What Child Development is: Child development is studying the
changes of children over time as infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and
school-aged children grow.
There are different areas of development to look at: Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional, and Social.
Physical Development: Physical development is the development of fine motor and gross motor skills, muscle development, changes that occur when a child grows, etc.
Intellectual Development: Intellectual development is the development of memory, perception, spatial reasoning, cognition, imitation, and many other mental processes.
Language: Linguistic development is the development of language skills in receptive, and expressive language, gestures, reading and writing are included in this area, grammar, etc.
Emotional Development: Emotional Development is the development of self. Self-concept, personality, emotions, self-control, etc.
Social Development: Social Development is the development of forming relationships with those around them. How a child associates in associative play, solitary play, parallel play, relationships to people around them, places, and also environmental functioning, etc.
When you are programming for preschool children it is very important to plan as many activities as you can where the children will be able to develop and enhance the skills in these particular areas.
Here are some examples of some learning activities you can plan for each different area:
Physical Development: As mentioned above in the description this area involves fine motor and gross motor skills. Gross motor activities could consist of outdoor activities such as riding a bike, playing ball, playing tag, hopscotch, building a snowman, so basically anything that gets the children using the larger muscle groups in their bodies. Creative movement also falls under a gross motor skill activity.
Fine motor skills would consist of anything involving the small muscles mainly in their hands and fingers. Some examples of activities for fine motor skills would include arts and crafts time, cutting with scissors, gluing small objects, coloring, lacing activities, playing with play dough, turning pages in a book, or any toy with small objects for the children to manipulate.
Intellectual Development: Activities for this area would include matching games, memory games, puzzles, setting up the dramatic play area with different themes, color sorting, size sorting, being able to differentiate real and fantasy, etc.
Linguistic Development: This area will take a bit more effort on your part during circle time, small group times, and during routines such as bathroom time, lunch time, etc. Singing songs throughout the day and repeating them so the children learn and copy them is a very fun and effective way to get children comfortable to use words. Using songs with simple sign language or just fun gestures will also allow the children to express themselves.
During a lunch time routine make sure you pronounce the names of food correctly and ask questions to encourage a response. For example, "Anne, would like more chicken?" If the child nods and refuses to answer out of shyness or lack of language skills then respond by saying, "Yes please, you would like more chicken." It may seem a little out of the ordinary at first but as you do this daily, you will see children copying what you are saying trying to sound out the words you are using.
Books that have familiar pictures would be great to put in the library as well as pencils and blank paper for them to experiment putting marks on paper whether they are in the early stages of printing or not.
Emotional Development: Emotional development is very important for children. This area helps them to express their feelings, their emotions, their needs and wants. This can be done by setting up real to life activities such as a house centre for dramatic play with real to life objects. Putting books about feelings in the library is great for readers and non readers. Non readers will be able to look at and understand the pictures and associate what they see with their personal feelings.
Planning activities around family is a great activity as well. The children can draw pictures of their families and what they have, where they live, pets they own, etc.
At circle time you can also talk about feelings and sing felling songs like "if you're happy and you know it."
Place pictures of people with different emotions around the classroom, in the dramatic play centre, etc. You could even cut out people/children with different emotions from magazines and put them on the art shelf.
Social Development: There are no specific activities you can plan for social development, but what you can do is purposely set up activities and provide play settings that would put the children in different social settings. For example, the dramatic play area usually has 2 or more children playing at a time. This allows the children the opportunity to share, exchange roles, and play in a social setting.
Another example would be playing with play dough. The children may be sitting beside each other but they have their own ball of play dough. They will be engaging in parallel play. This setting gives the children a chance to play side by side but engaging in their own activity.
Solitary play is also an important part of playing even though the child is not playing with anyone. Solitary play is important. Some children do not have the ability to play on their own and use their imagination. Setting up small areas for one child at a time to play is very important especially if you see that they are not engaging in solitary play on the carpet or play area. One example of this would be to set out a puzzle at a table with one chair so one child at a time can go over and play with it.
Another example is to try something different like getting a tray, putting a few small toys on it, and setting it at a table or on the carpet for one friend at a time to play. If you notice a child has difficultly playing on their own, encourage them to play in these areas and even spend a few minutes with them to get them comfortable with the activity. Feel free to remove yourself from the activity when the child seems comfortable to play on their own.
Remember when programing, be creative, keep it simple, and observe what the children seem to be interested and expand on it.
Have fun!
There are different areas of development to look at: Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional, and Social.
Physical Development: Physical development is the development of fine motor and gross motor skills, muscle development, changes that occur when a child grows, etc.
Intellectual Development: Intellectual development is the development of memory, perception, spatial reasoning, cognition, imitation, and many other mental processes.
Language: Linguistic development is the development of language skills in receptive, and expressive language, gestures, reading and writing are included in this area, grammar, etc.
Emotional Development: Emotional Development is the development of self. Self-concept, personality, emotions, self-control, etc.
Social Development: Social Development is the development of forming relationships with those around them. How a child associates in associative play, solitary play, parallel play, relationships to people around them, places, and also environmental functioning, etc.
When you are programming for preschool children it is very important to plan as many activities as you can where the children will be able to develop and enhance the skills in these particular areas.
Here are some examples of some learning activities you can plan for each different area:
Physical Development: As mentioned above in the description this area involves fine motor and gross motor skills. Gross motor activities could consist of outdoor activities such as riding a bike, playing ball, playing tag, hopscotch, building a snowman, so basically anything that gets the children using the larger muscle groups in their bodies. Creative movement also falls under a gross motor skill activity.
Fine motor skills would consist of anything involving the small muscles mainly in their hands and fingers. Some examples of activities for fine motor skills would include arts and crafts time, cutting with scissors, gluing small objects, coloring, lacing activities, playing with play dough, turning pages in a book, or any toy with small objects for the children to manipulate.
Intellectual Development: Activities for this area would include matching games, memory games, puzzles, setting up the dramatic play area with different themes, color sorting, size sorting, being able to differentiate real and fantasy, etc.
Linguistic Development: This area will take a bit more effort on your part during circle time, small group times, and during routines such as bathroom time, lunch time, etc. Singing songs throughout the day and repeating them so the children learn and copy them is a very fun and effective way to get children comfortable to use words. Using songs with simple sign language or just fun gestures will also allow the children to express themselves.
During a lunch time routine make sure you pronounce the names of food correctly and ask questions to encourage a response. For example, "Anne, would like more chicken?" If the child nods and refuses to answer out of shyness or lack of language skills then respond by saying, "Yes please, you would like more chicken." It may seem a little out of the ordinary at first but as you do this daily, you will see children copying what you are saying trying to sound out the words you are using.
Books that have familiar pictures would be great to put in the library as well as pencils and blank paper for them to experiment putting marks on paper whether they are in the early stages of printing or not.
Emotional Development: Emotional development is very important for children. This area helps them to express their feelings, their emotions, their needs and wants. This can be done by setting up real to life activities such as a house centre for dramatic play with real to life objects. Putting books about feelings in the library is great for readers and non readers. Non readers will be able to look at and understand the pictures and associate what they see with their personal feelings.
Planning activities around family is a great activity as well. The children can draw pictures of their families and what they have, where they live, pets they own, etc.
At circle time you can also talk about feelings and sing felling songs like "if you're happy and you know it."
Place pictures of people with different emotions around the classroom, in the dramatic play centre, etc. You could even cut out people/children with different emotions from magazines and put them on the art shelf.
Social Development: There are no specific activities you can plan for social development, but what you can do is purposely set up activities and provide play settings that would put the children in different social settings. For example, the dramatic play area usually has 2 or more children playing at a time. This allows the children the opportunity to share, exchange roles, and play in a social setting.
Another example would be playing with play dough. The children may be sitting beside each other but they have their own ball of play dough. They will be engaging in parallel play. This setting gives the children a chance to play side by side but engaging in their own activity.
Solitary play is also an important part of playing even though the child is not playing with anyone. Solitary play is important. Some children do not have the ability to play on their own and use their imagination. Setting up small areas for one child at a time to play is very important especially if you see that they are not engaging in solitary play on the carpet or play area. One example of this would be to set out a puzzle at a table with one chair so one child at a time can go over and play with it.
Another example is to try something different like getting a tray, putting a few small toys on it, and setting it at a table or on the carpet for one friend at a time to play. If you notice a child has difficultly playing on their own, encourage them to play in these areas and even spend a few minutes with them to get them comfortable with the activity. Feel free to remove yourself from the activity when the child seems comfortable to play on their own.
Remember when programing, be creative, keep it simple, and observe what the children seem to be interested and expand on it.
Have fun!
My name is Marisa and I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator.
I have been actively practicing in the field for over 10 years and am
one of the operators of the free resource website for teachers, parent's
and caregivers: http://www.preschoollearningonline.com
Be sure to click the above link and visit my web site if you are looking to get more free Early Childhood Educational resources such as games, art activities, science activities, song ideas, circle time ideas, sensory ideas, snack ideas, programming ideas, printables, and so much more.
Be sure to click the above link and visit my web site if you are looking to get more free Early Childhood Educational resources such as games, art activities, science activities, song ideas, circle time ideas, sensory ideas, snack ideas, programming ideas, printables, and so much more.
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