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K-2nd Grade |
3rd-5th Grade |
6th-8th Grade |
Major Concepts, Principles, and Learning Theories ( To be completed in Topic 3 ) |
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Cognitive |
The children have notable developments in their understanding of cognitive skills. They will demonstrate the necessary skills in this category with ease. They have an increased memory capacity and remembrance of a considerable number of events. | The children in the third to fifth grade of development have more advanced cognitive skills compared to those in the second grade. They start to view books as a source of knowledge, and they may begin reading actively. The children enjoy planning and building. | The children at this stage are more interested in the present than in the future. The children have a significant expansion in their intellectual thoughts. They can see the world from different perspectives. At this point, they can select role models in life and choose whom to associate with at different levels. | The children have various speeds of cognitive development as they grow and advance in their age grades. The educators have to have an in-depth knowledge of the right principles and concepts to use to identify the cognitive stage of the children. | ||||
| Linguistic | The children in second grade display a clear grasp of the linguistic skills they have learned from interacting with their parents, caregivers or the other children. The second graders can hold meaningful conversations with their parents and their peers. | The children expand their speaking and listening vocabularies as they interact with one another and the other people around them. They can organize and fluently speak their mind out in case they want to pass a message. | The sixth, seventh and the eighth grades have developed linguistic skills. They have a capability even to learn a new language. They can comfortably communicate their feelings and experiences with others. | The educators have to be keen on the linguistic development of the children. The children pick up the various aspects of language, which their parents and teachers use. Therefore, the positivism in language can be instrumental to the children later. | ||||
| Social | The second graders have already acquired social skills. They love to talk and sometimes may exaggerate what they are talking about in their conversations. The second graders work hard to please their parents and their teachers. | They develop their relationship with peers more than their teachers. The children begin to have a sense of humor, and they can tell many jokes with their peers. They may have a best friend at this stage. | They are impulsive when interacting with one another although they are unaware of it. Their interaction with their peers at school and home is mostly based on them seeking a sense of belonging. | Human beings are social beings. The children in the different age grades have to keep interacting with their parents, teachers, and peers. Their social skills develop along the way. | ||||
| Emotional | The second graders become sensitive to adult evaluation. They can make a few friends, but they lack the necessary skills they require to make them. They emphasize the structure, and they will not like the changes in routines such as in the school. | They begin to define themselves with the things they do. For instance, they can say they wear glasses. The boys will mostly be comfortable playing with the other boys, and the girls will want to play with the other girls. | They offer their parents less attention and may sometimes be regarded to as rude. They have a focus on themselves and realize the changes that are happening in their bodies as well as their brains. They also experience extreme emotions, which they may vent out by returning to their childish selves. | The emotional aspect of the children is an important aspect and changes as they grow. As they grow more and more, they reduce their connection with the teachers and the parents and result to their peers. | ||||
| Physical | The children in second grade are hurt more physically, both in the real and in the imagined ways. They will often want to rest if they are tired of doing their activities. They develop more muscles, which are bigger. Sometimes, the second graders may become tense. | They become physically daring. The children at this stage will want to be involved in rough games and team sports. The children will also have high energy at this point of development. Their muscles are more developed in the arms and legs. | The sixth to the eighth graders have a mighty appetite for food due to their increased activities in the physical aspect. They have a growth spurt and especially the girls who may start to feel awkward and uncomfortable. | The physical development in the children may lead to their feelings of awkwardness due to their growth spurts. Their appetite increases as their physical activities intensify. | ||||
Reflection
The growth stages and development are different for the children in the different ages. It is necessary for the educators to understand the various aspects of the growth of the children and how to respond to it. They also have to implement the most appropriate learning strategies for the children to cater for their needs in their respective stages. The teachers also act as role models and the guidance personnel for the students at the classroom level. They, therefore, have to ensure they understand the actual needs of their students. Different growth stages and development have various milestones that the children hit in their growth. Sometimes, the breakthroughs come at different times within the same age grade. The teachers have to have this into account and diversify their teaching strategies to ensure the students understand what is taught in class (Halford, 2014). The diversification of the teaching methods will also ensure that none of the students in a given class feels isolated due to their speed of development (Halford, 2014).
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Each growth stage gas its unique characteristics among the children who are in it. The teachers have to prioritize on the unique features of the growth stage to come up with the engaging activities for the students at that level. The engaging activities that a teacher creates, in this case, have to be interactive and inclusive to all the students in the particular class (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). That helps the teacher to maximize on the understanding of the specific characteristics of the students to ensure that they do what is required of them as educators. In the stages of the child and adolescent development, I have learned that the various growth stages have characteristics that are different from one another (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015). Therefore, I will treat my students from different classes differently. I have also learned that the students in the same class may have slightly different milestones in their growth stage. That will help me to come up with more diverse and inclusive teaching strategies in my future professional development (Smith, Cowie & Blades, 2015).
References
Halford, G. S. (2014). Children's understanding: The development of mental models . Psychology Press.
Smith, P. K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2015). Understanding children's development . John Wiley & Sons.
