Human Development Chapters

Chapter 8: The Preschool Years: Early Childhood Emotional and Social Development Chapter Review Book Title: An Advanced Lifespan Odyssey for Counseling Professionals Printed By: Dwight Woods ([email protected]) © 2017 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

Chapter Review

Summary

Erikson is pivotal to our understanding of children’s psychosocial development. Erikson’s stage theory spans the lifespan and is composed of eight stages that have specific tasks or crises that must be resolved. Preschool children fall into the initiative versus guilt stage, wherein children begin to develop interests and independent activities. Failure to successfully resolve this stage will result in guilt.

Alfred Adler’s individual psychology theory has contributed a great deal to our understanding of children and families. Adler viewed behavior as goal directed and purposeful and believed that people wanted to belong. Adler’s four goals of misbehavior (i.e., attention, power, revenge, and inadequacy) provide a helpful conceptualization for understanding why children misbehave. Adler’s concept of birth order provides insight into child behavior; however, Adler cautioned that perceived psychological order matters most, not just the order of birth.

Family systems theory postulates that children should be viewed within the context of multiple systems, including family of birth, extended family, community, and the larger society. Families should be defined in a broad manner, and it should be understood that there are many different types of family configurations. Within these various types of families, there is a progression across the lifespan with special challenges at each stage. Families with young children face challenges related to the time and energy put forth in caring for children. The degree to which a family has cohesion and flexibility can indicate the overall health of the family system and the family’s ability to cope with stress and developmental change.

Emotional development begins to occur during early childhood as children develop more advanced language skills. Identifying and understanding emotions leads to emotional competence and self-regulation. A significant emotional competency is the development of empathy. Self-regulation is important as growing children learn how to manage anger in a pro-social manner and deal with fear.

Very little research has been conducted regarding mental disorders in early childhood, but the rate of psychotropic medication use in preschoolers is on the rise. Common diagnoses in preschoolers include ADHD, ODD, CD, depression, and anxiety. Diagnostic criteria should be adapted to fit this unique population. Another issue facing young children is abuse and neglect. Mandated reporters should be aware of signs of abuse and neglect and should report suspected abuse to child protective services.

The social development of a child occurs in many ways. When a child is born, the most important characteristic that is communicated by parents is the child’s sex. There are various theoretical approaches to understanding sex and gender role socialization, including biological, psychoanalytic, behavioral, cognitive, and interpretivist approaches. It is important to realize the impact of the complex intersection between gender, race, and SES when exploring the socialization of the preschool child.

School and day care settings are major aspects of child socialization. These settings include child care in the home, family child care, and child care centers. How a child is parented is also a critical aspect of their social development. Parenting styles include authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. Children socialize through play and friendships. Play is their work, and social skills aimed at accessing play groups and making friends are critical to child development.

Chapter 8: The Preschool Years: Early Childhood Emotional and Social Development Chapter Review Book Title: An Advanced Lifespan Odyssey for Counseling Professionals Printed By: Dwight Woods ([email protected]) © 2017 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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