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Seven Domains of Early Childhood Education #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyFriendAlexa

Hi Everyone

This is my fourth post for #MyFriendAlexa and one of the most important aspect in Early Childhood Education for everyone to know. Now before we move on to know these domains it is important to understand what development is.

Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception of death. The scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life. This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development.

THERE ARE 7 DOMAINS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Gross Motor

This involves learning to use all the “big” muscles on our body. Crawling, walking, running, skipping, jumping and climbing are all examples of gross motor activity.

Fine Motor

Fine motor involves activities teach hand-eye coordination. These activities require a child to learn to precisely control the muscles in the hands. Things like colouring, writing, cutting with scissors, using tweezers, tearing paper, etc. all help build fine motor skills.

Language

This domain includes alphabetic, phonemic awareness, oral, and written language. Even though your little one won’t be able to read for several years, you can read to them. Talking about things throughout the day even when it feels silly is especially important as well. Learning ABC’s, as well as sound each letter makes is another example of language activity.

Language development is a process starting early in human life. Infant start without language, yet by four months of age, babies can discriminate speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in uterus when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother’s voice. Usually, productive language is considered to begin with a stage of preverbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intent known to others. According to general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions which they had already expressed by preverbal means.

Stages of Language Development

Babbling (3-9 months)

Single Words (10-13 months)

Two Words (18- 2 years)

Multi word Sentences (2years+)

As children age, they continue to learn new words every day. By the time they enter school around the age of five, children typically have a vocabulary of 10,000 words or more.

Cognitive Development

This includes cause-and-effect, reasoning, as well as early-math skills. Believe it or not, a baby who continually drops a spoon from his highchair is exercising his cognitive ability. He learns that when he drops it, you will pick it up (Cause-and-effect). Counting and patterning are also included in this domain for pre-schoolers.

Cognitive refers to the inner processes and products of the mind that leads to “knowing”. It includes remembering, problem solving and decision making.

Social/Emotional

Your child is a social being! Learning to play especially with others is a skill. “Teaching” in this domain also involves making sure a child feels safe and nurtured. Manners and using kind words might also be examples includes in this domain.

Self-Help/Adaptive

Activities in this domain include learning to dress yourself, feed oneself, using the toilet, brushing teeth, bathing, tying shoes, etc. Everything that a child needs to know to start being more independent could be included in this domain.

Moral/Spiritual/Cultural

It is difficult to make generalization and identify milestones within moral, spiritual and cultural development. And the reason is, there are many factors which influence their development like nationalities, cultures and families, all do things differently.

Moral development

Morality is the ability to learn the difference between right and wrong and understand how to make right choices. Children do not usually demonstrate moral behaviour and beliefs until they are around the age of two. At this point many children start to show empathy-based guilt when they break rules. As with other facets of development, morality doesn’t form independently from the other areas of development. Children’s experiences at home, the environment around them, and their physical, cognitive and social development influence their understanding of right versus wrong.

Spiritual development

This is often closely linked to moral development. It includes beliefs, whether religious or not, the search for meaning or purpose, relationships, creativity, a sense of otherness, wonder and awe, self-knowledge, feeling and emotions. A child is likely to have the same opinions as their caregivers until they are of an age where they can decide for themselves. This development continuous throughout a person’s life.

Cultural development

Culture refers to the customs, practices, languages, values and world views that define social group such as those based on nationality, ethnicity, region or common interests. Culture affects many areas in a child’s life, including food they eat, the behaviours they are allowed to exhibit, the holidays they celebrate and the activities they participate in.

The main thing to know about these domains is they are all equally important. Each of these domains are also interrelated. For example when your baby starts crawling, he will also be enhancing his cognitive abilities by learning about world around him. Leaning new words will encourage her to participate more in social situations. Just watch your child for a few minutes and you will see how each domain affects the others.

You can read my previous posts here

How to choose right preschool for your child?

Importance of Early Childhood Education

What is Early Childhood Education?

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva

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Importance of Early Childhood Education #AllAboutPreschoolers #MyFriendAlexa

HI Everyone,

This is my second post for #MyFriendAlexa. Now you know what is Early Childhood Education. So lets move on and understand It’s Importance.

Did you know that the capacity of the brain to absorb new learning peaks at age 3? Scientists have learned that a toddler’s brain develops over one hundred trillion brain synapses. A brain synapse is the wiring between two brain cells that grasps new learning. The more the synapses, the more your brain will learn. It is during this time that the human brain has the highest potential for new learning in its lifetime. Recognizing shapes, drawing, singing and playing with toys are all examples of behaviors your child learns in the first few years of life.

By their third birthday, your child should be able to do many things, including throw a ball overhand, feed themselves, ride a tricycle, balance on one foot or copy a circle, just to name a few. And by age 4, your child will begin knowing their first and last name, following family rules, recognizing colours, eating by themselves, dressing themselves, etc.

High-quality preschools and pre-kindergartens are geared to give your child a jumpstart to learning. Most have standards in place to prepare your child for kindergarten, so that on the first day of school, your child is ready to learn.

Appropriately early childhood programs not only help your child’s brain develop in a timely fashion, but they also contribute to physical, emotional and social development. Along with school readiness, it is also important to look for key development milestones in your children.

Some Development Milestones

Age 2Age 3Age 4
Walk, jump, runTell stories with two
or three sentences		Know first and last name
Kick a ballCan name a friendCopy images
Scribble with crayonsThrow a ball overhandEat by themselves
Imitate othersCopy a circleSing a song from memory

Benefits of quality early childhood education and care:

You can place your child in childcare or kindergarten and know they are safe and well cared for, by people who have a qualification and share an understanding about what is important for your child.

Your child will have the opportunity to develop skills by playing with others and taking part in activities that build on their abilities and interests.

You will be supported in caring for your child.

You will have increased opportunities to work, attend appointments or recreational activities or have time to yourself.

The importance of the early years is now well known throughout the world. These years are a time when brain develops and much of its wiring is laid down. The experiences and relationships a child has, plus nutrition and health, can actually affects this enormously. Positive experience help the brain to develop in healthy ways. Seriously negative experiences such as neglect and abuse, on the other hand, affect brain development in more harmful ways, and contribute to emotional and behavioural problems later in life. So the experience a child has in the early years can either support learning or interfere with it.

“The brain is the only organ that is not fully formed at birth. During the first three years, trillions of connections between brain cells are being made. A child’s relationships and experiences during the early years greatly influence how their brain grows”.

Children’s development and learning can be affected by

Influence within themselves, their genetic inheritance, temperament, gender and health.

Influence within the family, family relationships, parenting styles and values, the family’s financial situation, parents’ level of education, parent’s occupation and parent’s physical and mental health.

Influence within the community, children’s services, support for parenting, housing, safety and crime in the neighborhood, unemployment levels and general feeling of trust among the residents.

Influence within their culture, with different cultures marked by differences in parenting styles, beliefs and values, and different views on how children should be educated.

Early childhood is a crucial time for children to learn because this is when they develop the foundation of their brain for learning during the rest of their lives. The things children learn during these years play a very important role in the proper development of children. Children learn by exploring their environment and watching people everyday life.

I am taking my blog to another level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa.

Pics courtesy : Pexel / Canva