Children Development Essay

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Short Description of the Stages
Comparative and Contrast Analysis
Reference List

Introduction

Children development is a very complicated process. Trying to unite different ages in groups with he purpose to give some particular characteristics, scientists used the range of ages as children development may differ and some children at 4 years may possess skills and knowledge which others will acquire only at 6. There are particular norms which deviate in the issues of children development. Speaking, listening and comprehension, reading and writing are the main aspects according to which children development is accessed.

Early childhood (2-6) and middle childhood (6-10) are two age groups which stand close, however, children development at each of these stages is absolutely different. Giving the general characteristics of each of the stages mentioned above (early childhood and middle childhood) this paper aims to consider the differences in language development, reading and writing. Comparative and contrast analysis is going to help in the future choice of reading and writing tasks for children of different age groups.

Short Description of the Stages

Early childhood stage (2-6 years) leads children through many physical, cognitive and social changes. Children at this age form stable reasoning aspects which help them develop their cognitive and mental thinking processes. Children at this age develop intuitive reasoning, their reason and consequence connections become more logical.

At middle childhood stage (6-10 years) children are able to complete more complicated thinking processes. The reasoning becomes more refined and detailed. Here is a detailed comparative and contrast analysis of the language skills, reading and writing development of children at two different stages, early childhood and middle childhood.

Comparative and Contrast Analysis

	Early childhood (2-6)	Middle childhood (6-10)
Language skills	Children of this age rapidly increase and advance their vocabulary Lack of understanding of some simple words and desire to know their meaning Understanding of the “good listening” Overregularization Difficulty in pronunciation Contrast abilities	Temporal words and comparatives become more understandable Lack of knowledge of the irregular words Literal understanding of information Improved pronunciation Interpretation of the heard information Ability to dwell upon a specific topic The ability to create a story with the cause-and-effect reasoning Linguistic creativity Word play
Reading	Reading while playing Children of this age are able to relate sounds to letters Identification of some words in the context which is familiar for children Use of the distinctive features of the world	The ability to hear phonemes is separately taken words Word decoding skills are improved Increased reading-fluency Learning the skills of silent reading Drawing inferences out of the read information
Writing	Muscular control is increased in drawing Writing of the elements of the letters and the abilities to connect them Pseudowriting Writing of the personal name and the simplest words, e. g. mom, dad, etc. Writing of all the letters in the alphabet (after 4) Invented spellings	Smoothness of handwriting is increased Size of the letters is decreased Writing of the sentences and stories is dominating over the writing of the simple words Appearance of the difficulties connected with identifying problems in personal wiring (problems connected with clarity are the most common ones

Table 1. Comparative and contrast characteristics of the age groups, early childhood and middle childhood (McDevitt, & Ormrod, 2004, p. 308)

Each of the characteristics considered above influences the tasks teachers give. Having analyzed the characteristic features of each stage, it is possible to enumerate some exercises which may help to promote children development. Here are some specific tasks which may strengthen students’ reading or writing skills in each developmental stage. The exercises are aimed at strengthening the already existing skills and improving them. Teachers may give students the task to work individually or in groups.

	Early childhood (2-6)	Middle childhood (6-10)
Reading	Reading aloud for children of the books with pictures with striking content Use of hands-on activities and engaging for learning letters Use of pictures, rhymes and games for teaching letter-sound correspondence Reading of the simplest words Aloud reading of different literature as the way to encourage children to get to know more via reading personally Reading of the words on the pictures Composing words out of the letters Reading of the simplest sentences Connecting words and pictures (stable words and activities)	Learning of the families of words Reading of the books with short stories (stories should be familiar for children in most cases) Small group discussion exercises where children read the story and discuss some particular aspects of the read data Making children read more while classes aloud Completing the story by one of the offered paragraphs Reading and answering the questions Fulfilling the correct words into the stories
Writing	Writing of the elements of the letters after the sample Connection of the letter elements Trying to draw the letters as children see them Drawing various lines Writing personal names and other words which they seem interesting for them Giving children an opportunity to write the words of what they want (ball, doll, ice-cream, cake, etc.)	Engaging children in authentic writing Writing short stories, letters (creating personal or composing an answer) Writing descriptions (about myself, about my cat, about my parents, about my house) Finding mistakes as the way to increase literacy Inserting a missed letter into a word Correcting the mistakes n the text with the continued writing of the story Description in writing of what is seen Rewriting of the text Describing personal activities Writing of the dictated words

Table 2. List of the possible exercises aimed at developing reading and writing in different age groups

Therefore, it may be concluded that language skills, reading and writing development differ greatly at various stages of children development. Depending on the age of children, various exercises and activities may be used for reading and writing development. Teachers are to understand that many children have various levels of development.

Therefore, the tasks they should give to them should be created specially for them. However, teachers should also try to improve the skills of those who leg behind in order to make sure that all children have managed to reach the average level of development in accordance to the age stage. Children with the higher reading and writing abilities should be offered more complicated tasks as the additional ones after the common tasks are completed.

Reference List

McDevitt, T. M., & Ormrod, J. E. (2004). Child development: Educating and working with children and adolescents (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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