The pre-school child: development and basic

care needs

Gross motor: 12-15/12• Walks alone (13-

14/12)• Kneels• Crawls upstairs (not

downstairs)12 months

14 months

Gross motor: 15-18/12

• Walks as adult, runs (18/12)• Pulls and pushes large wheeled

toy• Crawls upstairs and downstairs

(backwards)• Bends knees to pick up toy from

floor• Backs into chair• Climbs forward into adult chair

to sit 18 months

Gross motor: 2 years

• Runs well, starting and stopping

• Walks upstairs, two feet to a step

• Climbs on furniture

Gross motor: 2½ years

• Walks up and downstairs two feet to a step

• Sits on cycle (no use of pedals)

2 ½ years

Gross motor: 3 years

• Walks upstairs but downstairs two feet to a step

• Can walk on tip-toe• Stands on one foot• Pedal cycle using

pedals

Gross motor: 4 years

• Walks up and down stairs in adult fashion

• Runs on tip-toe

Fine motor: 1 year

• Points• Plays pat-a-cake• Finds hidden toy

Fine motor: 15 months

• Builds tower of two• Carries doll while

walking• Grasps crayon and

scribbles to and fro

Fine motor: 1½ years

• Tower of three bricks

Fine motor: 2 years

• Tower of 6-7 bricks• Turns pages singly• Uses cup safely

Fine motor: 2½ years

• Copies a ‘V’ shape• Uses preferred hand

Fine motor: 3 years

• Copies circle and ‘V’ shape

• Uses scissors

Fine motor: 4 years

• Builds simple buildings with bricks

Social development

The Pre-School Child

Communication: 12-18/12

• Conversation-like jargon• One word with meaning (average)

Communication: 18-24/12

• 2-3 words together in meaningful sentence• Repeats final word or syllabus spoken by adult• Beginning to use personal pronouns (I, me)• Asks questions (24/12)

Communication: 2-4 years

• Speaks intelligibly but still has infantilisms• Constantly asks questions• Self talk decreasing (from 3 years) in favour of

social talk• Stammering of eagerness• Uses pronouns and prepositions

Communication: 4+ years

• Only occasional infantilisms• Extensive vocabulary• Narrates long stories• Constantly asks questions

Psychological development: The Pre-School Child

John Wilmot 1647-1680

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.”

Behaviourism• John B Watson (1878-1958) known as the father

of behaviourism, took much of his theory from Lock;

• Behaviourism was the primary paradigm in psychology between 1920s to 1950

• All neonates exactly the same, ready to be modelled by experience;

• When born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate).

• Psychology seen as a science;• Behaviourism - primarily concerned with

observable behaviour;• People have no free will – a person’s environment

determines their behaviour;• There is little difference between human and

animal learning. Animal research telling of humans;

• All behaviour, no matter how complex, can be reduced to a simple stimulus – response.

• Classical and operant conditioning.

John B. Watson

Behaviourism today•Regular habits (bed-time)•Consistent approach•Reward good behaviour•Punish or ignore bad behaviour•Children grow up like the adults in their environment•Emotion trivial or damaging

Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

Unconscious: that part of the active mind which one is not aware of but which still influences the conscious mind;

Id: the part of the mind which is purely pleasure seeking;

Ego. Most of what we normally consider to be ‘the mind’, its job is to make a compromise between the demands of the id and reality;

Superego. Conscience. Concerned with socially acceptable behaviour;

Freudian theory centres on the principle that stressors in any of the stages are not forgotten by the subconscious and may become apparent in later life.

1. Oral stage (0-1 year)2. Anal stage (toddler)3. Genital stage (pre-

school)4. Latency stage (6-12

years)5. Adult sexuality stage

(adolescence)

Freud – stages of development

Oral stage (0-1 year)•Pleasure from sucking, eating etc. •Lack of experience of oral gratification leads to an ‘oral’ personality (passivity, dependence, eating and speech problems).

Anal stage (toddler)•Interest centres on the anal region. Toilet training becomes a crucial issue. •This stage is characterised by possessiveness, retentiveness, aggression, messiness or tidiness, punctuality and shame.

Genital stage (pre-school child) •Interest centres on the genital area. •Boys treasure the penis and fear its removal (Castration anxiety). •Girls envy the boy's penis (penis envy). •Boys experience the ‘Oedipus Complex’, seeking a closer relationship with mother while fearing their father. •Girls experience the ‘Electra Complex’, characterised by seductive behaviour toward their father, while fearing their mother.

Latency stage (6-12 years)•Rather asexual•Concentrates on learning social roles. •Learns to relate to own sex.

Adult sexuality (adolescence)•Late adolescence •Tranquillity is lost•Sexual interest in opposite sex •Ego is disturbed due to the rapid changes resulting in the ‘adolescent psychosis’•normal for the adolescent which would be considered bizarre in an adult.

Jean Piaget 1869-1980• how thinking and problem

solving develop

• how cognitive activities contribute to development in general

• children show qualitatively different levels of comprehension and reasoning at different ages

• role of environment merely to provide information

• everyone passes through the same 4 stages of development

1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years)

2. Preoperational (2-7 years)

3. Concrete Operations (7-11 years)

4. Formal operations (adolescence)

Piagetian theory

Sensorimotor (0-2 years)•Sensation and motor skills predominate;•Develops the sense of ‘object permanence’;•Develops goal directed learning and experimentation in the second year;•No conceptual or abstract thought; •Child is bound by concrete aspects of sensation and activity.

Pre-operational (2-7 years)•Uses symbols with no abstract or conceptual thinking;•Language and memory are well-developed; •Understanding is growing of 'time‘; •Still has little understanding of the 'relationships' between phenomena. Has a very poor concept of volume and mass•If X is bigger than Y, Y is not necessarily smaller than X.;•The child will have more cricket balls than (an equal number of) marbles because the cricket balls are bigger;•The child is Egocentric (unable to see things from another‘s point of view) •He or she may expect a stranger to know what his brother‘s name is and where his Aunt lives; •‘Centring’, seeing a phenomenon from one point of view only, seeing only one quality of a thing at a time;•Capable of symbolic conceptual thought, but not at a level which would enable him or her to co-ordinate spatial, temporal, numerical and other qualities of things.

Concrete Operations (7-11 years)•Egocentrism, centring and the difficulty with relationships are gradually overcome;•Things are seen to have properties which change relatively little ('conservation') so that a volume of water is perceived as the same amount whatever the shape of container it is put in; •In this stage the child excites in classifying objects and become a great collector.

Formal Operations•Can think in wholly abstract terms, can depart imaginatively from reality;•The child can consider abstract thoughts which have no empirical referents (can discuss what might happen if time stopped).

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory• 8 psychosocial stages of development

based on a sequence of ‘crises’. • Resolution of crisis important for healthy

social development

Erik Erikson 1902-1994

1. Trust versus distrust (infancy)2. Autonomy versus doubt

(toddler)3. Initiative versus guilt (pre-

school child)4. Industry versus inferiority

(school child)5. Identity versus diffusion (early

adolescence)6. Intimacy versus isolation (late

adolescence)7. … adult stages

Erikson: InfancyInfancy•Psychological crisis .. Trust versus distrust •Significant others .. Mother •Tasks .. Receiving, tolerating frustration, distinguishing mother from others.

Toddler•Psychological Crisis .. Autonomy versus doubt and shame. •Significant others .. Parents. •Tasks .. Learning speech, tolerating displeasure.

Pre-school child•Psychological Crisis .. Initiative versus Guilt •Significant others .. basic family •Tasks .. questioning, exploring body, environment and sex differences.

School child•Psychological Crisis .. Industry versus Inferiority. •Significant others .. Local school •Tasks .. Achieve recognition by production, exploring, collecting, related to own sex.

Early adolescence•Psychological crisis .. Identity versus diffusion •Significant others .. Peer groups •Tasks .. Move toward heterosexuality, select vocation, begin separation from family, personality integration.

Late adolescence•Psychological crisis .. intimacy versus isolation. •Significant other .. partner. •Tasks .. Lasting relationships, productivity, creativity.

Children Learn What They LiveBy Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.If children live with fairness, they learn justice.If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

What does the pre-school child need

• Unconditional love• Encouragement• Freedom to investigate /

play, safely• Consistent behavioural

parameters• Human contact, interaction• A consistent carer (parents)• Anything else?