Cognitive Development of Infants & Young Children

Question: Discuss your understanding of the developmental milestones to discuss how you would address the "movement as a basic need" in an early childhood education environment. Describe which resources need to be available to plan these physical experiences for children 0-8 years. Answer: A thorough understanding of the milestone development facilitates an ongoing process of learning to the child and integration of the movement as a basic need in a child education. Movement constitutes one of the essential aspects of every child's life. All the interaction of a child entails movement. Child development researchers agree that every child progress through given developmental locomotor stages. However, some children achieve these developmental stages than others due to their different rate of development. The significance of motor activities to children, therefore, makes movement an essential component of the early childhood education environment. Teachers and parents therefore should encourage motor activities that will enhance full participation in the class as well as movement that enable the child to acquire new skills. The paper inquires on how movement is a basic need in an early childhood education environment. Further, the paper will describe the resources necess ary to plan the physical experience for children between 0-8 years. Movement contributes significantly to the development of a child, not only physically but in other areas such as in communication, social, emotions and in the intellectual development. The integral development of a child, therefore, can be well founded if they are oriented in all these areas of development from their tender age. Motor activities act as the simple foundation to develop all these aspects. During involvement in the minor motor activities children skills in communication, cognitive, social, and emotional are sharpened and applied. This illustration indicates that the benefits children derive from movements during the early childhood education are immense. Some of the motor activities children can be engaged in include dance and music, physical fitness, cooperative games or individual and group activities. In childhood education environment dance and music can involve acts such singing and dancing to the familiar children tunes. Other motor activities may require specific types of equipment to ensure a meaningful physical experience (Rivkin, 2006). Motor activities in childhood education setup are intended to inculcate a given skills, therefore, require resources. Some of the resources needed to instill important skill to children between 0-8 years include skipping rope which is essential for physical fitness. By use of a skipping rope children may involve in activities such as jumping, twisting, and simple stretching. Other pieces of equipment which are essential may include bean bags, air mattresses, tires, balloons, beam balances, tunnels, and balls. The named equipment are necessary for facilitating motor skills such as jumping, walking, and running as well as enhancing ball skills. The availability of the above resources ensures children are involved in simple and singular activities in nature. Efforts must be made to minimize competition in the movement while attempting the activity is emphasized over exactness of the movement (Bulman Savory, 2006). In conclusion, all children in early childhood education environment should be allowed the opportunities to engage in motor activities. The movement activities have been proven helpful to children and especially in developing essential skills in life. It is worthy to note that during motor activities, the child develops to form an integral human being who is well developed socially, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. References Bulman, K., Savory, L. (2006). BTEC First: Children's Care Learning and Development. Pearson Education Limited. Developmental Charts. [Online] Available at: https://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ect/behavior_development/dev_charts.htm, [Accessed 13 September 2016]. Understanding Children's Development. [Online] Available at:https://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/Childcare/BTEC/ BTECFirstChildrensCareLearningandDevelop/Samples/SampleMaterial/UCD%20Unit%201.pdf. [Accessed 13 September 2016]. Rivkin, M. S. (2006). Cover Story: Let's Move Together!. Early Childhood Today (1), 20(6), 32- 38. Significant child development milestones. . [Online] Available at: https://www.growingchild.com/milestones.html. [Accessed 13 September 2016].