Postpartum Child Development

Development of the human is a continuously ongoing process. This is true in the fact that a human begins to grow and mature from conception until death. It is seen in the rapid growth of a fetus to the wise words of our elders. However, one of the most critical periods of postpartum development occurs in childhood (Berk, 2014). Children are evolving on all of the multiple planes of human development and at a significant rate. And in that critical period of development, parents/legal guardians readily send their child(ren) to school, to not only be educated in subject matter, but to also be placed in an environment that will foster this rapid growth bodily-, psychologically-, creatively-, and mentally-wise. These early primary school-aged children, …show more content…
This domain involves the gross motor skills, which require the use of the larger muscles of the body (arms, legs), and fine motor skills, which use the smaller muscles of the body (hands, fingers). Signs of developing gross motor skills in five-year old children are reflected in their ability to combine skills to form new ones and then being able to use these newly formed skills in activities (Nicolson & Shipstead, 2002). It would be expected to see a child of this age fine-tuning and/or successfully being able to join in activities like basketball, soccer, gymnastics, or riding a bike with or without training wheels, etc.; all of which incorporate two or more movement skills. The developing fine motor skills of five-year old children would show that this age group can successfully handle and maneuver small handheld objects. According to Nicolson and Shipstead (2002), this is indicated by the use of writing utensils, scissors, and other various small objects. It would be expected that a five-year old could create more realistic drawings, have smaller print size, and, if taught how to do so, have the ability to tie his/her own shoes (Berk, 2014; Nicolson & Shipstead, 2002). When presented with an appropriate environment to enhance their development, a child’s physical development can evolve through every day …show more content…
Representational ability is being able to use symbols as a way to interpret ideas, things, and/or behaviors; this can be seen through an act of imitation (Nicolson & Shipstead, 2002). A child wrapping his/her thumbs around one another and making his/her other remaining fingers and palms appear to wave to represent a bird flying would be an act of imitation. An increase in language skills for this age group is reflected in print, letter, and word recognition/familiarity, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and phonetics (Loeb, Bridges, Bassok, Fuller, & Rumberger, 2007); fast-mapping, or the quick building of vocabulary, would indicate growth (Nicolson & Shipstead, 2002). After being read a story about music in the classroom, a five-year would be able to clearly identify the repeated pattern of notes on his/her sheet music and exclaim to his/her music instructor, “That is a riff!” A young child’s ability to reason is limited and needs nourishment; however, this child can still solve problems in a way that seems logical to him/her; growth in this area would show logical, thoughtful problem-solving (Nicolson & Shipstead, 2002). A five-year old having lunch at home with a parent sees his/her parent with two sandwiches and he/she has just one, and says, “That is not fair, you have more than I do!” The parent then simply cuts the child’s sandwich into