Stages of Child Development Three to Six years and Six to Eight Years

9
Notes

STAGES OF CHILD
DEVELOPMENT:
THREE TO SIX YEARS
AND
SIX TO EIGHT YEARS

As children reach the age of bracket of three to six years, they get ready to be
placed in preschools. Perhaps this is the reason why at this stage, they are at
times said to be in the preschool stage. Thereafter, as children reach the age
range of six to eight years, they are considered to be in the Early Primary stage.
In the last lesson, you have learnt about the journey of a growing foetus, birth
and infancy. You have also read about the developmental path and milestones
from birth to three years. In the present lesson, you will know about the pattern
of development in different domains during the preschool stage and the early
primary stage.
Let us study about these in detail.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this lesson, you will be able to:
• explain the developmental characteristics and needs of three to six year-
old children;
• describe the pattern of development in relation to milestones in different
areas in three to six year old children;
• describe the pattern of child development in different areas during six
to eight years;
• describe the characteristics and developmental needs of children in age
the bracet of six to eight years; and
• discuss the importance of play in the development of children.
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9.1 DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN DURING AGES THREE TO

SIX YEARS
Pre-school age is the time for achieving muscle development and coordination, Notes
and also to build abilities to think and speak. Their power of observation, memory
and verbal skills improves rapidly. This aids in better understanding and adapting
themselves to the world around them. During preschool years, children learn
essential life skills like dressing up and feeding themselves and thus grow
independent in a number of ways. This is also the time when children learn to
separate from parents and family in preparation for school.
The sections that follow describe physical-motor, socio-emotional, cognitive
and language development of preschool children.

9.1.1 Physical and Motor Development

Children in the age group of three to six years grow slower than infants but
their growth is rather steady. The growth made by them in muscle development
and coordination ensures that they can physically do a lot of things that
previously they were unable to achieve. Generally, three to six year old children
gain about four to five pounds per year and grow approximately two to three
inches per year. Now, they need less sleep than they did. At this stage, children’s
muscular and skeletal growth progresses and they become physically stronger.
The capacity of their respiratory, circulatory and excretory system develops and
this promotes development of an array of motor skills in them. Since their eye-
hand coordination improves, this gives them an edge at engaging in a number
of tasks such as running, throwing, skipping and jumping. Along with these
gross motor skills that require large muscles, they also become efficient in using
their fine motor skills that require engagement of their fine muscles. Since now
they are able to use their fine muscles with precision, it makes them skilled
at drawing with crayons, use a spoon to feed themselves, button their clothes
and tie shoelaces. You must have also observed that the walls of a pre-schooler’s
home are often coloured with crayon marks. This is because children during
this age can physically coordinate and pull themselves up to the wall and use
fine motor muscles to stroke the wall with crayons. Some of the gross and fine
motor skills attained in this age are:

Gross Motor Development

• Becoming more skilled at running, jumping, throwing, kicking
• Catching a bounced ball
• Pedalling a tricycle at around three years; becoming able to steer well at
around age four years

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• Hopping on one foot at around four years, and later balancing on one foot
for up to five seconds
Notes • Doing a heel-to-toe walk at around age five years

Fine Motor Development

• Drawing a circle, square, triangle
• Beginning to use children’s blunt-tip scissors and eventually cutting a straight
line
• Self-dressing with supervision
• Putting on clothes properly
• Managing a spoon and fork neatly while eating
• Spreading with a knife

9.1.2 Socio-emotional Development

Children’s understanding about themselves, their feeling and how they sustain
relationships with others are a part of their socio-emotional development. Pre-
schoolers often wonder 'who they are'. This is the first question to entangle the
mystery of self. Our self-concept is constituted by who we are; how we see our
abilities; what characteristics we use to describe ourselves.
In toddlerhood, children develop self-awareness. As children reach pre-
school age, their descriptions about themselves become more detailed and
comprehensive. They are now able to associate a number of characteristics that
define them. They mostly focus on observable, concrete and physical
characteristics about themselves. They often talk about their name, what they
possess, their toys and their family members when they describe themselves.
They also mention the achievements of these ages like, "I run fast".
This is also an age where gender identity takes shape. Children of this age are
able to classify themselves as male or female and show preferences for wearing
clothes and dressing appropriate for their own gender. They use gender
appropriate language and their play also tends to reflect gendered practices.
Preschoolers learn social skills needed to play and work with other children.
As time passes, although four to five year olds may start playing games with
rules, their rules are likely to change and they are able to cooperate better with
peers.
Children at preschool age start understanding their own emotions and can talk
about their feelings. They understand that emotions may be aroused under certain

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conditions and they are now able to express and verbalise their emotions. They
have a vocabulary of words associated with emotions. It is worthwhile mentioning
that at this stage, they may not be able to name and understand complex emotions Notes
and hence may need assistance from parents and other adults in managing their
emotions. During experiences that bring on aggression or shame, they may not
know how to act.
According to Erikson (1950), this is the stage when children want to take
initiative in planning and doing things for themselves. Being able to do that
brings positive feelings in children, but if children are constantly stopped from
doing things on their own, they may develop guilt within themselves and this
may be detrimental to their growing sense of self.
Some of the socio-emotional skills of preschoolers are :
• describing oneself
• emerging concept of self
• talking about one’s feelings and emotions
• complex emotions such as guilt, shame and pride emerge
• telling stories and narrating events
• display initiative, curiosity and exploration

9.1.3 Cognitive Development

Preschoolers are often filled with questions about the world around them. They
may sometimes apply rudimentary logic and at times may look confused about
particular situations. The preschooler's growing awareness about the world
around them, their logics and insights present to us the gateway to their minds.
In this section, you will read how development of cognition takes place in pre-
schoolers and how their growing cognitive abilities make them understand the
world around them.
The complexity of children’s thoughts increase considerably by the end of infancy
and at the beginning of pre-school. You have read in an earlier lesson that
according to Jean Piaget, the period between two and seven years of age is
termed as pre-operational stage. At this stage, their thinking is illogical, rigid
and unsystematic. One of the abilities that develops is their ability to engage
in symbolic thought i.e. they no more need to be in actual contact with an object,
person or event in order to think about it. In fact, they can imagine about an
object or person and use their representational abilities to remember and
conclude about the properties of that object or person.

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Symbolic Function: Preschoolers make and register an image of an item in their

mind and even in the absence of any sensory cues from their environment, and
Notes they can still remember about them. They have an ability to name these objects
using symbols such as words and numbers.
Spatial Thinking: Children in this age group become better at understanding
spatial relationships. They can understand that a picture represents something
that is not present but may exist. However, they may not be able to correctly
understand the relationship between the picture and the actual object.
Causality: Children at this stage are able to think about causes of familiar
events. They can comprehend that all living things grow in size when they
receive nutrition. They reach such reasoning by their observation of the natural
environment coupled with what they hear from their parents and others about
such events. However, they cannot yet reason logically about the cause and
effect. They may link two events that occur close together in time or space to
be related as cause and effect. For example, just because the preschooler had
a bad thought just before the sibling fell sick, a preschooler may relate the
negative thoughts with sibling falling ill.
Categorisation and Identities: Categorisation refers to the children’s ability
to identify similarities and differences in objects. Children at this stage have not
yet fully mastered this but they may classify objects as good, bad, friend, non-
friend, edible, inedible, utensil, furniture and so forth.
In addition to that, they may attribute life-like characteristics to non-living
objects and assume them to be living. This cognitive limitation was termed
animism by Piaget.
You have studied in the lesson, 'Domains of Development' that preschool children
develop a better understanding of identities i.e. they understand that objects
remain the same even if they change their physical appearance or form and size.
This helps them to see the order and predictability in the world around them.
But preschoolers’ understanding of identities is not fully developed. They lack
the ability to conserve. They may believe that out of two rows of coins, a longer
looking row of coins has more coins (conservation of number); when a stick
is placed ahead of the other, even when the two stick are of same length,
preschool children may believe that one is longer than the other. They also focus
their thought on only one aspect of a situation and are not able to take into
account three to four aspects of a situation simultaneously.
Egocentrism: You have already studied that according to Piaget, preschool
children centre on their own viewpoint and cannot understand another person’s
perspective. To study this, Piaget designed a Three Mountain task, where a doll

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was placed opposite to where the child was sitting and the child was asked
questions about how the things would appear or look to the doll. Piaget found
that the children did not respond as to how the things would appear to the doll. Notes
Instead, they answered from their own perspective and imagined things from
their own viewpoint. This is called egocentrism.
With age, children’s cognitive abilities expand further and they are able to
overcome the cognitive limitations to this stage.
Let us now try to understand development of language abilities in preschool
children.

9.1.4 Language Development, Communication and Emergent Literacy

As stated earlier in this lesson, pre-schoolers are full of questions. Asking questions
is not merely a function of growing cognitive abilities but is also made possible
by growing language competencies that children acquire. Vocabularies of pre
school children expand in this age and they are able to understand and use words
in everyday talk much easily. Preschoolers also quickly understand the meaning
of any difficult word that they hear for the first time. This is called fast mapping.
It helps them to learn new words rather quickly. They also have a natural
tendency to understand how words can be combined to form meaningful
sentences.
By pre-school age, most children are able to combine two to three words into
sentences. They show a growing awareness of the rules to form sentences. At
three, they begin to use plurals, possessives and the past tense. They are able
to appreciate the usage of words like, I, me, you and we and use them
appropriately during their everyday conversations.
Children at this stage also become competent in pragmatics, i.e. the practical
usage of language. They know how to speak with whom. They become skilled
with the social side of language. They also become proficient in understanding
social rules and practically using long sentences to make demands, tell a story
and so forth. They become receptive to social cues while communicating. If they
seem to feel that other people cannot understand what they are saying, then they
tend to repeat themselves or explain themselves differently.
All children do not follow a regular developmental trajectory. Some children
may have delayed language development. Adequate language inputs in the early
years of life help children achieve milestones of language development.
Some of the language competencies of pre-schoolers are:

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• Using pronouns and prepositions appropriately

• Making three-word simple sentences
Notes
• Signifying size relationships eg. small, big
• Following a three step command
• Counting until 10
• Naming four colours
• Enjoying rhymes and word play
• Responding to “why” questions
• Talking to oneself

INTEXT QUESTIONS 9.1

Fill in the blanks.
(a) Attributing life-like characteristics to non-living objects is called
....................... .
(b) ....................... refers to children’s ability to identify similarities and
differences in objects.
(c) Preschoolers quickly understand the meaning of any difficult word that
they hear for the first time, from the context of the sentences. This is
called......................
(d) ....................... deals with practical usage of language.

9.2 DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN DURING SIX TO EIGHT

YEARS
Middle childhood brings many changes in the lives of children. Physical, social
and cognitive skills develop rapidly at this time. In terms of cognitive capacities,
they are now able to remember and memorise more. This time is critical for
children to develop confidence in all areas of life and attain independence and
industry. Developing independence from family becomes more important now.
During this period, children come into regular contact with the larger world
outside. Friendships become more important and peers start playing a very
crucial role.
Let us now study the developmental milestones of the early primary stage.

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9.2.1 Physical Development and Motor Development

At this age, children grow about one to three inches per year. They start gaining
weight faster at the age of eight to nine years. Their large muscles including Notes
those of arms and legs are more developed than small muscles. At this stage,
children engage in a lot of physical play. They can bounce a ball and run, but
it is difficult to do both at the same time.

Fig. 9.1 Children at Play

Some of the physical capacities of children during this phase are:

• Slow and consistent growth
• Muscle mass and strength
• ‘Baby fat’ decreases
• Muscle tone improves
• Control over body movements increases

9.2.2 Socio-emotional Development

In this stage, children develop relatively complete concepts of themselves. They
develop a growing understanding about one’s place in the world. They start to
feel about how they look and how they are growing. They become more realistic
about their abilities and capacities. Their descriptions about themselves are
based on both their explicit (such as physical capacities and possessions) and
internal characteristics (such as, "I am good").

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Children at this stage can verbalise conflicting emotions. They also understand
more complex emotions, such as confusion and excitement. Although they can
Notes verbalise the importance of their family for them, yet they also value their
privacy. This can be seen in their preference and claim for their own spaces and
toys. As their peer groups are expanding at this time, they engage in competition
and play competitive games with their friends. They uphold their friendships and
value teamwork.
Some of the other socio-emotional capacities of children during this phase are:
• Developing sense of right and wrong
• Wanting emotional freedom and space from parents
• Becoming better at controlling and concealing feelings
• Beginning to form a broader self-concept based on recognition of one’s
strengths and weaknesses, especially with regard to social, academic and
athletic skills
• Sustaining peer group interactions and friendships

9.2.3 Cognitive Development

In middle childhood, children start thinking more logically than before. Their
thinking becomes flexible but they are able to think about concrete situations
only. They have yet not mastered abstract thought. They can now think of more
than one aspect of an object, although they have not mastered it at this stage.
Now then can remember routes to familiar destinations and have an idea of how
long it takes to reach from one place to another. They may walk back from school
independently. They are now also able to conserve number, length, liquid, matter,
weight, area and volume. They also have reversible thought. Children of this
age are no more egocentric.
Some the cognitive abilities of this age are:
• Ability to describe experiences and talk about thoughts
• Ability to focus on the past and future as well as the present
• Increasing attention span and developing selective attention
• Planning ahead
• Questioning based on observation and anticipation of events
• Ability to read and write and to acquire information through the media

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9.2.4 Language Development

Children at this stage become skilled at the use of language. They are able to
pick up the nuances of language and use them appropriately at appropriate places. Notes
They are able to appreciate humour and gather conversational skills like turn
taking. They can sustain conversations on a single topic for considerable time.
Their vocabulary and syntax improves. They add new words to their repertoire
and are able to use them aptly in different social situations. They start
understanding the social usage of words i.e. what and how to speak with different
persons such as parents, teachers, siblings and friends. They also show increased
appreciation for hidden intent of words.
Some of their competencies related to the language development during this
stage are:
• Comprehension and use of language becomes more sophisticated
• Share opinions in clear speech
• Conversational and narrative skills improve
• Try to visualise what is being described
• Invent new words and phrases

INTEXT QUESTIONS 9.2

Match Column A with Column B to understand the development of children
during the early primary stage.
Column A Column B
(i) Physical development (a) Invent new phrases and words
(ii) Social development (b) Can remember routes to familiar places
(iii) Emotional development (c) Engaged in competition
(iv) Language development (d) Verbalise conflictive emotions
(v) Cognitive development (e) Grow about 1" – 3" per yearPLAY IN

9.3 IMPORTANCE OF PLAY DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

Play offers many valuable opportunities to children that contribute to their
development and learning. Evidence shows that play can support learning across
physical, social emotional and cognitive areas of development. Particularly in

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the first three years, play helps children to learn about the world through
listening, looking, touching, tasting and smelling. During play, children also
Notes increase their social competence and emotional maturity.
Play is an essential and critical part of all children’s development. Play is how
children learn to socialise, think, solve problems, mature and most importantly,
to have fun. All early childhood practitioners need to know the significance of
play and implement a play-based programme. According to Froebel, play is not
a trivial pursuit but a serious occupation for a child. It has a deep significance
on the development of children. Maria Montessori also stresses free and
spontaneous play as an important activity for the development of children.
Piaget defines play consisting of responses repeated purely for functional
pleasures.
Young children are curious beings, discovering and investigating the world around
them. Play is the tool for young children to explore the mysteries of the physical
and social worlds. In play, children learn collaboration and conflict resolution
with friends as they investigate the properties of equipment, materials, and
routines. Through the phenomenon of play, children develop and learn as they
participate in activities in every area of the classroom. At different ages, children
indulge in different types of play.
Let us read the role of play in early childhood development.
• Play lays the foundation for literacy. Through play children learn to make
and practice new sounds. They try out new vocabulary on their own or with
friends, and exercise their imagination.
• Play is learning. Play nurtures development and fulfils children’s inborn
need to learn. Play takes many forms, from shaking a rattle to peek-a-boo
to hide-and-seek. Play can be done by a child alone, with another child, in
a group or with an adult.
• Play gives children choice. Having enough toys or activities to choose from
will allow children to express themselves.
• Play gives children space to practice physical movement, balance and to
test their own limits.
• Play allows adults to learn children’s body language.
• Play is fun. Learning to play well, both by themselves and with others, sets
children up to be contented and sociable.
Let us now study the significance of play in promoting holistic development
among children.

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Physical and Motor Development

Play is significant to physical development and without it the body would not
mature it normally would. In this age of obesity and processed foods, getting Notes
out and running or participating in a sport is essential to the health and liveliness
of children. Play contributes to children’s fine and gross motor development
and body awareness as they actively use their bodies. Learning to use a writing
tool, such as a marker, is an example of fine motor development through play.
The natural progression in small motor development is from scribbles to shapes
and forms to representational pictures. Playing with writing tools helps children
refine their fine motor skills. Gross motor development, such as hopping and
skipping, develops in a similar fashion. When children first learn to hop, they
practice hopping on different feet or just for the pure joy of hopping. Using their
bodies during play also enables them to feel physically confident, secure and self-
assured. Play provides an outlet for all of the energy that children have. Here, it
strengthens their smaller and larger motor skills and can build stamina and
strength.

Socio-emotional Development
Play is vital to children’s social development. During play, children also increase
their social competence and emotional maturity. Psychologists contend that school
success largely depends on children’s ability to interact positively with their peers
and adults. While at play, children are in control of the environment around them.
This fosters self-esteem. They take part in different activities that might make
them feel new emotions. Since play allows children to explore their feelings,
they learn how to cope with feelings such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear,
excitement, frustration, and stress. Play also helps increase children’s
concentration and cooperation with others. Through play, children learn how to
relate to one another and form ideas about how to negotiate roles, follow rules
and observe group dynamics. Allowing them to create their own roles helps
cultivate friendships and this is one of the most rewarding outcomes of play.

Cognitive Development
Children learn essential concepts such as counting, colours, and problem-
solving through play. Their thinking and reasoning skills improve by engaging
and participating in play-based activities. Since, in early childhood, ‘play’ is
equivalent to ‘work,’ hence, it is important to allow them to engage in play in
order to gain these new skills.

Language Development
Play helps children internalise the many rule systems associated with the language

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they are speaking.So, communication is essential in play It also helps them generate
multiple ways of expressing their thinking. Play is their arena for experimenting
Notes with and coming to understand words, syllables, sounds, and grammatical
structure. During play, children learn to use language for different purposes in
a variety of settings and with different people. In play with others, children often
use language to ask for materials or ask a question. They seek information, provide
information to others and express ideas and during the play. Children of all ages
enjoy playing with language because, in doing so, they feel in control of it.
Language play for children during this period manifests itself in the jokes, riddles,
jump rope rhymes and games they use.

Art and Aesthetic Appreciation

We have talked about the important role of creative thought and expression in
children’s development and learning. In 1958, Sigmund Freud suggested that
every child at play, “behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world
of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which
pleases him.” The creative person does the same as the child at play. So, play
provides an opportunity to children to appreciate art and use it in their
environment.

WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT

In this lesson, you have learnt that:

• Children in the age group of three to six years grow and develop at a rather
steady pace. They develop small and large muscles that help them with
become physically stronger.
• Growing physical capacities of three to six year olds help them become
better at doing everyday activities such as feeding themselves, buttoning
clothes, tying shoelaces and so forth.
• Preschoolers can describe themselves in terms of their name, family
members, their possessions etc.
• Children in preschool age lack cognitive capacities such as conservation
and abstract thinking but they are able to use rudimentary logics that are
bound by the outer appearance of the objects.
• Preschoolers acquire words and social understanding of the usage of words
rather quickly.
• During middle childhood, children gain greater control over their bodies.

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• Children in the age group of six to eight years describe themselves in terms
of their physical capacities, possessions and internal characteristics. They
are more realistic in their descriptions about themselves. Notes
• In middle childhood, children start thinking more logically than before but
they remain bound to the physical appearance of objects. They are not yet
capable of reversibility, conservation and abstract thinking.
• Six to eight year olds become skilled at the use of language. They make
rather creative sentences.
• Play contributes to overall development of children. They develop capacities
in all domains of development.

TERMINAL EXERCISE
1. What do you understand by play? Discuss the role of play in early childhood
development.
2. Explain the different aspects of cognitive development of preschoolers.
3. List the abilities of a seven year old child in the following domains:
(i) Cognitive
(ii) Language
(iii) Socio-emotional
4. Make a comparative milestone chart of three year old child and six year
old child.
5. Briefly explain the following :
(i) Symbolic thought
(ii) Spatial thinking
(i) Causality
(ii) Categorisation and Identities
(iii) Private speech

ANSWER TO INTEXT QUESTIONS

9.1

(a) animism

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 Stages of Child Development Three to Six years and Six to Eight Years

(b) Categorisation
(c) Fast mapping
Notes
(d) Pragmatics

9.2

(i) e, (ii) c, (iii) d, (iv) a, (v) b

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Hall of India.
z Hurlock, E.B. (2007). Developmental Psychology: A life -span approach.
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z Mukunda, K. (2009). What Did You Ask at School Today? A Handbook of
Child Learning. New Delhi: Harper Collins.
z Papalia, D. E; Olds, S.W., Feldman, R. D.(2006). Human Development (9th
Ed). New Delhi: Tata McGraw- Hill.
z Ranganathan, N. (2000). The Primary School Child: Development and
Education. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan.
z Singh, A (Ed). (2015). Foundations of Human Development. New Delhi:
Orient Blackswan.

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