Question:
What are the key aspects of cognitive and sociological development for infants aged between 0-6 months and how can they be affected?
Answer to Question: 401005 Human Relationships And Life Transitions
There are many stages in human development, starting at birth and ending at the end.
The primary stages of development are infancy, childhood and adolescence.
This is because each stage is able to enable an individual to do the activities of survival, struggling and maturing.
Human beings are capable of social interaction and are self-aware. Also, the changes occurring at different stages of life transcend the physical realm.
The assignment’s purpose is to investigate the cognitive and sociological development of children and factors that influence this development.
Cognitive development refers specifically to the development of different brain functions, including perceptual ability, information processing and language learning.
This development is critical for maximizing a person’s well-being. (Bjorklund & Causey 2017.
According to Piaget theory of cognitive development, there are four stages in cognitive development.
These are: the sensorimotor (0-2 years), the pre-operational (3-5 years), the concrete operational (7-11 years) or formal operational (11+).
The sensorimotor stage involves cognitive development by learning movement of the body through sensory data such learning, hearing and touching.
The child can symbolically think about objects in the pre-operational phase.
At this stage, the child can demonstrate intelligence through the use symbols, matured vocabulary, memory and imagination.
However, thinking remains egocentric.
The concrete operational stage demonstrates intelligence through the systematic and logical manipulation of symbols related objects and reversible psychological actions.
Formal operational stage is marked in the ability to think abstractly about concepts such as love, fear, joy or fear.
They can test hypothesis logically at this stage (Feldman 2016,).
As Jack is three years old, this essay will concentrate on the preoperative stage (2-5 years).
Social development is about the acquisition of social skills and emotional intelligence throughout one’s entire life.
The development is particularly important for childhood and adolescence.
Because it encourages positive relationships between family, friends, relatives, and loved ones, social development is essential (McAdams (2015)).
Erikson’s social developmental theory explains eight stages that lead to development from birth up to 18 years.
These eight stages provide ample opportunity for growth.
According to this theory, social development has eight stages.
These include trust vs. fear (18 months), autonomy (3-6 years), shame (18-3 years), and initiative (vs.
Guilt (3 to 5 years); Industry vs. Inferiority (5-13 Years); Identity vs. Role Confusion (13-21 Years); Intimacy vs. Isolation (21 to 39 years); Generativity vs. Stagnation (40 to 65 years); Ego integrity and despair (65 and over).
As Jack is only three years old, this essay will concentrate on the second stage in social development (Overton 2013).
Jack and his peers in this age range show an interest in learning new concepts which can be applied to real life.
It is evident that this age group has a normative cognitive developmental process. They are able to make rapid learning progress.
Children in this age group are capable of quickly adapting new words like “Papa”, “mama”, etc. and can also construct sentences (250 – 500 words).
Speech and language are the first steps in thinking development.
Jack can tell stories, name and age Jack, see himself in a mirror, and be more interested in toys (Berk 2017.
This age also shows normative social skills, such as the ability to function independently.
The child can practice self-care such as dressing themselves, washing their hands and going to the toilet.
Children this age can accept sharing toys and taking turns when playing games. They also have the ability to learn emotional skills, such as how to win an intent in a game.
Relying on other people for these activities could create guilt and shame which can lead to psychological crises (McAdams. et. al., 2015.
Children’s social and cognitive development depends on their parents.
Children learn social roles from their parents through secure attachments.
Children learn how to navigate relationships by having the support of their parents.
It helps to foster the development of children throughout their lives.
Children who interact with parents develop the ability to express emotions.
Children can learn from parents, who help them accept challenges and encourage normative development.
Abandoning this pattern can lead to non normative development.
Jack’s poor toilet training and delayed speech are both non-normative developments (Bjorklund & Causey 2017.
The cognitive and social development of children is affected by many factors.
Cognitive development can be affected by both environmental and biological factors.
Some biological factors include intelligence, maturation, sense organs and heredity.
Good sense organs gather adequate stimuli and help to learn correct concepts.
Low intelligence children cannot reach full mental capacity.
Cognitive development is greatly affected by the role of genes.
Some children can develop the same way their parents did.
These environmental factors could include economic status, family, society, play, and many other types of stimuli.
As a result, a child will learn more and have greater cognitive abilities (Bjorklund-Causey, 2017).
Children living in families with a high level of economic status have more opportunities to learn than those who are less fortunate.
By responding to stimuli, play improves a child’s ability to interact with their environment.
Playing with toys, for example, can increase a child’s understanding of shape.
Families and friends are crucial for cognitive and interpersonal development.
Parents can help children understand the environment and provide an atmosphere to encourage cognitive growth.
Spending time together with family and friends allows the child to acquire social and emotional skills.
Children will develop the ability to communicate with others through dance and make friends, as well a sense of independence (Bierman et. al., 2014).
Jack was unable to speak by the age of three according to the Piaget theory.
A lack of family support could have affected his cognitive development.
As a result, Jack spends less time spending with adults because he has a mother who works.
Jack spends at least two days a week in a care centre.
His family gives him less learning opportunities which may have delayed Jack’s speech.
Erikson’s knowledge of social development theory can be used to determine that Jack’s inability o get the toilet cleaned up is due to a lack of virtue called will.
Jack may not be asserting his will due to a poor mother-infant bond.
Jack may be struggling to find his independence because of the lack of support from his caregivers (Berk 2017.
Overall, it seems that Jack has a delayed cognitive and social development due to environmental factors.
Vanessa was informed by the nurse about Jack’s normal developmental milestones.
Vanessa needs to be more flexible to Jack’s situation and help him develop his psychosocial skills.
The essay discusses the cognitive and social development theories that are relevant to nurses and midwives who are responsible for designing appropriate interventions.
Nursing staff can create an intervention plan to decrease cognitive and social skills delay by considering the child’s present learning, play and support from their family.
Nurses can quickly identify any abnormalities in a child’s development by applying the knowledge of normative or non-normative.
This case study will allow Vanessa to be educated by the nurse on the cognitive and social development milestones of 3 year olds and the factors that may lead to non-normative developmental (Bierman et. al., 2014.
The essay helped the child understand his cognitive milestones and social development stages.
These are both biological and environment-related factors.
These theories are very useful for nurses and can help children reach their maximum mental capacity.
This case study analysis suggests that adequate family, social, and professional support is essential for normative developmental and well-being.
Refer toBerk, L. E. (2017). Exploring lifespan development. Pearson.Bierman, K. L., Domitrovich, C. E., Nix, R. L., Welsh, J. A., & Gest, S. D. (2014).
Integrating evidence-based preschool programmes to support cognitive, social-emotional, and cognitive development.
Promoting school readiness early learning: Implications from developmental research for practice, 231-252.Bjorklund, D. F., & Causey, K. B. (2017).
Children’s thinking. Cognitive development of children and individual differences.
SAGE Publications.Feldman, R. S. (2016).
Development across all life stages. Pearson.McAdams, D. P., & Zapata-Gietl, C. (2015).
Three strands that influence identity development in the human life span: Erik Erikson’s complete book.
The Oxford handbook of Identity Development, 81-94.Modgil, S., Modgil, C., & Brown, G. (Eds.). (2013).
Jean Piaget. Routledge.Overton, W. F. (Ed.). (2013).
The relationship between cognitive and interpersonal development.
Psychology Press.Serafica, F. C. (Ed.). (2015). Social-cognitive development in context (Vol. 27).
Psychology Press.