Fine motor skills involve the child using their smaller muscles such as fingers, toes, wrists and mouth. FMS’s are displayed in a nine month old child by using their thumb and index finger to pick up object; this will display this skill in particular by picking up finger foods and feeding themselves. Another example of a typical FMS displayed by a nine month old would be reaching and pointing for objects as her FMS’s become more refined.
Hand/eye co-ordination is when children learn to co-ordinate the information received by their eyes to guide what they need to do with their hands. A nine month old would exhibit this skill when they would be stacking blocks or sorting shapes.
Foot/eye co-ordination is a process in which children need their eyes to guide their feet. In a nine month old child this would be displayed by the child taking their first steps, or attempting to, and being unaware of what to do with their feet.
Balance is the ability to co-ordinate ones movements with the information received by the central nervous system. A child of nine months would show this category of development when they are beginning to stand unaided.
An adult’s role in encouraging physical development is pivotal. The adult must provide for the basic needs of the child, in relation to food and hygiene. Also every child should have the opportunity to rest and sleep when it is needed. The adult should offer physical activities for the child, and at every stage be promoting the benefits of physical activity to the child.
Intellectual Development
Intellectual development simply refers to the growth of children in such a way that their brain becomes more and more capable of understanding, analysing and evaluating concepts to make sense out of the world around them. It is complicated to give specific milestones and norms for intellectual development like are done with other domains of development because intellectual development depends on the child’s own experiences and pattern of development. Piaget concluded that intellectual development is the result of the interaction of hereditary and environmental factors. As the child develops and constantly interacts with the round him, knowledge is invented and reinvented. (London, 1988). He believed that everyone passed through the invariant sequence of four qualitatively distinct stages. Although all children pass through the stages in the same order, there is variability in the ages at which children attain each stage. These stages are
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
- Preoperational stage (2-7 years)
- Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)
- Formal operational stage (11+ years)
As I am doing my case study on a nine month old I will concentrate on the sensorimotor stage. Piaget described this as the period where a limited newborn developed into a thinking child. He suggested that infants have ‘schemes’. These are consistent patterns of motor behaviour which are first based on reflexes, the main examples of this is sucking and grasping.
In the first few months infants have circular reactions. Piaget described this as a natural tendency to repeat schemes, and when they are repeated they become more elaborate. In this stage most of what the child does is based on trial and error.
At the age of nine months an infants should have developed object permanence, this is the first sign of mental representation. By the end of the sensorimotor stage infants have internal thoughts and images.
Another theorist Vygotsky argued against Piaget’s beliefs. He said that a child’s learning and action take place in well structured social contexts. He believed that adults and older children contribute to child’s performance.
Vygotsky described the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’, (ZPD), this is to help describe something that the child would not be able to achieve on their own but would be able to achieve with support from another person. Given appropriate help children have potential to go beyond what they could achieve on their own. (Scott and Spencer, 1988, p.29-35).
Linguistic Development
Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during early childhood. (Healthofchildren, 2012). From birth to five years children develop language at a rapid pace. Infants start without language, yet by 4 months of age, babies can discriminate speech sounds and engage in . The stages of language development are universal among humans. However, the age and the pace at which a child reaches each milestone of language development vary greatly among children.
Children’s ability to develop language usually develops quicker than their ability to communicate. There have been two styles of development recognised in children’s development.
- Referential language development (RFD)
- Expressive language development (ELD)
RFD refers to the process in which children develops single words, then develop them into two word sentences and then three word sentences. ELD is where children first speak in long unintelligible babbles that mimic the cadence and rhythm of adult speech. Most children combine both of these styles.
Noam Chomsky a theorist heavily involved in studying language development. He believed that the basic principles of language are not something that we learn, but rather, they are programmed in our brain. He proposed that all humans have a language acquisition device (LAD). The LAD contains knowledge of grammatical rules common to all languages (Shaffer, et.al,2002). The LAD also allows children to understand the rules of whatever language they are listening to. Chomsky also developed the concepts of transformational grammar, surface structure, and deep structure. Transformational grammar is grammar that transforms a sentence. Surface structures are words that are actually written. Deep structure is the underlying message or meaning of a sentence. (Matlin, 2005).
Another theorist associated with language development is Stephen Krashen, he proposed that the best methods for learning a language are those that supply ‘comprehensible input’ in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready’, recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production. (sdkrashen, 2008).
Although all children do not reach development milestones at the same time the norm for language development of a nine month old is that they should be able to,
- Say sounds
- Repeat sounds
- Respond to some words, such as Mammy and Daddy.
- Babble.
- Turn to listen to familiar sounds, such as the telephone.
- Look at you when you say her or his name.
- Recognize familiar words like “no.”
- Do simple things, such as showing you a ball or waving goodbye, when asked.
Emotional Development
When we talk about emotional development, we are referring to children’s growing ability to
- Identify and understand their own feelings
- Accurately read and understand the feelings of others
- Manage the way they feel
- Shape the way they behave
- Develop empathy for others
- Build and keep good relationships with friends, family and others.
From the time they are born, children quickly develop their abilities to experience and express different emotions, as well as their capacity to cope with and manage a variety of feelings.
As with the other domains of development, there are milestone norms for emotional development, and stages at which children should begin to realise their own identity. At the age of nine months children should be
- Coming familiar with the concept of what Piaget called ‘Object Permanence’. Once they understand this they will gradually comprehend that objects and people will continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
- Developing self awareness. Children need to work out what they are like. They need to ask themselves what their properties are.
- Beginning to show preference for familiar people.
- Able to express a number of different emotions.
- Able to distinguish between familiar people and strangers.
- Show frustration when something is taken from them.
- Respond to spoken words and gestures.
- Express anxiety.
- Enjoy being held and comforted.
Gender development is part of emotional development; this usually begins at toddler age. Toddlers develop a firm sense of gender. They have an understanding of what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl. Children of this age group begin to form friendships with members of the same sex and are generally attracted to gender specific clothes and toys. (Barnardos, 2002, p.9)
The role of an adult is very important in a child’s emotional development. Children need to learn how to express their emotions in appropriate ways. Adults should model the type of behaviour you expect to see from the child. Adults must also be consistent and responsive to help children learn that they can depend on the people they are close to.
Theorists John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth did major work on emotional development in children. Bowlby developed the theory ‘attachment theory’. According to attachment theory, attachment in infants is primarily a process of proximity seeking to an identified attachment figure in situations of perceived distress or alarm for the purpose of survival. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in with the infant, and who remain as consistent caregivers for some months during the period from about 6 months to two years of age. Parental responses lead to the development of patterns of attachment which in turn lead to 'internal working models' which will guide the individual's feelings, thoughts, and expectations in later relationships. In Bowlby's approach, the human infant is considered to have a need for a secure relationship with adult caregivers, without which normal social and emotional development will not occur. (Wikipedia, 2012)
Mary Ainsworth did many studies on consistency and devised a procedure called ‘A strange situation’. In this procedure of the strange situation the child is observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives. The situation varies in stressfulness and the child's responses are observed.
Social Development
Social development is a child's ability to interact with their peers and adults in a socially acceptable way. Being able to effectively communicate, listen and empathise with others forms the basis for healthy relationships and the ability to successfully fit into social situations both now and in the future.
Many factors affect the social development of a child, some of those include, family, peers, culture, and the media.
There are many theorists associated with social development,
- Vygotsky, who said ‘every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice; first on a social level, and later, on an individual level; first between people and then inside the child. This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.’
- Bandura believed that behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. Children imitate the behaviour they have observed.
- Erikson developed the stages of ego identity. This is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. Erikson believed that at each stage people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in their development. A child of nine months falls into the first category.
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0-1 years: Trust vs. Mistrust: Because the infant is completely dependant the development of trust id based on how much the child can depend on their caregivers. If a child develops trust they will feel safe and secure in the world, however failure to do so as the result of inconsistent care, will result in fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable.
by
reen11 (student)
