the play years. During this time play flourishes and supports all of the phases of life. Early childhood has many physical developments like body growth, brain development, and motor development. During this time both gross and fine motor skills develop dramatically. Children can walk upstairs with alternating feet, ride a tricycle, and even catch a ball with their hands. They can also put on and remove simple clothing items, feed themselves, and draw their first pictures of people.

For our team presentation we chose to do an obstacle course …show more content…

Our fourth obstacle is also dealing with colors. There are three cones setup. Under each cone is a car. Two cars are blue and the other car is silver. CJ's job is to find the silver car. He must look under the cones until he finds the silver car. Next is another physical activity. CJ must stand a certain distance, measured by a piece of tape, from a bucket. The object is to throw the three balls into the bucket. This tests the development of arm motion and coordination. Finally, the last obstacle deals with conservation. Conservation is the idea that physical characteristics of objects remain the same when their outward appearance changes. This comes from Piaget's preoperational stage. We had two glass filled with the same amount of liquid. CJ was asked if the two glass had the same amount. Next we poured one glass of liquid into a bowl, and asked if they had the same amount or if one had more. Of course CJ could not answer this question. In early childhood, children cannot conserve.

All of the cognitive activities deal with Piaget's theory. In early childhood, children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage. During this stage there is a drastic increase in representational, or symbolic activity. In Piaget's theory on education, he believed in three principles. He believed in discovery learning, which states that children are

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