CHAPTER ONE : THE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT.
1.1. The stages of the child's physical growth.
1.1.0. Introduction.
The development of physico-psychological tendencies at the
early ages casts lights into the future. Any educator will do well to study
these formative years; because he may have an important part in shaping the
development of children under his responsibility. Second, because he can only
understand a person as he is now by knowing what went on before. Finally,
because he will have children whose development was harmed and who will need
skillful help and guidance to make them grow up in school matters.
Children's growth has always been looked into in five stages.
Kamanyula (1987:3), quoting Debesse, M. (1971:36) says that :
" The period of childhood may be
divided
Into five stages :the neo-natal
period
(from birth to about one month),
infancy
(from one month to two years), middle
childhood
(from six to nine years) and
preadolescence
(from nine years to puberty) that ushers
in adolescence. "
Given that this work is about chidren from the age between six
months and six years (seventy-two months), the stages before and after the
ones mentioned in this paragraph do not interest us. The development in
childhood between the following stages is, then, the interest of this
section :
- from six to twelve months,
- from twelve to thirty-six months,
- from thirty-six to seventy-two months.
1.1.1. From six to twelve months (0 : 6-1 :00)
This period is crucial for the growth of a child. At
about six months, in fact, as his mind and mouth muscles develop, a child
manifests four important characteristics.
The first is the tendency to bite everything. At the beginning
of the second term (at the age of four months), children growing up normally
manifest traces of the first teeth. Indeed, these make the child suffer even if
they are an indication of a positive development. At this time, the child
experiences for the first time the pleasure of using his teeth to attain
everything. With them, he also tries to bite and destroy whatever he gets in
contact with. These teeth also help him defend himself by, for example, using
them to tell his caretaker not to carry him. So, this period is said to be the
one at which the child puts everything in his mouth. It is, therefore, called "
the active oral age " .
The second characteristic is the recognition of other people
as different and unique. In fact, the person a child recognises is his mother.
For him, mother is someone very different and unique, and who cannot be
replaced by any other person. To lose her is like losing an entire life.
At the age of seven or eight months, the child recognises
totally his mother, better than by mere instinct. He now knws by experience
that she is the woman to whom he is affectionally linked and that no other
woman equals her.
Being the only one person to give maximum warmth and
tenderness to her child, mother makes him enjoy her affection. She is,for that
reason, obliged to stay with her child all the time. If she can happen to
abandon him for a while, it creates anguish and distress in him. In this
respect, it is clear that a child of this age never wishes to separate with his
mother.
First self-image is the third characteristic. Language,
pictures, photographs,.....and the mirror may help children form an image of
themselves. This image may be positive or negative according to how his
neighbourhood considers their personality. Then, children will probably grow up
thinking of themselves as beautiful, intelligent, proud, ugly, stupid in case
they hear people addressing them repeatedly as « Yolande wa
kiana... » ( How beautiful you are, Yolande...),« Ona lu
kichwa!» (How big is your head ! ), etc...
The fourth characteristic is that at this age, the child
produces his first sounds as his mind and mouth muscles develop. We will fully
develop this idea in the second section concerning language development in the
child, especially at the babbling stage.
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