Week4-Early & Middle Childhood-Journet

  Chapter 6 talks about the "Magical Years" of early childhood.  Kids ages 2 to 6 are perfecting gross motor skills such as running,stairs,jumping,hopping, skipping, pedaling, balancing, carrying bundles, rope jumping and much more.  During these activities they are using the larger muscles of their bodies.  They are also developing other skills using small muscles which is know as their fine motor skills.  These involve throwing, kicking a ball, scribbling, turning pages, holding a pencil, dressing, eating neater, using scissors, shoe tieing and using eating utensils among other skills.  Lateralization is being established and a child begins to exhibit a preference for either the left or the right hand.  I found it very interesting that a child's body size not only is influenced by their genes but by their socioeconomic status.  They attribute this to nutrition, sleep and recreation.  Those with limited resources may not be well nourished leading to a smaller body size.  

This year I am blessed to work with preschoolers in a blended pre-k program and it is remarkable to see such eager little faces that are excited about learning.  For most of the students it is their first schooling experience.  They are learning so much like walking up and down the stairs.  The range of developed or undeveloped skills between them is very broad.  For instance we have students that may already know how to write their name and on the other hand we might have a child that has never held a pencil before.  While I was reading this chapter I was really able to make many connections.  

At this age they are in Piaget's preoperational period at this stage the explore and learn about their environment through play.  We learned about the different types of early childhood programs like Montessori, Reggio Emilia Schools and the Head Start Program.  Most of the programs have similarities in the way that they were designed.  They focus on the importance of learning through play.  They are set up with different centers that have block play, art, sand/water, dramatic play etc. Through play children are developing cognitively, socially and emotionally.

In Chapter 7 we learn about the middle Childhood where kids are ages of 5-12.  By the age of 8 or 9 the brain size has grown to its full size.  There are many synapses going on as they become better at problem solving, their memory improves, more attentive,  and they develop better judgement.   They are very energetic and have fine tuned the gross and motor skills.  Since the body is preparing for the growth spurt of adolescents in this chapter it is recommended that parents establish healthy eating patterns which will decrease the risk of obesity and diseases related to obesity.  During this age some kids may face other challenges such as being diagnosed with a learning disability.  

Piaget's concrete operational stage talks about cognitive achievements in this age group. In conservation children understand that two the amount of water stays the same even if it is poured in a taller glass.  They also can group objects in diferent categories.  In seriation kids can group objects based on length or weight.

I really liked Gardner's Multiple intelligence and that is why I attached Albert Eintein's Fish quote.  I believe we all have different types of intelligence and we cannot measure each other based on one intelligence.   I took a survey earlier this year and to see what type of intelligence I have.  It was a close tie between interpersonal and spatial intelligence.  People with interpersonal Intelligence become teachers, therapist, actors. As it turns out im currently studying to be a teacher.

In this chapter Moral Development was introduced in this chapter.  Piaget says that before the age of 4, children are not worried about morals.  After age 4 kids start making decisions based on right or wrong.  Between the ages of 7-11 kids realize that because rules were made by people they can be changed.

I loved learning about Resilient Children,  Three things they have in common are that they are considered to have good temperaments in turn people are nicer or positive towards them.  They also have special interest or talents.  The third thing they have in common is that they have sufficient intelligence to to acquire good problem solving skills. Resilient children have rough lives or may have gone through crises but the manage to come out and continue developing in a healthy manner despite the trauma they have been through,  I believe that I fall under this category of a resilient child/adult.  I believe that my faith in God and in good people has attributed to my resilience.