Introduction
How the child ends up in adult hood greatly depends on the way they are brought up and the kind of environment that he or she is exposed to. During the development of a child, it is important to kick off his or her life with important lessons that would enhance the socialization skills (Currie 3).
Children develop in stages and therefore development in every stage should be observed keenly and the child guided so as to ensure proper preparation for the future. For example, language acquisition by a child is mainly experienced in the early infancy stage and the period ending in puberty and after that the child cannot learn more in terms of language acquisition (Fildman, Wendkos and Papalia 26).
Observation
For the first child, Mark, gave him the playdoh and told him to do whatever he wanted with it. As he went ahead, I placed a toy on the table and sat to watch. When he was done, I observed the three shapes that he had made; two of them looked like two people but I could not identify the last one so I decided to ask him what it was. He quickly said that it was his dog.
When I asked him who the two people were, he said that they were his mother and brother whom he had never seen ever since their parents separated. Since he was getting emotional, I left him alone and observed him. I noticed that he picked the toy I had earlier placed on the table and started talking to it as if it were alive.
For the second child, Mary, I made two balls from the playdoh and asked her whether they were the same. Surprisingly she took the balls in each of her hands as if to measure the weight and said that they both looked like balls but the one on the right was heavier.
When l moulded one of the balls into a snake and asked if it still contained the same amount of playdoh, she said no because the one mould into a snake was longer than the other one.
When I made it flat, she said no but I reformed the two identical balls, again she said that they contained the same amount of playdoh. When I used the coloured papers that were shaped into triangles, rectangles and ovals I was so impressed that she first separated them according to shape and then later by colour.
Reaction
I was very impressed by the way Mark showed his high level of IQ when he went beyond describing the shapes of the two balls in the first exercise and actually determined the difference in weights (Currie 3). The reason why he started talking to the toy was that he assumed it to be an imaginary friend who took the place of the brother who had left after the parents separated (Fildman, Wendkos and Papalia 26).
I was also impressed by the manner in which Mary separated the shapes according to colour and shapes successfully and easily. This demonstrates her high level of cognitive skills that directly translates to her high level of IQ (Currie 3). The possible reason why she might not have answered the questions in the second exercise correctly is that she might not have understood the question correctly and misunderstood to mean the shapes of the figures and not the content.
Conclusion
The early stages of every child are vital in the shaping of his or her future and therefore must be studied with caution by the parents and the teachers. All the skills that are needed by the child during the early stages must be imparted to him or her effectively so as to ensure a bright future for the child.
Works Cited
Currie, Jane. Early Childhood Education Programs. America: American Economic Association, 2001. Print.
Papalia, Diane E. Wendkos, Sally And Fildman, Ruth. A child’s world: infancy through adolescence. McGraw: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print.