Childhood

Growth:

·         Growth means the quantitative changes that take place in size, length, height and weight.

·         It is used in the physical sense.

·         The changes that occur in the specific aspects of a living beings body and behaviour are called growth.

·         Growth stops at the stage of maturity changes are visible and measurable.

Development:

·         Development suggests the qualitative changes that take place in an individual’s body such a change is all-round and includes shapes, form etc. It refers to the entire body.

·         Development improvement in the function of the body.

·         Development improvement in the function of the body.

·         It is not easy to measure this improvement directly.

·         Evaluation of development will have to be made by observing keenly in behavioural situations.

·         Development can be noticed in some children even though there may be not be much growth. There may not be increase in their height, weight and size but there may be improvement in the function of the body on the whole.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:

SL. No	Growth	Development
1	It may be limited to the changes in the  Quantitative aspect.	It implies to the overall changes occurring in Both quantitative and qualitative aspects.
2	It has narrow meaning.	It has wider and more comprehensive Meaning
3	Its scope is confined to those aspects /  Dimensions of one’s personality in which Quantitative changes occur.	It is employed to describe the changes in all Dimensions of one’s personality whether Physical, mental, emotional and social.
4	It is directly observable and measurable.	It is not directly observable and measurable.
5	It is not continuous and stops when  Maturity has been attained.	It is continuous process and life long Process.
6	It has simple process.	It has complex process and it is difficult to Assess and measure one’s developmental Aspects.

SPAN OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE:

Period/Stages of Development	Approximate age
Pre-natal period	Nine months in mother’s womb
Post-natal period	From birth to first two weeks
Infancy period	From 2 weeks to 2 years
Childhood period	From 3rd year to 12th years.
Early-childhood period	From 3rd year to 6th years.
Later childhood period	From 7th year to 12+ years or till the onset of puberty.
Adolescence period	From 13th year to 19th year OR from onset of puberty till the attainment of maturity.
Adulthood period	From 20th year to 60th years OR From attaining maturity to the age one ceases to produce one’s own kind.
Old age or Ageing period	From 61st years onwards OR from the end of the reproduction capability till death.

1.2:Meaning of childhood

         Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, childhood consists of two stages: preoperational stage and concrete operational stage. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddler hood (learning to walk), early childhood (play age), middle childhood (school age), and adolescence (puberty through post-puberty). Various childhood factors could affect a person's attitude formation.^[1]

        The concept of childhood emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly through the educational theories of the philosopher John and the growth of books for and about children. Previous to this point, children were often seen as incomplete versions of adults.

     Childhood is followed by two phases for about 10 to 12 years, they are as follows:

1.      Early childhood ( 3 to 6Years)

2.      Later childhood (7 to 12 Years)

Early childhood:

Generally, the period between three and six years belongs to the early childhood.

Characteristics of Early childhood

1.Physical Development:

Ø   Early childhood is a period of slow, steady and uniform physical growth.

Ø  The child begins to assume the body proportions of an adult.

Ø  The average annual increase in height is 3 inches and that in weight is 3 to 5 pounds.

Ø  During the first few months of early childhood, the last 4 baby teeth erupt.

Ø   During the last six months of early childhood, the baby teeth begin to be replaced by permanent teeth.

Ø   Brain has developed 90% of its adult weight.

Ø  The child in preschool stage develops a variety of motor skills like walking, running, jumping, hopping, climbing etc.

 

2. Social Development:

Ø  During early childhood the child acquires the preliminary training and experiences needed to become a member of gang in later childhood.

Ø  Hence early childhood is often called the pre-gang age.

Ø  During this stage, children become increasingly aware of their bodies and learn their sexual identities as male or female.

q  The important features of socialization during pre-school years are the following:

ü  Feeling of autonomy develops in children. They begin to explore their environment independently.

ü  Social environment expands beyond home.

ü  Children of both sexes play together without any discrimination.

ü  They learn to co-operate with others and make friends on shared interests and similar personality traits:

ü  Child seeks social approval of his action.

3. Emotional Development:

Ø  Emotions are especially intense during early childhood.

Ø  This is a time of disequilibrium when children are out of focus in the sense that they are easily aroused to emotional outbursts.

Ø  The intense emotionality in childhood is characterized by temper tantrums, intense fear, and unreasonable outburst of jealousy.

q  The chief characteristics of emotions during pre-school years are the following:

ü  During early childhood emotions appear more frequently and more intensely.

ü  Emotions are expressed in relation to concrete objects.

ü  Emotions are temporary. The child shifts his emotions very rapidly.

ü  Emotional expressions in early childhood are intense very rapidly.

ü  Children fail to hide their emotions but express them indirectly through different activities such as crying, nail biting, thumb-sucking and speech difficulties.

4. Intellectual Development:

Ø  The child begins to think symbolically.

Ø  He understands the basic functional relational relationship between things and events.

Ø   He begins to form concepts of physical and social reality.

Ø  The pre-school gradually develops the perception of size, shape colour, time and distance.

Ø  Memory increases at a very rapid speed.

Ø  Creativity and imagination begin to grow.

Ø  Thinking and reasoning develop in relation to concrete materials.

Ø  Span of attention and interest in exploring the environment increases.

5. Language Development:

Ø   During the first 8-10 months, the child’s only mode of communication is its babbling.  

Ø  Dramatic improvements in speech and language.

Ø   Single word communication slowly gets replaced by short sentences, and gradually these sentences become larger and more complex.

Ø  As children pass the age of three, they can use the past tense, plurals and differentiate between, I, you and we.

Ø  Between age 4 and 5, they can use a sentence with 4 and 5 words. They can also use prepositions.

Ø  Five to six-year-old children can give meanings and opposites. More conjunctions, prepositions and articles make their speech rich.

Ø   Six to seven-year children speak more like adults with a few errors. They use gestures to emphasize the meaning of the words they use.

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD

q  The following points may be helpful to the teacher while planning kindergarten education for children:

1. The greatest trauma experienced by the new school entrant is separation from his mother. The child can be prepared for this by a short period of separation that he can joyfully spend in the nursery school. Slowly he gets accustomed to being separated from his mother and learns to adjust to a fixed schedule.
2. Activity must be an integral part of nursery training. As the children are acquiring new motor skill, they have an innate urge to practice them. So opportunity should be given to them for manipulating and handling objects play with block and to perform simple motor skills.
3. Action songs, games that involve varied activities like running, skipping, jumping etc. should be planned for pre-scholars.

4. Imitation and repetitive behaviours are characteristic feature of children at this stage. Hence, they should be encouraged for learning and strengthening behviour through imitation and repetition.

5. Pre-school education must pre-school education must primarily focus on language training. This could be achieved by:

ü  Providing opportunities to children for free conversation among themselves and between the teachers.

ü  Providing opportunities for participation in storytelling, recitation of nursery rhymes, singing of songs etc.

ü  Providing opportunities to children to associates sounds with appropriate pictures of trees, birds, animals, objects etc.

6. Nursery education should be a preparatory stage for reading and writing.

Ø  The process of writing implies finer muscular control, eye-span and eye-hand co-ordination, which are not perfect in the 3 to 5 years old child.

Ø  Therefore, reading and writing must be given undue emphasizes.

7. Art activities like easel painting, finger painting, crayoning, sand writing, clay modeling, tracing, cutting and pasting various shapes etc. should be introduced.

LATER CHILDHOOD (Primary School Stage)

          Later childhood extends from the age of six years to the individual becomes sexually mature. THIS period is labeled by parents as the troublesome or sloppy age; by educators as elementary school age; and by psychologists as gang age or age of conformity. These different names are used because of the following reasons:

1.      Troublesome age: Parents consider later childhood as a troublesome period because it is the time when children are no longer willing to do what they are told to do when they are more influenced by their peers than by the parents and other eider members of the family.

2.      Sloppy age: Since children are careless, untidy and irresponsible about their clothes & other material possessions during later childhood, this period is called as sloppy age.

3.      Gang age & Age of conformity: During later childhood, children’s major concern is acceptance by their age- mates & membership in a gang, especially aging with prestige in the eyes of their age-mates. Because of this absorbing concern, children are willing to conform to group approve standard in term of appearance, speech &behavior. This has led psychologist to label late childhood as the age of conformity

DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LATER CHILDHOOD

The following are the major development characteristics of later childhood:

1. 1.Physical Development:

Ø   Later childhood is a period of slow & relatively uniform growth until the changes of puberty begins.

Ø  The growth is slowest for girls between the ages of nine& ten years, while boys grow slowest between 10 & 11 years.

Ø  This slow period of growth is called pre-puberty lag.

Ø   Primary teeth start falling at around sixth year & replaced by permanent teeth in the next five years.

Ø  The most significant physical changes occurring during this period is the lengthening of limbs.

Ø  Sex differences in physical growth become more pronounced in late childhood. Because boys begin their puberty growth spurt approximately a year later than girls, they tend to be slightly shorter & lighter in weight than girls of the same age until they too become sexually mature.

2. Motor Development:

Ø  Motor abilities improve a great deal between sixth & twelfth year.

Ø  Improving muscle co- ordination helps the child to acquire new skills & improve the already acquired ones.

Ø  They have reasonably good mastery over the basic motor skills of sitting standing, walking & simple finger manipulation.

Ø  By the age of twelve, muscle co-ordination is almost perfect.

Ø  At this stage, improved co-ordination of hand & finger muscles helps the child to produce good handwriting

3. Emotional development:

Ø  During elementary school period, children gradually learn to control the overt expressions of their emotions, especially the unpleasant ones & to use emotional catharsis to clear their pent-up emotions.

Ø  Later childhood is a period of relative emotional calm. The child gradually learns to control his emotional expression in social situations.

Ø  The emotional responses of the child become less diffuse, random & undifferentiated.

Ø  Emotional expressed in late childhood are pleasant ones, because this will help the child in the release of pent-up animal spirits.

4. Social Development:

Ø  Later childhood is marked by greater degree of social awareness. There is a great expansion of child’s social world.

Ø  He develops social behavior necessary to adjust with others. He becomes an active member of a peer group.

Ø  He believes in group loyalty and thus tries to conform to the rules & values maintained by the group.

Ø  Children reject adult standards & circle of friends widens

Ø  In this age, boys & girls make individual groups because their interests, habits & desires become differentiated.

Ø  During this period children develop group consciousness &they become less selfish, self-centered 7 aggressive but more cooperative & out-going.

 

5. Intellectual Development:

Ø  During later childhood, children enter into piglet’s concrete operational stage of intellectual development.

Ø   They begin to think logically but are unable to think in abstract terms. Children develop powers of observation, attention, reasoning &abstract thinking.

Ø  During elementary school period the child’s ability to absorb information and accumulate ideas increases and his memory become more efficient.

Ø  Children become increasingly concerned with the cause and effect relationship in physical & natural phenomena in the environment.

6. Speech and Language Development:

Ø  During late childhood, all areas of speech- pronunciation, vocabulary, comprehension, &sentence structure- improve rapidly.

Ø   A six-year-old child has fairly large vocabulary, and throughout later childhood his general vocabularies grow by leaps and bounds.

Ø   Errors in pronunciation are less common at this age.

Ø   A new word may be incorrectly pronounced for the first time but after hearing the correct pronunciation once or twice, children are generally able to pronounce it correctly.

Ø  Primary schoolers show a keen desire to learn meanings of new words, phrases, and usage and he tries to use them in his conversation.

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING FOR LATER CHILDHOOD

 q  The following points may be helpful to teachers in planning educational strategies for elementary school children:

1. Teachers must not over emphasize reading and writing for children between ages 6 and 9 as their neuro muscular coordination is not perfect.
2. The child attains a reasonably good neuro muscular coordination by the age of 10 years.
3. It is the time to emphasize reading, writing, drawing, etc. At this stage the child should be helped to improve his handwriting.
4. Since children between 6 and 9 years have very short span of attention, text books must not have long words. As the child grows older the span of attention lengthens and longer words can be gradually introduced.
5. Use pictorial aids while teaching in elementary class as they will not only helped to make the lessons interesting, but they also make the concepts clear.
6. Since children of this age are able to think only in concentrate terms, teachers should give them enough opportunities to solve problems of a concentrate nature.
7.  Making good use of the gregarious instinct, the child can be induced to take part in scouting and other team games.
8. His extrovert nature can be put to good use in sending him on extensive tours of the country so that his knowledge increases.
9. His imitative habit can be put to the most advantageous use by performing useful activities in his presence so that he may learn to emulate them.
10. Children in their later childhood are highly curious to know about the environment. His curiosity can be aroused regarding novel things and he can then be left to learn many new things.
11.  The acquisitive tendency of children can be best used by encouraging him to collect things such as stamps, photographs, old coins etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDHOOD

1.      Early childhood is a period of slow, steady and uniform physical growth.

2.       The child in preschool stage develops a variety of motor skills like walking, running, jumping, hopping, climbing etc.

3.       Children of both sexes play together without any discrimination.

4.       They learn to co-operate with others and make friends on shared interests and similar personality traits:

5.       Child seeks social approval of his action.

6.       Emotions are temporary. The child shifts his emotions very rapidly.

7.       Emotional expressions in early childhood are intense very rapidly.

8.       Children fail to hide their emotions but express them indirectly through different activities such as crying, nail biting, thumb-sucking and speech difficulties.

9.       Memory increases at a very rapid speed.

10.   Creativity and imagination begin to grow.

11.   Thinking and reasoning develop in relation to concrete materials.

12.   Span of attention and interest in exploring the environment increases.

13.   Later childhood is a period of slow & relatively uniform growth until the changes of puberty begins. The growth is slowest for girls between the ages of nine& ten years, while boys grow slowest between 10 & 11 years.

14.   Motor abilities improve a great deal between sixth & twelfth year. Improving muscle co- ordination helps the child to acquire new skills & improve the already acquired ones.

15.   Later childhood is a period of relative emotional calm. The child gradually learns to control his emotional expression in social situations.

16.  Later childhood is marked by greater degree of social awareness. There is a great expansion of child’s social world. He develops social behavior necessary to adjust with others.

17.   In this age, boys & girls make individual groups because their interests, habits & desires become differentiated. Playgroups are essentially single sex groups & there develop an antagonistic feeling towards the groups of opposite sex.

18.  During later childhood, all areas of speech- pronunciation, vocabulary, comprehension, &sentence structure- improve rapidly.

1.3:Physical and intellectual development of child

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD

q  Physical growth and development refers to a process which brings about bodily and physiological changes-internal as well as external-in an organism from the conception till his death.

q   Generally, these changes take place in the following dimensions:

(I ) Gross physical structure or physique:

Ø  It involves changes in height, weight, body proportions and general physical appearance.

(ii) Internal organs.

Ø  It involves changes in the functioning of glands, nervous system and other body systems-circulatory, respiratory, digestive, muscular, lymphatic and reproductive.

Physical characteristics and Needs of Children from 5 to 8 years

               Physical Characteristics                                                                              Needs

1.       Average increase in height of about 5 cms.                1. Adequate sleep for 10 to 12 hours.

2.       Girls mature faster than boys.                                        2. Frequent periods of rest and recreation.

3.       Legs lengthen rapidly.                                                         3. Active play and large space for play.

4.       Nose and throat difficulties are frequent.                 4. Guidance in eating and health protection.

5.       Tend to take more food than their stomach            5. Preventive measures against childhood      

     Can hold.                                                                          Diseases like measles.

6.       Show resistance taking a bath.                                  6. Proper dress according to weather.

7.       Average gain in health.                                                7. Care of teeth etc.

8.       Gradual improvement in speed, steadiness of

Movement and accuracy.                           

                               From 9 to 11 years

1.       Children are extremely active.                            1. Careful eye examination.

2.       Relatively free from disease.                               2. Correction of postures.

3.       Relatively healthy and sturdy.                               3. Frequent change of physical activity.

4.       Choosy about food but eat a great deal.           4. Independence in caring for physical needs.

5.       Girls increase steadily in physical skills.             5. Adequate nutrition.

6.       Girls usually have less stamina than boys.         6. Supervision of strenuous physical activities.

7.       Interested in competitive games which             7.        ----do----

require skill.

8.       More easily fatigued after physical activity.      8.        ----do----

Ø 

Ø Physical changes are rather rapid in the earlier part of the child’s life.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD

Ø  Intellectual or mental development implies the growth and improvement of several mental abilities.

Ø  These abilities include perception, observation, remembrance, imagination, thinking, problem-solving, intelligence, language ability etc. they grow and mature with age.

Ø  They are inter-dependent, inter-related and develop as whole.

Ø  The development of various abilities goes on a simultaneously but certain abilities may develop faster than the rest.

Ø  All the abilities may not mature at the same time.

Ø  There may be variations in the rate of overall intellectual development at various ages.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Ø  During early childhood the child acquires the preliminary training and experiences needed to become a member of gang in later childhood.

Ø  Feeling of autonomy develops in children. They begin to explore their environment independently.

Ø  Social environment expands beyond home.

Ø  Children of both sexes play together without any discrimination.

Ø  They learn to co-operate with others and make friends on shared interests and similar personality traits:

Ø  Child seeks social approval of his action.

Ø  Later childhood is marked by greater degree of social awareness. There is a great expansion of child’s social world.

Ø  Peer group becomes important agent of socialization during later childhood

Ø  Children reject adult standards & circle of friends widens

Ø  In this age, boys & girls make individual groups because their interests, habits & desires become differentiated. Playgroups are essentially single sex groups & there develop an antagonistic feeling towards the groups of opposite sex.

Ø  During this period children develop group consciousness &they become less selfish, self-centered 7 aggressive but more cooperative &out-going.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Ø  Emotions are especially intense during early childhood.

Ø  During early childhood emotions appear more frequently and more intensely.

Ø  Emotions are expressed in relation to concrete objects.

Ø  Emotions are temporary. The child shifts his emotions very rapidly.

Ø  Emotional expressions in early childhood are intense very rapidly.

Ø  Later childhood is a period of relative emotional calm. The child gradually learns to control his emotional expression in social situations.

Ø  The emotional responses of the child become less diffuse, random & undifferentiated.

Ø  Emotional expressed in late childhood are pleasant ones, because this will help the child in the release of pent-up animal spirits.

Early childhood

1.      Physical Development: Early childhood is a period of slow, steady and uniform physical growth. The child begins to assume the body proportions of an adult. The average annual increase in height is 3 inches and that in weight is 3 to 5 pounds. During the first few months of early childhood, the last 4 baby teeth erupt. During the last six months of early childhood, the baby teeth begin to be replace3d by permanent teeth. Brain has developed 90% of its adult weight. The child in preschool stage develops a variety of motor skills like walking, running, jumping, hopping, climbing etc.

2.      Social Development: During early childhood the child acquires the preliminary training and experiences needed to become a member of gang in later childhood. Hence early childhood is often called the pre-gang age. During this stage, children become increasingly aware of their bodies and learn their sexual identities as male or female. This self-awareness contributes to the development of either positive or negative self-attitudes. During pre-school years children develop new inter-personal and sex-appropriate relationship with others. They learn to share and compete with siblings and peers. The pattern of socialization at this period can be seen in the play behavior of children, It moves from the most independent solitary play, through parallel and associative play to the participatory co-operative play. The important features of socialization during pre-school years are the following:

a)      Feeling of autonomy develops in children. They begins to explore their environment independently.

b)      Social environment expands beyond home.

c)      Children of both sexes play together without any discrimination.

d)     They learn to co-operate with others and make friends on shared interests and similar personality traits:

e)      Child seeks social approval of his action.

3.      Emotional Development: Emotions are especially intense during early childhood. This is a time of disequilibrium when children are out of focus in the sense that they are easily aroused to emotional outbursts. The intense emotionality in childhood is characterized by temper tantrums, intense fear, and unreasonable outburst of jealousy. The chief characteristics of emotions during pre-school years are the following:

a)      During early childhood emotions appear more frequently and more intensely.

b)      Emotions are expressed in relation to concrete objects.

c)      Emotions are temporary. The child shifts his emotions very rapidly.

d)     Emotional expressions in early childhood are intense very rapidly.

e)      Children fail to hide their emotions but express them indirectly through different activities such as crying, nail biting, thumb-sucking and speech difficulties.

4.      Intellectual Development: At the early childhood, an individual enters in piaget’s second stage of cognitive development-pre-operational stage. The child begins to think symbolically. He understands the basic functional relational relationship between things and events. He begins to form concepts of physical and social reality. The other major characteristics of intellectual development during pre-school years are:

a)      The pre-school gradually develops the perception of size, shape colour, time and distance.

b)      Memory increases at a very rapid speed.

c)      Creativity and imagination begins to grow.

d)     Thinking and reasoning develop in relation to concrete materials.

e)      Span of attention and interest in exploring the environment increases.

5.      Language Development: During the first 8-10 months, the child’s only mode of communication is its babbling and cooing. The first words are uttered around the child’s first birthday. Then there is a slow-down for about two to three months when the children seems to be concentrating on recently acquired motor skills like standing without support and walking. After this, come swift and dramatic improvements in speech and language. Single word communication slowly gets replaced by short sentences, and gradually these sentences become larger and more complex.

          As children pass the age of three, they can use the past tense, plurals and differentiate between, I, you and we. Between age 4 and 5, they can use a sentence with 4 and 5 words. They can also use prepositions. Five to six year old children can give meanings and opposites. More conjunctions, prepositions and articles make their speech rich. Six to seven year children speak more like adults with a few errors. They use gestures to emphasize the meaning of the words they use.

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD

The following points may be helpful to the teacher while planning kindergarten education for children:

1.      The greatest trauma experienced by the new school entrant is separation from his mother. The child can be prepared for this by a short period of separation that he can joyfully spend in the nursery school. Slowly he gets accustomed to being separated from his mother and learns to adjust to a fixed schedule.

2.      Activity must be an integral part of nursery training. As the children are acquiring new motor skill, they have a innate urge to practice them. So opportunity should be given to them for manipulating and handling objects play with block and to perform simple motor skills.

3.      Action songs, games that involve varied activities like running, skipping, jumping etc. should be planned for pre-scholars.

4.      Imitation and repetitive behaviours are characteristic feature of children at this stage. Hence they should be encouraged for learning and strengthening behviour through imitation and repetition.

5.      Pre-school education must pre-school education must primarily focus on language training. This could be achieved by:

a)      Providing opportunities to children for free conversation among themselves and between the teachers.

b)      Providing opportunities for participation in storytelling, recitation of nursery rhymes, singing of songs etc.

c)      Providing opportunities to children to associates sounds with appropriate pictures of trees, birds, animals, objects etc.

6.      Nursery education should be a preparatory stage for reading and writing. The process of writing implies finer muscular control, eye-span and eye-hand co-ordination, which are not perfect in the 3 to 5 years old child. Therefore, reading and writing must be given undue emphasizes.

7.                  Art activities like easel painting, finger painting, crayoning, sand writing, clay modeling, tracing, cutting and pasting various shapes etc. should be introduced.

DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LATER CHILDHOOD

The following are the major development characteristics of later childhood:

1.      Physical Development: Later childhood is a period of slow & relatively uniform growth until the changes of puberty begins. The growth is slowest for girls between the ages of nine& ten years, while boys grow slowest between 10 & 11 years. This slow period of growth is called pre-puberty lag. Primary teeth start falling at around sixth year & replaced by permanent teeth in the next five years. The most significant physical changes occurring during this period is the lengthening of limbs. Sex differences in physical growth become more pronounced in late childhood. Because boys begin their puberty growth spurt approximately a year later than girls, they tend to be slightly shorter & lighter in weight than girls of the same age until they too become sexually mature.

2.      Motor Development: Motor abilities improve a great deal between sixth & twelfth year. Improving muscle co- ordination helps the child to acquire new skills & improve the already acquired ones. They have reasonably good mastery over the basic motor skills of sitting standing, walking & simple finger manipulation. By the age of twelve, muscle co-ordination is almost perfect. At this stage , improved co-ordination of hand & finger muscles help the child to produce good handwriting

3.      Emotional development: During elementary school period, children gradually learn to control the overt expressions of their emotions, especially the unpleasant ones & to use emotional catharsis to clear their pent-up emotions. The important characteristics of emotional development during later childhood are the following

a.       Later childhood is a period of relative emotional calm. The child gradually learns to control his emotional expression in social situations.

b.      The emotional responses of the child become less diffuse, random & undifferentiated.

c.       Emotional expressed in late childhood are pleasant ones, because this will help the child in the release of pent-up animal spirits.

4.      Social Development: Later childhood is marked by greater degree of social awareness. There is a great expansion of child’s social world. He develops social behavior necessary to adjust with others. He becomes an active member of a peer group. He believes in group loyalty and thus tries to conform to the rules & values maintained by the group. The child’s social development at this stage is influenced by the mutual interaction between various groups; their competition, conflict & co-operation. The major changes occur in the social behavior of children during the elementary school stage are the following:

a.       Peer group becomes important agent of socialization during later childhood

b.      Children reject adult standards & circle of friends widens

c.       In this age, boys & girls make individual groups because their interests, habits & desires become differentiated. Playgroups are essentially single sex groups & there develop an antagonistic feeling towards the groups of opposite sex.

d.      During this period children develop group consciousness &they become less selfish, self-centered 7 aggressive but more cooperative &out-going.

5.      Intellectual Development: During later childhood, children enter into piglet’s concrete operational stage of intellectual development. They begin to think logically but are unable to think in abstract terms. Children develop powers of observation, attention, reasoning &abstract thinking. They can focus on more than one aspects of a situation & can globally experience what happens around.

The major developmental changes of cognitive ability during this period are the following:

a.       During elementary school period the child’s ability to absorb information and accumulate ideas increases and his memory become more efficient.

b.      His ability to generalize as well as capacity for logical thinking increases.

c.       The child becomes increasingly efficient in selecting, developing &applying cognitive operations in relation to concrete objects

d.      At this age, the child tends to live in a world of make believe, of which he himself is the creator

e.       Children become increasingly concerned with the cause and effect relationship in physical & natural phenomena in the environment.

6.      Speech and Language Development: During late childhood, all areas of speech- pronunciation, vocabulary, comprehension, &sentence structure- improve rapidly. A six year old child has fairly large vocabulary, and throughout later childhood his general vocabularies grow by leaps and bounds. Errors in pronunciation are less common at this age. Anew word may be incorrectly pronounced for the first time but after hearing the correct pronunciation once or twice, children are generally able to pronounce it correctly. Primary schoolers show a keen desire to learn meanings of new words, phrases, and usage and he tries to use them in his conversation. The six year old child should have command of nearly every kind of sentence and structure. They rarely use the passive voice. From six until the age of 9 or 10 the length of sentences will increase. These long sentences are generally rambling and loosely kainite. Gradually after the age of 9 the child begins to use shorter and more compact sentences.

             By the age of 9-10, children develop an increasingly complex and understanding of syntax. Grammatical errors are slowly eliminated and they talk fluently. They are able to use contextual clues to understand meanings of new words and they continue to experiment with new words in their conversation.

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING FOR LATER CHILDHOOD

Later childhood is a crucial period with regard to the educational life of an individual as it is the beginning of formal schooling. The following points may be helpful to teachers in planning educational strategies for elementary school children:

Ø  Teachers must not over emphasize reading and writing for children between ages 6 and 9 as their neuro muscular coordination is not perfect.

Ø  The child attains a reasonable good neuro muscular coordination by the age of 10 years.

It is the time to emphasize reading,writing, drawing, etc.At this stage the child should be helped to improve his handwriting.

Ø  Since children between 6 and 9 years have very short span of attention, text books must not have long words. As the child grows older the span of attention lengthens and longer words can be gradually introduced.

Ø  Use pictorial aids while teaching in elementary class as they will not only helped to make the lessons interesting, but they also make the concepts clear.

Ø  Since children of this age are able to think only in concentrate terms, teachers should give them enough opportunities to solve problems of a concentrate nature.

Ø  Making good use of the gregarious instinct, the child can be induced to take part in scouting and other team games.

Ø  His extrovert nature can be put to good use in sending him on extensive tours of the country so that his knowledge increases.

Ø  His imitative habit can be put to the most advantageous use by performing useful activities in his presence so that he may learn to emulate them.

Ø  Children in their later childhood are highly curious to know about the environment. His curiosity can be aroused regarding novel things and he can then be left to learn many new things.

Ø  The acquisitive tendency of children can be best used by encouraging him to collect things such as stamps, photographs, old coins etc.

Important General Characteristics of Child’s Development

1.      It is very rapid during infancy (from birth to three years.)

2.      Period of pre-childhood (4 to 6 years) is the period of fixation i. e, what is acquired in infancy is fixed or stabilized.

3.      Period of early childhood (7 to 9 years) shows again a period of growth and development but the speed is slow in comparison to infancy.

4.      Later childhood (10 to 12years) is again a period of fixation.

5.      The first three years of adolescence are marked as the years of rapid growth and development. This is followed by a period of slow growth.

6.      All the sensory and motor organs of the child’s body are in the process of growth.

7.      The urge for motor activities like walking, running, jumping, catching, throwing, etc. is at its peak.

8.      Muscular development takes place rapidly.

9.      In the middle and later childhood, coordination of hands and fingers becomes possible.

10.  Children take delight in strenuous physical activities.

11.  Children enjoy movement.

12.  There is an urge among children to participate in activities which involve speaking, seeing, and manipulating.

MENTAL OR INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD

(Piaget’s cognitive theory of development)

Meaning:  Mental development implies the progressive changes in the mental process which go on from birth to death. Mental process is an activity on the part of the organism which is of a psychological nature or involved in the mind. There are mental tests to evaluate a specific ability or performance.         

        Mental development includes various aspects such as development of concepts, perception, language, memory, reasoning, thinking, imagination and intelligence.

         Mental development or intellectual development is the development of the mental abilities and capacities which help an individual to adjust his behavior to the ever changing environmental conditions or to enable him to accomplish a task that needs complex cognitive abilities. According to J.S.Bruner (1964), “Intellectual development is the capacity to deal with several choices at the same time.”

STAGES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

      Piaget divides the stages of cognitive development of the child into the following categories;

1.      Sensory-motor stage( Birth to 2 years) :This stage covers the period from birth to two years. This stage is marked by sensation. Simple learning occurs but the child does not think at this stage. These early sensory motor experiences of the child have a great bearing on the development of his later intellectual abilities. In the world of the child an object exists when it is physically present. He then gains some consciousness about the stability of the object. He starts comprehending casually. It is sometimes said that the child’s mental development at this stage is equal to that of an intelligent animal. By the end of two years, the child develops the concept which is characterized by relationship among objects and between objects and his own body.

2.      Pre-conceptual stage (2 to 6 years):  This stage is roughly between two years and six years. The child develops ways of representing events and objects through symbols, including verbal symbols of language. He can now think about things that are not immediately present. The child now becomes ego-centric i.e. primarily concerned himself.

3.      Intuitive Stage (4 to 8 years):  This covers the age four to eight years. The reason of the child is not logical and is based oin intuition rather than systematic logic. The intuitive thought is primarily concerned with static conditions but the child is able to use concepts as stable generalization of his past and present experiences. He, however, cannot adequately link a whole set of successive conditions into an integrated totality.

4.      Concrete Operations stage (6 to 11/12 years) :  The stage of development is usually between the age of 6 to eleven or 12 years. At this stage a child is concerned with the integration and stability of his cognitive system. The child develops logical operations from simple associations. He learns to add, subtract, multiply and divide. He is in a position to classify, concrete objects. These operations are called concrete because they relate directly to objects. These operations do not involve abstract thinking. Piaget has coined a new term grouping to describe a set of operations. Piaget has given a long list of operations which make it possible to handle numbers in various relations to each other, the arrangement of objects into classes and sub classes and the ordering of objects according to one or more attributes.

5.      Formal Operational Stage (12 to adolescence):  At this stage the thought process of the child becomes quite systematic and reasonably well integrated. The child is in a position to free himself from the concrete operations related directly to objects and to groups. He is capable of reasoning with propositions removed from the concrete. He develops an experimental spirit. Now he solves problems more systematically and the bases of action are not trial and error. The youngsters at this stage are able to organize information, reason scientifically, build hypotheses based on understanding to causality and test their hypothesis.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS AT THE PRE-SCHOOL AND PRIMARY STAGE

1.      The teacher should familiarize himself with the theoretical and practical aspects of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

2.      The teacher should try to assess the level and type of thinking of each child in his class.

3.      Each child may be asked to perform some of the experiments as suggested by Piaget.

4.      The teacher should spend a lot of time in listening to each child’s reaction to the experiments.

5.      Plenty of equipment materials and opportunities should be given to children to learn on their own.

6.      For social interaction, group situations may be arranged so that children learn from each other.

7.      Learning experiences should be so arranged as they take into account the level of thinking of mental development attained by an individual or group.

8.      It should be kept in mind by the teachers that the children may e influenced by egocentric speech or thought.

     DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

         R.H. Havighurst (1953) has defined a development task in these words, “ A development task is a task which arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to his happiness and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness and difficulty with later tasks. “

      In simple words a development task may be explained as;

·         Every society or culture has certain norms.

·         Every society or culture expects its members to follow these norms.

·         These norms are in terms of certain essential skills.

·         Mastery over these skills leads to happiness and failure leads to unhappiness.

·         Skills are related to age groups.

·         Norms vary somewhat from one socioeconomic group to another.

List of developmental Tasks

1.      Birth to 6 years:

1.      Learning to walk

2.      Learning to take solid food

3.      Learning to talk

4.      Learning to control the elimination of body wastes

5.      Learning sex differences

6.      Achieving physiological stability

7.      Forming simple concepts of social and physical reality

8.      Learning to relate oneself emotionally to parents, siblings and other people

9.      Learning to distinguish right and wrong and developing a conscience

2.      6 to 12 years:

1.      Learning physical skills, ordinary games.

2.      Building wholesome attitudes towards oneself as a growing organism.

3.      Learning to get along with age-mates.

4.      Learning an appropriate sex role i.e. masculine or feminine role.

5.      Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating.

6.      Developing concepts necessary for everyday living.

7.      Developing conscience, morality and values.

8.      Achieving personal independence.

9.      Developing attitude towards social groups and institutions.

3.      Adolescence (13 to 18 years)

1.      Accepting one’s physique.

2.      Accepting a masculine or feminine role.

3.      Gaining emotional independence from parents and other adults.

4.      Establishing new relations with age-mates of both sexes.

5.      Achieving assurance of economic independence.

6.      Selecting and preparing for a vocation.

7.      Developing necessary concepts for civic competence.

8.      Developing intellectual skills.

9.      Developing socially acceptable behaviour.

10.  Preparing marriage and family life.

11.  Developing harmonious moral and scientific values.

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS OF CHILDHOOD

1.      Learning to walk.

2.      Learning to take solid food.

3.      Learning to talk.

4.      Learning to Control the elimination of body waste.

5.      Learning sex differences and sexual modesty.

6.      Getting ready to read.

7.      Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games.

8.      Building wholesome attitude forward oneself as a growing organism.

9.      Learning to get along with age-mates.

10.  Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role.

Social and emotional development of a child

What is social development?

1. Social development means investing in people. It requires the removal of barriers so that all citizens can journey toward their dreams with confidence and dignity. It is about refusing to accept that people who live in poverty will always be poor. It is about helping people so they can move forward on their path to self-sufficiency.
2. Every New Brunswicker must have the opportunity to grow, develop their own skills and contribute to their families and communities in a meaningful way. If they are healthy, well-educated and trained to enter the workforce and are able to make a decent wage they are better equipped to meet their basic needs and be successful. Their families will also do well and the whole of society will benefit. 

3. Social development is about improving the well-being of every individual in society so they can  

   reach their full potential. The success of society is linked to the well-being of each and every citizen. 

4. Social development refers to the process by which a child learns to interact with others around them.

5. Social development is most often refers to how a child develops friendships and other relationships,     as well how a child handles conflicts with peers.

 6. Healthy social development allows us to form positive relationships with family, friends, teachers, and other people in our lives.
 7. Social development refers to the process by which a child learns to interact with others around them. As they develop and perceive their own individuality within their community, they also gain skills to communicate with other people and process their actions. Social development most often refers to how a child develops friendships and other relationships, as well how a child handles conflict with peers.

Why is social development so important?
      Social development can actually impact many of the other forms of development a child experiences. A child’s ability to interact in a healthy way with the people around her can impact everything from learning new words as a toddler, to being able to resist peer pressure as a high school student, to successfully navigating the challenges of adulthood. Healthy social development can help your child:

1. Develop language skills. An ability to interact with other children allows for more opportunities to practice and learn speech and language skills. This is a positive cycle, because as communication skills improve, a child is better able to relate to and react to the people around him.
2. Build self-esteem. Other children provide a child with some of her most exciting and fun experiences. When a young child is unable to make friends it can be frustrating or even painful. A healthy circle of friends reinforces a child’s comfort level with her own individuality.
3. Strengthen learning skills. In addition to the impact social development can have on general communication skills, many researchers believe that having healthy relationships with peers (from preschool on up) allows for adjustment to different school settings and challenges. Studies show that children who have a hard time getting along with classmates as early as preschool are more likely to experience later academic difficulties.
4. Resolve conflicts. Stronger self-esteem and better language skills can ultimately lead to a better ability to resolve differences with peers.
5. Establish positive attitude. A positive attitude ultimately leads to better relationships with others and higher levels of self-confidence.

How can parents make a difference when it comes to social development?
    Everyday experiences with parents are fundamental to a child’s developing social skill-set. Parents provide a child with their very first opportunities to develop a relationship, communicate and interact. As a parent, you also model for your child every day how to interact with the people around you.

       Because social development is not talked about as much as some other developmental measures, it can be hard for parents to understand the process AND to evaluate how their child is developing in this area. There are some basic developmental milestones at every age, as well as some helpful tips a parent can use to support their child.

Emotional Development

1.       It refers to the recognize, express and manage feelings at different stages of life and to have empathy for the feelings of others.

--Which may include both positive and negative emotions.

--Largely affected by relationships with parents, siblings and peers.

2.       A tremendous amount of  and emotional development takes place during early childhood. As kids experience temper tantrums, mood swings, and an expanding social world, they must learn more about their emotions as well as those of other people.

Social and Emotional Development

           As parents, we all want our children to be healthy easier to tell if your child is development physically, but do you know if your child is developing the appropriate social and emotional skills? Supporting their emotional and social development is just as important as supporting their physical development.

1.          Social and emotional development is a child's ability to understand the feelings of others, control his or her own feelings and behaviors, get along with other children, and build relationships with adults.

2.       In order for children to develop the basic skills they need such as cooperation, following directions, demonstrating self-control and paying attention, they must have social-emotional skills.

Why is important for children to have positive social and emotional skills?

1. Having positive social and emotional skills is important throughout life and can have an impact on how they function at home, school and in the community.
2. When young children are faced with social, emotional or behavioural challenges it can impact their chances for school success and healthy relationships.
3. A child’s positive relationship with trusting and caring adults is the key to successful emotional and social development.

What can you as a caregiver do to support positive, social and emotional development? 

1.       Lead by example, by modeling positive behavior.

2.       Be affectionate.

3.       Be considerate of feelings, wants and needs.

4.       Express pride in accomplishments.

5.       Express interest in daily activities.

6.       Respect their viewpoints.

7.       Provide encouragement and support during time of stress.

Why Social And Emotional Development Is Important For Child?

1. Effective social and emotional skills in preschoolers can be related to successful completion of education, excellent performance in co-curricular activities and flourishing career opportunities in adulthood.

2. Positive social and emotional skills will impact the way a child functions at home, school and in the community.
3. Social, emotional or behavioural inabilities can impact the chances of academic success and development of healthy relationships.

Thus, a childhood with well-developed skills is a stepping stone to a successful adulthood and life ahead.

Development Of Social And Emotional Skills At Different Ages

Age	Social And Emotional Skills
Birth to 1 year	Babbles with expression and copies sounds Shows attachment to mother and other family members Shares toys with infants Plays games such as “peek-a-boo”
2 years	Temper tantrums Imitates peers Points to things or pictures when they are named
3 years	Initiates peer interactions Understands rules Shows a wide range of emotions Carries on a conversation using 2 to 3 sentences
4 years	Preferred friendship Elaborate fantasy play (e.g., ‘superhero’) Usually compliant to instructions
5 years	Plays away from parent Elaborate discussion of emotions Speaks very clearly

What are the key social and emotional skills?

   The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning has identified five core skills that are widely recognized as critical social-emotional skills:

•        Self-awareness is the ability to recognize your emotions and understand the links between emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

•        Self-management is the ability to regulate emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

•        Social awareness is the ability to take other’s perspectives and demonstrate empathy.

•        Relationship skills are the ability to build and maintain healthy relationships.

•        Responsible decision making is the ability to make good choices about your behavior and interactions with others.

Why are social-emotional skills important?

       Early social emotional skills are related to how socially; emotionally, academically and professionally skilled we are later in life. For example, having higher social-emotional skills in kindergarten are related to important outcomes at age 25 (Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). These outcomes include:

•        Educational success, such as completing a college degree

•        Career success, such as an increased likelihood of being employed

•        Other key life outcomes, such as being less likely to have problems with the police

Social-emotional skills help children to persist on challenging tasks, to effectively seek help when they need it and to be thoughtful in their actions.

Key points for supporting children’s emotional development

       Providing effective support for children’s emotional development starts with paying attention to their feelings and noticing how they manage them. By acknowledging children’s emotional responses and providing guidance, parents, carers and school staff can help children understand and accept feelings, and develop effective strategies for managing them. 

1. Tune into children’s feelings and emotions 

     Some emotions are easily identified, while others are less obvious. Tuning into children’s emotions involves looking at their body language, listening to what they are saying and how they are saying it, and observing their behaviour. This allows you to respond more effectively to children’s needs and to offer more specific guidance to help children manage their emotions. 

2. Help children recognise and understand emotions

     Taking opportunities to talk with children and teach them about emotions helps children to become more aware of their own emotions as well as those of others. Encouraging children to feel comfortable with their emotions and providing them with practice in talking about their feelings helps children to further develop ways to manage their emotions. 

3. Set limits on inappropriate expression of emotions

      It is very important for children to understand that it is okay to have a range of emotions and feelings, but that there are limits to the ways these should be expressed. While acknowledging children’s emotions, it is therefore very important to set limits on aggressive, unsafe or inappropriate behaviours. 

4. Be a role model

        Children learn about emotions and how to express them appropriately by watching others – especially parents, careers and school staff. Showing children the ways you understand and manage emotions helps children learn from your example. This includes examples of saying: “Sorry, I lost my temper” (because no parent is perfect!) and then showing how you might make amends. 

When it comes to child development, feelings matter. Everyone feels overwhelmed at times but some children can react more strongly to everyday experiences than others. For this reason, it can be useful to understand how temperament affects feelings. Young children especially need adults to help them in developing coping skills for managing emotions. A great way to help children with their emotions is to role-model talking about emotions and being calm.

       This can be especially helpful when supporting children around fear and worries. Everyone gets scared, and children can get scared for all sorts of reasons. Very young children are often afraid of imaginary things like monsters hiding under the bed. Older children usually fear real things that might happen, like being hurt.  All children need reassurance and support so they can learn to cope with fear and worries on their own.

      Older children can also benefit from understanding the relationship between coping with fears and helpful self-talk. Making sense of older children s emotions requires tuning in, reflecting back to them what you’re noticing and asking open-ended questions. Helping children to manage feelings builds emotional self-awareness and can also help children to understand how thinking affects feelings.

Developing emotional skills

Skills needed	Children with beginning skills	Children with developing skills	Children with more developed skills
Emotional self-awareness	tend to have one emotion at a time act out how they feel flip between one emotion to another quickly	start to understand that they can have more than one emotion in reaction to the same event as long as they are similar (e.g. happy and excited)	understand that they can have opposite feelings to the same situation (e.g. feel both happy and sad that the school year is ending)
Recognising other people’s emotions	rely on physical clues to identify emotions (e.g. tears = sadness)	Take into account clues from the situation to help explain the emotion (eg understand that a child might be sad because his/her toy has been broken.)	have a more complex understanding of the interaction between emotions, situations and people (eg the child is sad because the thing that was broken was a gift from a loved grandparent who died recently)
Emotion regulation – i.e. the ability to manage emotions effectively	are able to use simply ways to manage emotions with support from adults (e.g. choose a different activity to distract them from feeling frustrated)	are increasingly able to choose appropriate behavioural responses (e.g. asks and waits for assistance with difficult task)	are increasingly able to manage emotions by rethinking own goals and motives (e.g. decide that there is no point being angry about something he or she can’t change)

Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

      A tremendous amount of social and emotional development takes place during early childhood. As kids experience temper tantrums, mood swings, and an expanding social world, they must learn more about their emotions as well as those of other people.

Emotions and Social Experiences of Early Childhood

       Throughout the toddler years, temper tantrums are quite common. There's a good reason why people often refer to this stage as the "terrible two's"! Toddlers tend to have rapid mood swings. While their emotions can be very intense, these feelings also tend to be quite short-lived. You might be stunned at how your child can go from screaming hysterically about a toy he wants at one moment to sitting in front of the television quietly watching his favorite show just moment later.

      Children at this age can be very possessive and have difficulty sharing. Learning to get along with other children is an essential skill, however. In just a few short years, your child will go from spending most of his time with family and close friends to spending large chunk of his day interacting, learning, and playing with other kids at school.

     In fact, researchers have found emotional development and social skills are essential for school readiness. Examples of such abilities include paying attention to adult figures, transitioning easily from one activity to the next, and cooperating with other kids.

Helping Kids Develop Social and Emotional Skills

      So how can you help your child learn how to play well with others? Social competence not only involves the ability to cooperate with peers; it also includes such things as the ability to show empathy, express feelings, and share generously. Fortunately, there are plenty of things that you can do to help your kids develop these all-important social and emotional skills.

       Modeling appropriate behaviors is essential. Observation plays a vital role in how young children learn new things. If your child sees you sharing, expressing gratitude, being helpful, and sharing feelings, your child will have a good solid understanding of how to interact with other people outside the home. You can model these responses in your own household with both your child and other members of the family. Every time you say "please" or "thank you," you are demonstrating how you would like your children to behave.

        Most importantly, be sure to offer praise when your children demonstrate good social behaviors. Reinforcement not only makes young children feel good about themselves, it helps them understand why certain behaviors are desirable and worthy of praise. Helping your children feel good about themselves also plays an important role in developing a sense of empathy and emotional competence. By creating a positive climate where children are allowed to share their feelings, children will naturally begin to become more generous and thoughtful.

Social and emotional development with special reference to diverse Social & Economic background

   Parental support with children’s learning is considered to be one pathway through which socio- economic factors influence child competencies.  Irrespective of socio-economic status, parents eng aged with various learning activities (except reading) roughly equally. The socio-economic factors i.e., family income and maternal educational qualifications, were found to have a stronger effect on children’s language/literacy than on social- emotional competence. Socio-economic disadvantage, lack of maternal educational qualifications in particular, remained powerful in influencing competencies in children aged three and at the start of primary school.

      The effects of socio-economic disadvantage on children’s development have been explained through parents’ decisions about how to allocate a range of resources, for example money, time and energy (investment model). The amount of money parents spend on children (e.g. purchasing books, toys) and the time they spend with them in joint activities (e.g. reading books) are considered investments that have the potential to enhance children’s cognitive skills and language and emergent literacy. The investment model often explains the link between family income and children’s cognitive and linguistic development, whereas the link between socio- economic disadvantage and children’s behavioural functioning is explained through the impact of poverty on parental skills and capabilities and has been found to be modest.

          Parental investment in the form of home learning is associated with children’s early linguistic and cognitive development and emergent literacy, which are precursors to school success, especially in reading. Literacy-rich environments where pre-school children have access to books and other print materials and parents engage with them in age-appropriate learning opportunities contribute positively to child literacy and language and emotional and behavioural regulation. Beyond reading, parents engage their children in activities such as reciting rhymes and songs, telling stories m and teaching the alphabet, numbers and letters.

Socio-economic factors and parental involvement with home learning

   In general, across socio-economic groups, small differences were found in the number of parents involved with their children in helping with homework (e.g. writing), teaching the alphabet and songs/rhymes and telling stories and playing music. Across family income and educational qualifications groups, the number of parents involved with these learning activities was roughly equal.

      Across socio-economic groups, over three-quarters of parents engaged in learning activities with their children daily or several times a week, with a small number of parents engaging with home learning less frequently or not at all.

Does family’s social background matter?

        Family income and maternal educational qualifications yielded modest to moderate effects on social adjustment and moderate to strong effects on language/literacy. Specifically, children with educated parents (degree level or vocational equivalent) were on average about six months ahead in language/literacy compared to their peers whose parents did not have any educational qualifications.

       The socio-economic risk factors were found to have a stronger effect on children’s language/literacy than on social competence, suggesting that their influence is specific to child competencies. Moreover, the socio-economic factors exerted a differential effect. For language/literacy, income had a moderate effect, whereas maternal educational qualifications yielded a strong effect. A similar pattern was found regarding social competence, with income and educational qualifications yielding a modest and a moderate effect, respectively.