Introduction
Child development implies the series of physical, emotional, reasoning, and language variations that transpire within a kid from birth to the start of adulthood. Childhood is usually categorized into teenage, middle childhood, and early childhood. The development process of a child advances from increased reliance on the parents to more independence. Augmented independence ensures that children begin to accomplish tasks and engage in rational decision-making with minimal support and guidance from their parents and peers. Some of the critical skills related to child development include physical skills, speech and language, cognition, emotional intelligence, and social interaction, among others that aid them have a successful future and becoming responsible citizens (Packer, 2017). Several research pieces have been done to analyze child development to help individuals gain insight into how kids develop and support them to become better and more reliable individuals. The paper provides summaries of articles to provide a better understanding of child development.
Article Summaries
The article “Early childhood social and emotional development: Advancing the field of measurement” by Kristen Darling-Churchill and Laura Lippman reveals the need to ensure that children acquire social and emotional competencies to help them remain successful in their studies and future lives. The article holds that social and emotional skills help young kids develop into middle childhood and other life stages and enhance school readiness. The authors consider social and emotional development as young children’s ability to create close and safe relationships with peers and adults and further control and express emotions fittingly. As a result, children are expected to demonstrate fundamental skills such as empathy, the capability to establish and support relationships with other individuals, emotion management, and self-confidence (Darling-Churchill & Lippman, 2016). Emotional and social competencies permit children to solve problems, manage emotions and build relationships leading to improved academic performance, better health, fewer criminal convictions, and quality of life.
The article “Early childhood development: an imperative for action and measurement at scale” by Linda Richter and other authors demonstrates how early childhood experiences affect children’s future lives. The authors claim that the first three years of childhood usually shape the future productivity, welfare, and health of kids. The experiences subjected to children during the early years affect their psychological and biological structures. Difficulties in the early years and during pregnancy resulting from poverty, diseases, stress, and violence, among others, negatively affect the brain development of children generating consequences that are transferable to adulthood (Richter et al., 2019). A compromised early child development detrimentally affects the kids’ social and personal skills, leading to poor academic performance, limited work opportunities, and low incomes. Consequently, measures need to be established to ensure that kids have a better early childhood to improve the likelihood of having a bright future.
Lastly, the article “The Significance of Parental Involvement in the Development in Infancy” by Yanhui Liu, Mona F. Sulaimani, and John E. Henning discloses why parents should be focused on enhancing better child development. Constant parent involvement inspires children to refine their academic performance and gain essential life skills to become responsible individuals. As a result, parents’ principles, guidance, and behaviors affect the kids’ development (Liu et al., 2020). Parents should create time, maintain good attitudes and demonstrate care to their children and help them grow into well-behaved and good citizens.
Conclusion
Child development allows kids to become more independent through the acquisition of outstanding skills and competencies. Social and emotional skills are essential to kids as they help them learn how to interact with other people and control their emotions to achieve a successful future. Positive and encouraging experiences are required in the early years of development to build a bright life for them. Additionally, parents should be highly involved in child development to guide them in the right direction.
References
Darling-Churchill, K. E., & Lippman, L. (2016). Early childhood social and emotional development: Advancing the field of measurement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 45(1), 1-7. Web.
Liu, Y., Sulaimani, M. F., & Henning, J. E. (2020). The significance of parental involvement in the development in infancy. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 10(1), 161-166. Web.
Packer, M. J. (2017). Child development: Understanding a cultural perspective. SAGE.
Richter, L., Black, M., Britto, P., Daelmans, B., Desmond, C., Devercelli, A., Dua, T., Fink, G., Heymann, J., Lombardi, J., Lu, C., Naicker, S., & Vargas-Barón, E. (2019). Early childhood development: An imperative for action and measurement at scale. BMJ Global Health, 4(Suppl 4), i154–i160. Web.