CHILD DEVELOPMENT STAGES!
CHILD DEVELOPMENT STAGES
- Newborn period: The first four-week after the birth is called the newborn period. In this period, physical development and psychosocial development start.
- Infancy period: It is the development period of babies observed until the age of 2.
- Early childhood period: It is the period between 2 and 6 years of children. In this period, children begin to learn the rules of society that is limited by their surroundings. Their language skills show a great improvement. Socialization and gender awareness begin to develop. At this stage, the best physical and mental educational, teaching, and development tools are games. Such as playing warm up games for kids, PE games, and gymnastics games for physical development, and learning games for girls, and learning games for boys for mental development are quite important. Games are one of the most natural and effective learning ways for children.
- Late childhood period: This period usually covers between 6-13 years of children. This period is one of the important stages of life in which compulsory education starts.
Child development continues in the late childhood period as learning social rules, respecting others, being a respected individual, improving social relationships, and learning how to collaborate. In this period, children also learn competing, protecting their rights, and being responsible.
Recommended: Erik Erikson’s theory that will help you understand when your children are developing a sense of what, their timeline for building social interactions or focusing on work and so much more: Psychosocial Development Theory: Erikson’s 8 Stages
The late childhood period is when the development of intelligence goes very fast. Therefore, during this stage, it is important for children to gain analytical thinking and reasoning skills along with others.
To make this possible, mind games have become part of the curriculum of primary schools all over the world. Intelligence games are one of the most effective tools to develop children's reasoning skills.
You can use MentalUP for your child as many schools and educational institutions use it for child development and training purposes. It also offers more than 240 fitness games for kids.
It’s an award-winning app with both cognitive and physical exercises! 🥳
WHO IS A CHILD DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST?
Child development specialists are those who examine physical, mental, and social development of children and follow their language, psychomotor, and emotional development.
WHAT ARE THE DUTIES OF THE CHILD DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS?
- Helping parents as a consultant about child development and education,
- Performing brain development tests and mental skill tests,
- Examining adaptation problems of children, provides help and guidance,
- Child development specialists can prepare a special education program for children with learning difficulties,
- Helping families and children to regulate their eating, drinking and sleeping habits,
- Choose suitable toys for children in terms of their age and development characteristics.
- Dealing with everything about the physical and psychological development of children, and ensuring that children have a healthy family, school, social environment to live.
Why do we need child development specialists?
You should be careful when you look for a child development specialist because:Child development specialists play an important role as educators in children’s life. They should have full knowledge of child development stages and child psychology.
Child development specialists organize leisure time activities for children. They can also monitor periodic activities such as sleeping and nutrition habits, and playtime. Thus, they are good guides for parents. Most experts emphasise the importance of games in development of children's intelligence. Some of the games are educational and some of them improve mental skills. Playing games also support children's motor skills and muscle development.
HOW TO BECOME A CHILD DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST:
To become a child development specialist and have a career in this field, first a degree in psychology should be earned.
-
Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology
During your education, you will gain the essential skills and knowledge to be a child development specialist. The course will cover general knowledge of psychology, how it shapes us, how children behave, how it affects learning and motivation, how the brain develops and what mental health diagnosis and treatments are.
Those who have a degree in Psychology can specialise in the fields of Educational Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, or Neuropsychology. Psychology department in some of the universities also includes Family Psychology. Master’s degree is preferable for those who want to develop further in Child Development and Psychology.
Here are some of the main courses of The Department of Psychology at University of Maryland.
| Introduction to Psychology | Statistical Methods in Psychology | Research Methods in Psychology |
| Developmental Biopsychology | Biological Basis of Behavior | Fundamentals of Learning & Behavior |
| Perception | Introduction to Memory & Cognition | Developmental Psychology |
| Neural Systems & Behavior | Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology | Neuroethology |
| Developmental Cognitive/Social Neuroscience | Science of Sleep and Biological Rhythms | Thinking & Problem Solving |
| Cognitive Development | Advanced Special Topics in Psychology: Human Factors Psychology | Advanced Special Topics in Psychology: Hormones and Behavior |
TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT
As the information technology develops, it becomes easier to make the technology useful for children.
One of the best works done in this matter: MentalUP Child Development Games that are developed by academicians scientists.
