In life there are changes that occur to human beings and in turn give a rise to how an individual reasons logically about ideas, activities and believe. These changes are brought about from an early stage of development of an individual. Piaget developed a standard measure to study the behaviors of children at given stages of their development. His perception on how children develop mentally to carry out actions and perceive ideas and beliefs that exist in their real world.
It is at this stage that children develop mentally in identifying and understanding how to act towards varied stimuli that they are subjected to and so they develop schemas. Instances where they are constantly read for or a told story about the existence of fictitious figures, such as ghosts and Santa-Claus, provokes their minds in the process of internalizing it and hence they develop permanence. This adds to the existing schemas and makes children develop a series of different behavioral reactions in relation to what they are in contact with. It means the channel of reactions ranges from fear to excitement (Wolfgang et al. 153-156).
It is during childhood that children gain mental visualization of what they view, hear or learn which in turn transforms them. Children are bound to believe different aspects of life as they really observe other people’s views and perspectives because of the flexibility of their mind (Berk 23-69).
Child abuse is the act of doing socially unfit actions towards children. This may in turn affect a child physically, psychologically and socially. Neglecting of children by adults such that their basic needs, which include physical needs, medical needs, emotional needs and educational needs, are not met as required spells out child abuse (Berk 47-83).
Institutions need to be put into place to offer children’s legal rights. This includes children’s courts and a law firm that only serves children. Children also should be sensitized on their rights and keep in touch with the law in cases where abuse is involved. Severe punishment by children’s law should be given to those found guilty of infringing children’s rights without exception. Children should naturally get all their needs attended to and by doing that, parents and the society at large will learn about how to nurture children and train them to be law abiding citizens (Wolfgang et al. 153-156).
To ensure the study procedure is motivating and engaging, children were grouped in three groups of 24 according to their ages and this instilled a spirit of competition. It entailed different activities at different stages hence that broke boredom and made it enjoyable for them all. There were two distinguished puppets depending on the color which provided them with a base of making choices. The stickers that were used ranged from those most liked, quite liked and less liked. This motivated them in the sense that they were to judge from what was presented to them. She incorporated attractive stickers that were decorated with silver and gold and others made from dull and small pictures to provoke the children’s interest in activities. The children were then subjected to individual tests in which each one chose depending on what they saw and connected it in their mind. The introduction prompt was to allow children to think of what to say or do so that the bad puppet doesn’t take the stickers of their choice. All the children were involved in every activity at each stage and so it gave a sense of belonging and competition (Peskin 1992).
The deceptive capabilities displayed by the 4-year old and 5-year old participants were higher than those of 3-year old. This is best explained by the fact that the 3-year old did not know how to convey false information or withhold information, hence a conclusion that at the age of 3, children may have a notion that all that they know is true, though it may not be.
The exclusion procedure was used in the study to investigate at which point in development of a child deceptive tactics developed. As from the results, this happens from the ages of 4years and 5years.
In a family set up young children tend to imitate what their elders do. In a set up of a much older sibling, where their age difference is not wide enough then they are likely to display rivalry. This may be because of attention from parents, teachers and other people or even playthings. Rivalry can be powerful from the older sibling as compared to the young. Since the younger one may not be in a position of clearly recognizing the actions in the first instance, as time passes and the actions persist the younger one tend to understand what is happening and hence they develop how to counteract.
The perception of how language develops gives rise to many different explanations and theories to be put forward. This is caused by the different views of scholars across the educational field. This arouses different opinions and ideas hence create disunity between those who support and those who oppose certain views of a particular subject. In this case different theories concerning language development has brought the nativity perspective and interactivity in contrast (Peskin 1992).
It has also been observed that while twins are growing and developing together at their early development stages, they seem to communicate in a language that seems understandable to each of them but which is completely unfamiliar to the rest of the society. This explains that no matter the surrounding, humans are able to develop or adopt a language that they use for communication amongst themselves.
The nativist perspective considers human beings as being automatically prepared and structured to seek for skills and development in knowledge.
The interactionist theory on the other side perceives language as being a sum total of effects of biological aspects as well as the social influence under which a child is subjected to, especially due to an inborn desire for a child to freely and easily express themselves through communicating with the rest of the society (Nicolopoulou 1-23).
There are many factors that have contributed to a significant decline in unstructured playtime for children especially in the near future. Some of these factors include competition for available opportunities in the labor market, a factor that determines the large gap between the middle-class and the low-class in the society (Miller and Almon 68-124). There has been a notion that with proper and early preparation, children may be able to perform better and acquire a high level of education hence becoming competitive during employment. There has also been a misconception that with increased use of educative matter instead of play, especially during the brain development stages which begin at childhood, a child would be able to develop mentally in an easier and more beneficial manner unlike the case in children who have a lot of playtime (“The Alarming Disappearance of Play from Early Childhood Education” 1-3).
There are different benefits that are realized in a child’s life, both at the development stage and in adulthood, through engagement in unstructured play especially during early childhood. One main factor is that a child is able to develop mentally as well as physically and hence is able to grow up being healthy in an all-round manner. Also, a child is able to reason quickly and develop skills in such aspects as speech and cognition especially through play that involves creativity and imagination hence becoming more affluent and effective members of the society (Miller and Almon 71-114). Research has also shown that children at their early stages of development learn better and faster in aspects of language, reason and cognition through play rather than through education-oriented methods which may leave them completely blank and unaware of why they are learning the things they are learning. Finally, use of play is beneficial in ensuring children enjoy the learning process and hence become more attracted to it to a level where they develop an urge to learn more and acquire more knowledge in such a manner that they perform better at their higher levels of education (“Play, cognitive development, and the social world: Piaget, Vygotsky, and beyond” 1-23).
Other benefits that may be realized from play may include identification of talents that may be developed right from an early age to a point of being beneficial to the child and the society in the future. It is easier to identify that a child loves and can do well drawing or in sports rather than during class-time. Therefore, playtime is essential for development of an all-round person in the society. Parents may have shied from allowing their children enough playtimes due to increasing dangers of their environment and the surrounding. There are more harmful objects within and around the household and out there are moving vehicles, chemicals, more harmful objects as well as dangers posed by other untrustworthy members of the society. This notwithstanding, parents can be able to allow their children enough playtime scheduled in public recreational facilities under surveillance by a grown-up.
It is a very harmful and degrading misconception that parents have when they think that scholastic activities are more beneficial than unstructured playtime. Research has shown that lack of enough play during the development stages of a child results to slow development both physically and mentally as well as an inability to reason and judge situations quickly. Moreover, a child is totally disassociated from educational activities and only undertakes them as a matter of pressure but not as a beneficial aspect of life. This is contrary to use of adequate playtime since children are able to gradually understand and appreciate the need for educational activities hence gaining a love for education as an important and beneficial aspect of their livelihood.
References
Berk, Laura. Infants, Children, and Adolescents. 7th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
Miller, Edward, and Joan Almon. Crisis in the kindergarten: Why children need to play in school. College Park: Alliance for Childhood, 2009. Print.
Peskin, Joan. Ruse and representations: On children’s ability to conceal information: Mean Monkey. Developmental Psychology 28.1 (1992): 84-89.
Nicolopoulou, Ageliki. Play, cognitive development, and the social world: Piaget, Vygotsky, and beyond. Human Development 36.1 (1993): 1–23.
Nicolopoulou, Ageliki. The Alarming Disappearance of Play from Early Childhood Education. Human Development 53.1 (2010): 1-4.
Wolfgang Schneider et al. Young Children’s Cognitive Development: Interrelationships Among Executive Functioning, Working Memory, Verbal Ability, and Theory of Mind. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.