Preschool children between the ages of 2 and 6 undergo rapid changes. Children become sponges as they interact with and make sense of their surrounding world through playing, socializing and copying learned behaviors. Bouncing off the walls, climbing on furniture and using their new skills are only part of early childhood development.
Physical
Between the ages of 2 and 6, baby fat disappears and turns into muscle. Your child gets slimmer, and her lower body lengthens. Children grow rapidly during early childhood. According to "The Developing Person," children add an average of 3 inches and gain about 4-1/2 pounds between the ages of 2 and 6. The average 6-year-old is 46 pounds and 46 inches.
Diet
With the rapid growth, it's important for children to eat a balanced diet. Most children get plenty of calories in their diet. However, many children don't get enough calcium and iron. According to the website Keep Kids Healthy, preschool children require 10mg of iron and 500mg to 800mg of calcium a day. Fresh foods are the best sources of these nutrients.
Emotional Control
Immaturity of the prefrontal cortex causes young children to be impulsive and get stuck in one thought or emotion for a long time. According to "The Developing Person," as the prefrontal cortex matures, a child also sleeps more regularly, throws fewer tantrums, is better able to control laughter and crying, and targets emotions to a specific stimuli. According to the University of Maine, you can encourage emotional control by responding to a child's needs in a friendly manner, modeling appropriate interactions, acknowledging a child's feelings and rewarding positive behaviors.
Cognitive Development
According to "The Developing Person," children between the ages of 2 and 6 exhibit preoperational intelligence, which includes overgeneralizing, irreversibility, egocentrism and static reasoning. Young children tend to focus on one fact while ignoring others. Young children also tend to focus a lot of their attention on how things appear. Irreversibility occurs when a child cannot understand that something that has changed can be brought back to its original state. For example, a young child might cry if you turn off a DVD, not realizing when you turn the DVD back on it will resume at the same spot. According to High Reach Learning, you can encourge cognitive development by reading to young children daily, labelng objects and activities, and allowing children to explore.
Language
The more a child uses language, the more she can learn. Young children talk to themselves as well as to others. The combination of these methods allows children to develop ideas, learn numbers, follow routines and recall memories. Adult instruction and verbal motivation are important in developing cognitive abilities of a young child. According to "What to Expect: The Toddler Years," grammar can be difficult for young children, and most children mispronounce consonants and make several grammatical errors well into their fourth year or longer. Young children often overgeneralize the rules of language. For example, they add an "s" to the end of all plural words or "ed" to all past tense phrases. As with cognitive development, reading to a child daily can greatly assist in langauge development.
References
- "The Developing Person: Through the Life Span"; Berger, K.S.; 2008
- Keep Kids Healthy: Nutrition for Preschooler Children
- "What to Expect the Toddler Years"; Murkoff, Eisenberg & Hathaway; 2008
- University of Maine: Social-Emotional Development in Young Children
- High Reach Learning: Cognitive Development of Infants and Toddlers
