Childhood Development Domains, Essay Example

The lifespan of a person is characterized by the cognitive, the physical, and the social domains. These domains are present whether one is in the early, middle, or late childhood, the early or late adolescence, or they are in the early, middle, or late adulthood. In each stage, these three domains seem to be simultaneously present in order to allow an individual to grow wholesomely thus, creating a balance. The stages that have been of interest to many parties, especially those in the psychological fields are the changes taking place in the childhood stages and the adolescent/teenage stages. The main concentration will be on the childhood stages.

As mentioned earlier, childhood is divided into three main stages. These include the early childhood (0-5 years), the middle childhood (6-8 years), and the late childhood (8-12 years). However, the stages seem to overlap. The eighth year and the twelfth year are the overlapping years. While age twelve is categorized as the last year in the late childhood stage, it is also categorized as the first year in the puberty stage, which is part of early adolescence. This is similar with the eighth year in its context. During the time I was growing up and mostly in my adult life, I have undergone either through my own or other people’s experiences, the diverse impacts of the cognitive, social, and physical domains.

The cognitive domain involves the changes taking place in terms of memory capabilities, intelligence, and the way one is supposed to think. The physical domain involves the physical changes of the body. The social domain involves the changes taking place between one person and the other people. It also involves the establishment of ones self esteem and social skills. For example, by the age of three months, I have seen that most children are able to identify their mothers due to the breast-feeding process and the constant interaction between the child and the mother. However, the child may not identify the mother if the mother is not the one who is the constant caregiver. The child will identify the one he/she is closest to on a daily basis. In order to show the presence of their mental changes, most children tend to show a negative reaction if they are held or in the presence of a person, they are not familiar with. I constantly saw this as my siblings grew up.

Other physical changes include following something that is of interest with the use of their eyes, sitting down if the back is supported, the strengthening of the neck, and sleeping less as compared to the earlier days. In the social domain, a child is able to interact with hose people she is familiar with. He/she may smile, cry, or show some playfulness when he/she is in the presence of other people. By the six month, the child can comfortably sit on his/her own. My mother started the winning process on my siblings during this time. Children start exploring during this period. This is to show that their mental activities are disintegrating. For example, they will put everything into their mouth. In order to show that they can recognize things, they tend to pat their mirror image. One of my siblings started learning how to stand independently at this particular age.

Within these five years of early childhood, the children tend to grow in height more than any other physical growth. Growing in height also includes adding weight although it is not as persistent as the late childhood years. For example, children who were fairly big in the infant and toddler stages may start to become slimmer when they are three to five years old. The mental processes are distinct during this early childhood stage. For example, by the age of five years, the child can speak fluently, and thus be able to express him or her self. Additionally, emotions are portrayed in a distinct manner.

Unlike the toddler stage where the child could cry simply because he/she is hungry, the child is now able to cry when he/she is hurt emotionally and ask for food when he/she is hungry. However, these emotional expressions are experienced more frequently in this stage than in the middle or the late childhood stages. For example, I would easily cry if I got physically or emotionally hurt when I was five years old. By the time I was seven years old, I started crying less. By the time I was twelve years old, I avoided crying and I only cried while I was in hiding. Children also start becoming interested in their peers during this stage. For example, while a two year old would rather stay around his/her mother, a five year old child would rather stay around his/her peers. I recognized this with my neighbors’ children and my own siblings.

The middle stage comprises of its own changes. For example, children between six and eight years start forming social groups. They start associating with the other children whom they feel comfortable around. They start to become more intuitive. For example, I would ask many questions when I was between six and eight years old. My parents tell me that some of the questions were embarrassing as they were considered as social norms. In this particular stage, the child is willing to learn more about his/her surrounding. He/she may ask about such questions as why the boys’ private parts look the way they look while the girls’ ones look the way they do. Although there are particular physical changes noted such as the height changes and body weight changes, the most dominant changes are the cognitive and the social changes.

In this middle childhood stage, some children try to imitate the adults. The girls will wear their mother or big sisters’ clothes and make-up while the boys try to imitate their fathers or older male figures. At this stage, character molding is very important. Children tend to engage in both good and bad habits portrayed by the older people in their lives. When I was seven years old, I once saw a classmate imitate how his father smoked. He told me that he found it ‘cool’. The boy had rolled up a piece of newspaper and lit one end of it so that it smoked like a real cigarette. Although the children are not as discriminative as those in the late childhood, stage, they are more discriminative than those in the early childhood stage. I remember one of my classmates was denied the chance to participate in a doll tea party because she did not have nice dolls and neither did she have nice clothes.

Freud, in his theory, states that personalities are divided into three sections. There is the id, the ego and the superego parts. The id is characterized by the unconscious, the ego is characterized by the conscious, and the superego is where our morality is rooted. Children tend to identify the presence of these personality characteristics in these late childhood stage. In this childhood stage, rapid changes reoccur. Students start to experience rapid physical, cognitive, and social growth. Although individuals are unique and so their changes take place at their own pace, there particular changes expected to take place by particular ages. For example, should differentiate the good from the bad by the time they are through with their late childhood stage. There are children who start experiencing major physical changes by the age of twelve years. For example, there are girls whose breasts start enlarging at this age. In my own case, I started experiences these changes by the time I was twelve years old.

Since some of these changes can be difficult to handle especially when the other peers are yet to experience such changes, counseling sessions helped me to cope with them. Counseling sessions should be engaged in schools and the community in order to help these children to cope with such changes. One of the girls in my neighborhood was mocked by the other boys in her peer because her burst size had started to increase. This experienced was very traumatizing for her and for me. I stayed for two days without going to school because I feared going through the same experience. Children form groups and the mental processes are more distinct. It is feared that children can enter into depression in this late childhood stage if the right precautions are not taken when dealing with particular changes, whether physical, emotional, or social.