At the age of five, most children develop differently and have unique characteristics, but there are common features of development that are common among five-year-old children. These children’s physical progression, motor proficiency, moral awareness, thinking skills, and language mastery change commonly or have a similarity. An unusual five-year-old child would have some of the features in child development different from the others.
His or her development would not be the same as a typical five-year-old child. Carlos Chavez is an example of such children. He is not a typical five-year-old child (Carlos Chavez represents the unusual five year old children). A typical five year old child would have improved motor proficiency, an average growth rate of 2- 3 inches per year, an unreasonable way of thinking, good language mastery and low moral awareness (Wilson & Steelman 27). This paper will describe how an unusual five year old child is different from other five year old children.
Motor proficiency: Typical five year olds have improved motor proficiency in tasks with the ability to perform several tasks accurately for example; fold papers into various geometrical shapes, catch balls, tie shoelaces and so many other body motor co-ordinations. Carlos has trouble folding papers into the correct shapes and does not even know which hand is more active than the other. The child has not established which hand to use for most tasks. The natural active and exploring body of typical five year olds does not exist in Carlos, instead, there is a child who still has very poor accuracy in tasks and therefore cannot copy design letters as others, cannot perform tasks such as tying shoelaces and others. He has trouble doing them accurately (Wilson & Steelman 27).
Language mastery: A typical five year old child should have mastered language very well. Carlos Chavez does not belong here. The age says five years but the development is unusual. Carlos cannot converse well and still uses short sentences to converse. His vocabulary is not fully grown to an average five year old working knowledge. Carlos cannot also produce the sounds easily as normal five year olds with primary teeth do (Wilson & Steelman 28).
Thinking skills: Most five year olds’ thinking skills have not developed to a level where they can think logically. The children only know that one event leads to the other. Two things happening at the same time to the children means one led to the other. They are also egocentric. Carlos can still not connect if one event leads to the other like the other children think. He can only recognize the events but cannot really make the connection of one leading to the other. A typical five year old for example would connect rainfall to leg injury if he/she hurt himself or herself during rain. They would think that the rain led to them getting hurt. Carlos cannot still recognize if the rain can lead to being hurt and may not appear terrified by the rain (Wilson & Steelman 28).
Conclusion
This paper has described how an unusual five year old child is different from other five year old children giving three reasons. In motor proficiency, the child (Carlos) is found to be poor in motor proficient tasks as compared to normal five year old children. The child’s language mastery is also poor given the poor sound production and vocabulary knowledge among others. The last reason for the unusual nature of Carlos as compared to other five year olds is the child’s underdeveloped thinking skills. All these explained reasons show that Carlos is an underdeveloped (unusual) five year old child.
Works Cited
Wilson, Timothy., and Steelman A. R., A Profile of the Typical Five-Year Old Child, Early Childhood Education Journal, Springer: Netherlands, (21) 2, 27-28, 1993.