We all start out as babies! Such cute little things that can't do much more (initially) than eat, sleep, and cry. Behind the fussy, cute face is a mind that is churning and learning rapidly. We are learning to deal with our bodies and to control what the muscles do. We are listening to those around us and making connections between those noises and the meanings behind them. We are learning to recognize our family members and smile at them to let them know that we recognize them. When we are 6 months old, we can finally start trying to speak to them through our babbling - "ma-ma, da-da" - and cooing. About this time, we start to notice that not all people are mom and dad - strangers - and we are wary of them... Who are these people and why are they holding me? Why are they in my house? Along with all of these mental changes, our bodies are changing. Our weight has doubled or tripled in this time and we are finally strong enough to roll over, sit up and support our abnormally large heads, and begin to crawl. This is the time when Mommy and Daddy have to watch us because we are starting to go places that we couldn't access before and get into things that were inaccessible to us. Within 3 or 4 months, we will be standing on our own and walking. Then the real trouble starts. :) We are also able to speak little bits, but it takes some work for Mom and Dad to understand what we are saying. We demand mom's attention as much as possible.
By the time we are two/three, we are experts at climbing up and down stairs without falling and can run. We can get into anything and everything. We want to explore the world around us. After all, we are still new arrivals to Earth and want to understand where we are living. We have been called, "little scientists" by a guy named Piaget. "What happens if I drop this spoon from my high chair to the floor with applesauce on it? Wow! That made quite a racket and the applesauce made a cool design. Mom came over and gave the spoon back and cleaned up the design. What will happen if I do it again? Mom gave the spoon back again and cleaned up the sauce! Cool! Will it happen a third time? Mom took my spoon and applesauce away!" Everything is an experiment waiting to be performed! Mom and Dad have to be patient with us and our learning method. Our language has transformed into 2-3 word sentences that are mostly "Why" questions that can be quite frustrating to an adult.
When playing with others, we tend to play beside others, but not with them. Soon this will change and we will be able to calmly play with others around us.
By age 3, we are half of the height that we will be as an adult! Sweet! A projection of how tall we are really going to be.
As we approach 6 years of age, we have learned to play with others and to communicate decent enough that, for the most part, we can be understood easily by adults. This is the time that we are sent off to school. We all strive to fit in with a group of our peers and the kids who become popular are those that everyone fears. When we find our friends, we hang around with those of our same gender - the other gender has "cooties."
As far as language, we should be able to speak in sentences of 5-7 words and do so well. When commands are given, we should be able to follow a sequence of 3-5 commands - if we become frustrated, we may backtalk or goof off.
We are trying to get a sense of who we are - whether successful or a failure - and parents must help us to the best of their ability, yet allow us to make most of the decisions ourselves. We are trying to fit in with a group and learn to play with others and abide by certain social rules.
Part of this late childhood is the beginning of a major body change that can be difficult for some of us to handle.
Near the end of elementary school is the time that our parents fear the most - adolescence! Our bodies begin to change rapidly and become more adult-like. Our hormones are raging at the beginning of puberty, which causes some behavior/mood changes that is the dread of every parent. We start to work on who we are going to grow up to be. Erickson would classify this time in our lives as "Learning Identity vs Identity Diffusion." Suddenly, we have to start looking at our future and who we want to become - what career path we want to follow, what college to attend, who to marry, whether to marry at all, whether to have kids, et cetera. We may react to all of this pressure through major backtalk - resulting in many arguments - or by finding other groups to hang out with that will help us ignore the stress. This friend change may be good or bad. Some leave a bad group for a better, more uplifting group, while others may leave the good group for the bad group. Some may turn to drugs and alcohol to get through this stress, and others may turn to a boyfriend/girlfriend who leads them astray.
Our emotions are too prevalent for us to really understand what love is and may believe that we are in love. As a consequence, we may experiment and get into trouble and/or get our hearts broken. Parents have to understand this and be there as a support and rely on past morals/teaching to guide us.
As parents, know that we will grow out of it and be stronger because of our experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment