Children the ages of 0-5 are at a stage in which development is taking place. At this age a Child’s cognitive, emotional, physical and social development is taking place. How a child learns determines what he/she becomes at the later stages of life. A child at this age becomes more curious to know what it sees. Proper care is vital and strict observation enhanced to monitor the activities the child engages in. consequently, it is important to understand how children, this age learn.
With all these factors put in place, one should ask the following questions: is the child growing up mentally? is the child under stress? How is the child socializing? And how is the child’s physical development? This paper is a literature review of how children learn. This is important because it assists a parent to put up right measures to ensure that a child does not learn negative things that will eventually lead to negative development.
It is of importance to know what the goal of this research is. To be precise, the main objective is to see proper ways to bring up a child under the age of five years through the learning process. This research will emphasize on some key points that will be used in the learning process. The development that occurs at this stage is, cognitive, emotional, physical and social. The research goes on to offer the reader with ways of how to achieve effective learning process in your child’s life.
The mental capabilities of the child forms at this age and so encouragement and motivation should be shown to the child. To add on, children copy traits from the adults. They also go on ahead to imitate languages and specific words. At around one year you will notice that some words you say are imitated by a child. What does this mean? A child has the capability of listening, storing the data and executing it in something spoken.
To begin with, it is of importance to know what constitutes a child’s cognitive development. Hughes (1995) explains it as the functions of the brain such as thoughts, learning, consciousness, verdict, and dispensation of information. This he says is a vital development that healthy children will undergo normally as they learn and grow.
A child at this time needs to be helped to understand size, color, and shapes, identify numbers, have the reading capability, and know how to say the first and last name. Furthermore, the listening skills are vital; also motor skills are part of how the child learns.
Hughes goes on further to give different ways of making this stage develop accordingly. In her research, she says that for preschoolers usually ages 0-5 need to undergo training so as to ensure positive cognitive development. People close to the child should assist the child in comprehending things.
In the case of knowing size, a child should differentiate between big and little, long and short and generally match objects based on size. So as a matter of fact, it is true since many if not all the children in their early life do comprehend and know sizes of objects and things that they see.
A child learns also through sensation and movement. These, according to Gallahue (1976) is called the sensorimotor stage. Through running, walking on a straight line, jumping, buttoning a garment, touching fingers, completing a simple puzzle, a child in that way builds up what is called motor skills.
This is the child’s ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers to pick up things like spoons, crayons and a child’s ability to use large muscles to walk sit up run or even jump. A child without these skills has to be examined to see if all is well.
Furthermore, a child learns through listening and sequencing (Vosniadou, 2001). In learning, one has to listen to sounds, be attentive, put things or words in sequence, repeat what they listen to and even retell short stories. This is true because kids at this crucial point usually are keen on imitating; they repeat what they hear from adults and also are keen on common sounds they hear.
Vosniadou further argues that a child will learn more easily when you engage he/ she in conversations, make them talk freely, call them by their names, ask them what they want to eat and dress. To add on you need to show them how to be polite to other people and listen to them before they talk. This helps them get comfortable with speech.
Hughes (1995) argues that a child develops physically through a learning process. The development comes through crawling, holding on things like tables and chairs to walk, and walking. Also a child will start picking up things from the light ones eventually when the muscles have formed picks up the heavier ones. This helps them to grow up physically strong.
Children learn to socialize from birth to five years when they are shown the way. By telling them to share things with others, play with others talk to other kids politely, you are training them to be social. You as a parent need to tell your child that fighting and using abusive language is bad. If you do what you tell your kids to do, then they tend to have it stuck in their mind. Maintaining good relationship with members of the family and your friends makes the child see what good relationship is all about. When you encourage a child to be kind to others you are making him to be good socially (Hughes (1995).
Vosniadou (2004) echoes Hughes by purporting that active involvement and engagement of the child is needed in order for cognitive development to occur. A child therefore will learn when he/ she should listen, observe, pay attention and give feedback.
She argues that social participation in children is important. This is so because, children will learn by what they see in the activities, habits, vocabulary and ideas of members of the society. Meaningful activities also helps a child learn. Choice of activities matters a lot because a child will want to know why he is engaged in that activity. Therefore an activity should have the main objective of teaching the child to be good, to share and to respect.
Another way of learning is relating new information to the one you already know. By doing this a child learns by seeing new things and tries to figure out and compare to what they already know. It therefore means that as a parent caregiver of the child; help the child know new things by using the prior knowledge of what the child already knows (Vosniadou, 2004).
Children also learn by strategizing. When you send a child of five years, the child on the way to doing what needs to be done will repeat and repeat the items you want them to bring. This rehearsal is part of learning that improves their memory.
Reflection is developed through discussion, debates and essays, in which children are expected to air out their views and defend them. Another key aspect of reflection is being capable to differentiate looks from realism, general idea from technical information, etc (Acredolo, 2000).
As a child grows he should be encouraged to transfer the things he knows to real life situations. May children will hug others, say am sorry to others. This is a step of learning and definitely will stick in the mind of the child for good. To put it in better terms this learning process can termed as transfer of knowledge to reality (Vosniadou, 2004).
Play is important learning process in a child’s life. From the games children engage in, to the toys they use really matter most to improve their growth. Choice of toys should be based on the one that will make a child think beyond his capability (Acredolo, 2000). This improves the thinking capability and also brings in innovatory skills in the child. From research it is true to say that learning through play is the quickest way a child develops.
As a child grows, he learns that this world is predictable. In the initial stages, one will cry when hungry and be given food; another will cry when sleepy and rocked to sleep. As time goes by, they come to know that there is time for everything. This is mind set, and so will wait to eat, go to bed and sleep. Many at times a child sees from others while playing when they take turns. It comes into mind that not always are you the one to be playing but chance is given to the rest of the children (Acredolo, 2000).
Self esteem is crucial in a child. It’s quite embarrassing when you criticize your child all the time and never comment on the positive. A child learns to be confident with what he does when you congratulate the efforts they have put in doing something. Discipline instilled in them should be fair, firm and friendly. This helps a child learn the art of self discipline and learn to accept responsibility for their actions.
When children come into groups to play, there is a learning process taking place. First the skill of communication is enhanced and good manners instilled. Through creative arts, games, music a child learns to be confident in a social gathering. Communication skills are learnt when the child learns to construct sentences when talking to others. Also talents are recognized and so it’s nurtured into full potential (Acredolo, 2000).
The environment and nature is also a factor that helps a child in learning. A child will develop imagination and sense of wonder. The emotional health of a child is also enhanced with nature. In the outdoor setting, a child learns to start being far from the caretaker. They learn to be judgmental with the distance and learn their way back to where the caretaker is (Acredolo, 2000).
The television set has a lot to do with a child learning. There are many educational programmers for children below the age of five. However, a parent need to set specific time for a child to watch the programmers that are educational and ask questions on what they have learnt.
Children need to play constructively. The activities they engage in should be activities that will help them nurture all the necessary skills needed in life. And so whatever they learn should be continually be refreshed in their minds. There is no need to learn something once since it won’t be of use. Practice makes perfect and so with continued practice, a child learns and stores what he has learned to put into use as he grows (Acredolo, 2000).
Seeing and looking at things is part of how a child learns. There are charts of A-z, numbers 1-100 and shapes colors. When a child looks at these charts continually, he/she learns more easily than just hearing without seeing. The eye is a powerful tool that is used to take in information to the brain for coordination. It therefore stands out to be important in the learning process of a child.
Hughes (1995) argues that reading can be used also in the learning. Bedtime stories are important and so a parent should invest in books that offer such stories. A child becomes keen to know how to read when they are read to. With the continued trend, you will soon find out that the child slowly starts to read some few lines eventually goes from page to page.
It therefore is of great importance to nurture the reading skills in a child with you be an example. When you engage in reading and the child sees it, he/she will be interested to know what is in the book or article. It all comes back to the point that speaks of children imitating what they see.
In all this, as the children grow, one needs to start withdrawing in bits from assisting them with what they do. This however does not mean that you leave them unattended to. It only gives them room to put into practice what they have learned. If it is riding a bicycle, you stop holding it for the child instead let them try riding on their own. If the child needs assistance, offer it but not on a regular basis. By doing this a child learns to be independent and eventually will not need much help in activities (Hughes, 1995).
Playgrounds offer essential and fundamental opportunities for children to play. There is extensive study showing the patent connection involving play and brain growth, motor-skills, and group capabilities. All aspects of learning that include emotional, social, motor and cognitive is made possible by the gratification of play (Marton and Booth, 1997).
Playgrounds that offer different types of play are essential for a child’s emotional, physical, cognitive, and social development. The references here suggest that for children between the ages of 0-5, the brain develops and it’s through play that they expand the thinking capabilities. It’s of importance to provide time for the children to play either indoor or outdoors to nurture this factor.
Play is a tool that makes a child develop innovative skills and expands the mind. A child needs to have toys that will be used for playing and also make him learn. Choice of toys should be in a manner that will make a child to think beyond what they see. It should make the child want to know more thus developing the brain.
The studies further go on to agree on a child’s self esteem. A child learns to be disciplined, to be on high moods if you say good things and commend them for a job well done. Many parents will stick on the negative side of things forgetting to look at the positive side of a child. It therefore means that the child learns to concentrate on the negative side of things. Self esteem and discipline of the child is affected because from the start the parent never concentrated on instilling those virtues through good words (Marton and Booth, 1997).
Cognitive development as we have seen is important in the child’s learning process. A child at this stage tends to start coordinating things in the mind. The motor skills develop in that the use of muscles becomes evident. A child will begin taking things like pencils and picking them up, eventually the child begins to use the stronger muscles for walking jumping running e.t.c. Through the research Gallahue (1976) says that a child needs time to have his brain develop.
There are different way that this is achieved. People close to the child should assist the child in comprehending things. In the case of knowing size, a child should differentiate between big and little, long and short and generally match objects based on size. The child should be encouraged at this point to develop his motoring skills by helping when they need to support themselves on objects such as furniture. Through that support, a child learns that walking is not hard and so will give it another try in the end managing to walk.
Learning in children as we have seen also occurs through imitation. Often kids imitate what they see from adults. Bad character therefore should be a thing that the kids ought not to see simply because eventually they will do exactly what they saw. Therefore for those who drink, smoke, fight, and throw bad words at each other should refrain from that. Instill good things to the kids by what you do when they view you.
Listening and sequence is also a way of learning. Children will tend to know particular familiar sounds. For example there are tunes from songs that once children hear them then they sing or follow the tune. This in reality is part of learning. From a far the children recognize that particular song and always will sing along. Also a child learns through sequencing. They tend to try to structure words into sentences, recall particular stories and put it in line for it to flow (Gallahue, 1976).
It is evident that children use the strategy skills. This is evident when they are sent to bring something and so repeat it so as not to forget. This is indeed a learning process. The things a child knows and has done should be put in practice time to time. This is just a way of making sure that nothing has been lost in the mind.
When talking to a child, you need to engage them in the talk by allowing feedback from the child. Through this a child learns to be patient, not to jump into a conversation and so come in when its time to talk.
Having said all this care should be given to children below the age of five. A child should not be subjected to stress and fear since this only affects the growth of mind, emotions, physical body and the social capability.
Marton and Booth (1997) argue that having a child who will be sharp at mind depends on what the child learns at this age. Usually, child who is dull reflects the learning process that was poor. A bright child on the other hand had al the requirement that entailed his growth. The brain was formed and expanded to its maximum level.
The society at large must be ready to change its way of life. Bad character corrupts good mind. So its high time everyone got together to fight the vices we see in society. Children must not be subjected to the evils of this society at this stage of life. The things we do get straight into the mindsets of children and so proper refraining is required to nurture good character in them.
Time limit for watching television is required. So many things happen in the TV that kids learn from. At the age of 0-3 children should not at all be allowed to watch TV. Ages of 3-5 are only allowed to watch the TV a maximum of three hours a day. Educational programmes should be encouraged but not explicit material that will affect the child psychologically.
It therefore depends on the adults to choose what kind of life the children should live. Since education is acquired, the child’s environment for learning at this age should be conducive and of sound mind to get the best out of the generation to come.
Reference List
Acredolo, L. (2000). Baby minds: Brain-building games your baby will love, birth to age three. New York: Bantam.
Gallahue, D.L (1976). Motor development and movement experiences. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1976.
Hughes, F. (1995). Children, play, and development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Marton, F, and Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Vosniadou, S. (Ed.), (2004). Cognitive Science, London: Gutenberg Press.
Vosniadou, S. (2001). How Children Learn. London: Gutenberg Press.