Child Cognitive Behavior
Child development- physical, cognitive and social
Introduction
Playing is an energetic activity, which is a child-inducted process. It assists children's learning all through the field of physical, creative, social and emotional behavior. In this research paper, two children of different ages have been compared. The observation was taken when they were playing together and playing separately for a time period of 45 minutes. The ages of both the children were 5yr and 8 yr respectively (Chalufour & Worth 2003).
First Observation
Initial observation was taken, when these two children were playing together. Both the children were made to play the block game. In this game, they were supposed to make the tower as shown to them in three dimensional images. They were provided with various building material like different dimensions, figures, weights and quality of blocks. Apart from this, two types of blocks were provided, which included cardboard blocks and interlocking blocks of different shapes and sizes. This was so because greater the number of materials available, wider would be the experience gained by these children (Chalufour & Worth, 2003).
Findings
When both the children were made to play together, changes were observed in their cognitive behavior, social interaction and physical work. The child of 5 yr was very active in bringing the blocks and selecting the color of blocks, while the other (8 yr) was good at assembling the blocks as per the given image. In this process, it was seen that they began to produce their own theories of building the tower; this resulted in the building of social interaction between them. Since they were engaged in the block play for 45 minutes, without any intervention by adults, this helped them in the development of their own ideas and thoughts for making the tower and this revealed their cognitive ability. In all, when these two children played together, they showed the development of better cognitive behavior, their social understandings increased and they came to know about their unique abilities and successfully created the tower as shown in the picture (Wellman and Liu, 2004).
Second observation
This time both the children's were made to play the same game but separately. In this case, both the children were given similar material and similar building they were supposed to make, but separately. Changes were observed in their behavior whether it was physical, cognitive or emotional.
Findings
The child of five year showed interest in his work and physically he was very active, trying to create the building by frequently changing the places of the blocks. On the other hand child of 8 year showed his application of mind. He gave more time in selecting a particular block and then he was putting it at the right place. This revealed his greater response towards the cognitive ability.
The common feature that was observed in both of them was the lack of enthusiasm as they were playing separately. No development in the social attitude was seen. Both of them took larger time in making the building. Although the 5 yr child completed the making of building in less time as compared to the child of 8 yr, yet it was not up to the expected level. This shows his physical activeness but less emphasis on the cognitive thinking. On the other hand, full time was consumed by the 8 yr child and as a result he was much better than the 5 yr child. This shows that he gave more emphasis on the cognitive thinking (Wellman and Liu, 2004).
Conclusion
Playing has a vital role in the development of the children in terms of the social/emotional, cognitive and physical behavior. Through this, children are able to build their understanding. Playing is effective if children are made to play in groups because in groups, their interaction increases and develops their thinking process. Thus, it enhances their cognitive ability. Apart from this, it also helps in exploring better solutions to the problems. Productivity decreases when children are made to play separately.
References
Chalufour, I. & Worth, K. (2003). Exploring structures with young children (the Young Scientist Series). St. Paul, MN: Red leaf Press.
Wellman, H. M. and Liu, D. (2004). Child Development Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks, Volume 75(2), Page 523-541.
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