Child Development Analysis: Cognitive, Affective, Language & Social Aspects

Posted on Aug 6, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

Cognitive Development

Preoperational Stage (Approximately 2-7 Years Old)

Egocentricism:

Sometimes appears absorbed in their own world and may not respond to questions directly.
Focuses intently on the interview process (this behavior is expected to decrease with age, ideally by around 4 years old).
Engages in storytelling and readily discusses personal experiences.
Provides specific details in their narratives and uses gestures to convey age accurately.

Intuitive Thinking (Typical of 4-6 Year Olds):

Demonstrates more realistic and logical thinking in scenarios like understanding that injuries require a doctor’s visit.
Engages in fantasy play, such as stories about monsters, which reflects common childhood fears and the use of magical thinking (more prevalent in children under 4).

Pre-Conceptual Thinking:

Exhibits the development of schemas (mental frameworks that organize information based on specific variables) around the age of 4. For instance, the child has a schema for “birthday” that includes cake, presents, and playing with parents.
While able to describe going to the doctor and getting a shot, struggles to organize this information logically, indicating the ongoing development of logical reasoning.
Shows a clearer understanding of the “birthday” schema, suggesting a more developed schema compared to other experiences.
Uses basic categorization, such as grouping items like clothes together, demonstrating early conceptual understanding (typical of children over 4).

Attention and Memory:

Attention span is expectedly unstable, fluctuating between focal, selective, and sustained attention.
Memory recall is limited, as is typical for this age.

Affective Development

Erikson’s Stage of Initiative vs. Guilt:

The child’s aggressive eating habits and intense crying, particularly when disciplined, suggest a potential struggle with guilt and the fear of causing harm or doing wrong.
Experiences nightmares and expresses fear of monsters and the dark, common fears around the age of 2.
Displays difficulty regulating emotions, particularly aggression, as seen in the juice incident. By age 4, children typically begin to contextualize emotions better.
Can differentiate some emotions in themselves and others (e.g., anger, crying, feeling bad, fear), a characteristic of preschoolers.
By age 3, children should start differentiating between parents as separate individuals and understand that their actions can affect others. The child’s behavior suggests potential insecurity due to perceived parental unavailability and lack of validation for their feelings.
The child’s focus on exploration might be a way of avoiding emotional engagement, a possible sign of insecure attachment.

Emotional Development:

Presents a disorganized narrative with contradictory feelings, such as expressing distress about the monster eating them while also downplaying parental care, indicating potential emotional confusion.
Self-esteem is likely multidimensional, encompassing various developmental areas (academic, relationships). Based on the observations, it could be low.
Appears to be in the process of resolving the Oedipus Complex, a normal developmental stage involving internalization of societal rules (superego) and gender identification.
Engages in gender-stereotypical play (e.g., cooking, weaving), reflecting early gender role identification.

Language Development

Phonological and Articulation Development:

Difficulty with consonant clusters and article omission, which should typically resolve by age 4.
Letter substitutions (e.g., “r” for “d”) are also observed, which should be mastered around age 4.
Uses assimilation and simplification strategies in speech.

Syntactic and Discourse Development:

Limited use of connectors in sentences, leading to occasional illogical speech patterns.
Demonstrates the ability to construct complex sentences by joining simpler ones, indicating developing syntactic skills.
Engages in contextualized discourse, adapting language to different situations.
Successfully uses various discourse genres, such as storytelling, demonstrating an understanding of narrative structure (characters, plot, etc.).

Social Development

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development:

Operates within the preconventional level of morality, recognizing good and bad behavior based on external consequences (e.g., crying because parents are angry).
Displays heteronomous morality, believing that rules are absolute and externally imposed.
Recognizes parental authority but this recognition should become more contextualized by age 4.

Play and Social Interaction:

Engages in parallel play, typical of younger children (2-3 years old), where they play alongside others without direct interaction.
Demonstrates pretend play, showcasing imagination and sociodramatic skills.
Shows emerging theory of mind (ToM) abilities, recognizing the emotions and needs of others as distinct from their own (e.g., understanding that parents are angry with Paula because of the juice).

Video Analysis: Cognitive, Language, Psychomotor, and Affective Development

Cognitive Development:

Symbolic Thought: Capable of representing reality through symbols, a hallmark of Piaget’s preoperational stage, which typically emerges after 6 and a half years old.
Object Conservation: Understands that objects remain the same despite changes in their appearance (e.g., a spoon is still a spoon even if it’s turned).
Object Differentiation: Differentiates objects based on physical properties and functions, using knowledge of familiar categories (e.g., bucket vs. chalk/pencil), a skill developed after the first year.
Spatial Recognition: Demonstrates spatial awareness by navigating a table with various objects and continuing to play there, a milestone reached around 12 months.
Attention: Exhibits voluntary attention, a more controlled form of attention.
Memory: Shows signs of implicit memory, where experiences and responses are stored unconsciously and activated by familiar stimuli, a type of memory prominent up to 2 years old.

Language and Communication:

Intentionality: Communicates desires and uses adults as means to achieve goals, demonstrating proto-imperative behaviors (6-12 months). While expecting a specific outcome, the understanding of cause and effect is not fully developed yet.
Intersubjectivity: Shows secondary intersubjectivity, understanding that others have different intentions and perspectives.
Verbal Self-Regulation: Uses language to organize thoughts and actions, sharing goals and intentions with others.
Pronoun Use: Uses pronouns like “my” and “self” from around 2 years old.
Body Schema: Distinguishes body parts, indicating a developing body schema, a crucial element of identity formation. This understanding is more functional than representational at this stage.
Joint Attention: Shares joint attention with the evaluator and mother during play, demonstrating social engagement and shared focus.
Holophrastic Speech: Uses single words (holophrases) and gestures to express complex ideas (around 12 months).
Overextension: Exhibits overextension, using a single word to represent a broader category (e.g., using “chalk” for both chalk and pencils), a common language error around 14 months.

Psychomotor Development:

Fine Motor Skills: Demonstrates fine motor control by using tweezers (around 12 months).
Gross Motor Skills: Shows coordination and independence in movements, such as building a tower and walking alone without support (around 12 months). Movements might still appear slightly unsteady.
Cephalocaudal and Proximodistal Development: Follows the typical developmental patterns of cephalocaudal (head-to-toe) and proximodistal (center-to-outward) development.

Affective Development:

Emotional Regulation: Exhibits poorly controlled and labile emotions, often expressing needs through tears and aggression (typical of 2-year-olds).
Attachment: While showing affection towards the mother, the child’s exploration when the mother is absent suggests a potential need for a more secure attachment style.
Temperament: Presents a somewhat difficult temperament, displaying stubbornness when desires are not met. Further observation is needed to assess distractibility, task persistence, concentration, and relationship-building skills.