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WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE BASICS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT WHEN TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS Children go through different stages from birth to the age of 15. This is a time when they develop and become adolescents. During this time they are sent to school in order to prepare them for adulthood. Noting the many different theories available on child development, I found that Jean Piaget’s theory made me reflect on many of my personal learning experiences making a lot of sense. According to Jean Piaget, “children build their own cognitive tools and their own external realities according to what they see and hear from a very early age (the sensory motor stage)”, it seems that they see the world as they enter it, their minds being like a brand new exercise book ready for them to start writing on each clean page. Jean Piaget describes the Schema as something similar to a new database found on a computer which is ready to be filled with information. Children construct knowledge, according to Piaget’s theory, from what they encounter (personal experiences) and from what they see around them as early as 7 and 9 months old. A child builds an understanding of him/herself and reality, it is able to differentiate between itself and other objects and memory is created (object permanence) Piaget.Their schema is constantly taking in information, assimilating and accommodating as they grow to make room for yet more knowledge, to keep assimilating and accommodating until they reach the stage of formal operation that is the age of 11-15 when they are now more mature and have concrete knowledge which they still can keep accumulating after the age of 16 and keep growing in knowledge and experience. Teachers play an important role in the lives of children from as early as the age of 2, sometimes parents play the role of the teacher until a child is put into a kindergarten or in some form of education. It is in the kindergarten that children can absorb, assimilate and accommodate as much information as possible because they are in a learning setting. During the “Pre-operational stage, age 2 to 7, a child needs concrete physical situations and for objects to be classified in simple ways” (Piaget).Teachers use visuals, such as pictures, toys, color books and well thought out games (Engage and practice) to show children how the world works at this age and it is through these experiences that a child begins to construct things in their minds, by constant repetition, songs, chants, stories and actions, by doing this their schema is being written on. Recognizing that this is the most crucial part of early childhood development and doing their best.Educators have a major role to play in how a child perceives the world and how they develop, progressively. Some children may be able to develop many different aspects relating to intelligence (Howard Gardner.) At the age of 7 to 11 a child will have accumulated quite a bit of knowledge and accommodation is increased creating logical structures that can explain his or her physical experiences (Piaget), by then they have a form of concrete knowledge and ESA methodology lessons are useful. When a child reaches the Formal Operations stage the age of 11 to 15 they are able to think logically and have reached a stage where they could be called mature according to the theory of Cognitive development. At this age they are able to learn more concrete things, they have likes and dislikes,are at the verge of being able to solve multiple problems and teachers can teach more complex items which prepare them to become more independent human beings who are in touch with their feelings and the feelings of others and how the world works. This however, does not stop an individual from developing more intellectual knowledge as they still can accumulate and continue the process of assimilation and accommodation according to the circumstances they may find themselves in throughout their lives. Knowledge will have been gained from birth to about 15 years of age however intellectual capacity can keep growing and is enhanced if early childhood development was catered to and if an individual is continually exposed to learning new things.
