Homeschool Curriculum & Child Learning

Child Development Stages

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Our children are born learning. They attempt to store all the things that happen to them into some type of logical form.

1. Sensorimotor Period

In the sensorimotor stage, infants develop an understanding of their environment by matching sensory experiences with physical actions. Here, the child learns to experience his environment. He looks, touches, feels, listens, shakes, smells, and tastes everything in sight. "Here" is this child's sense of space and "now" is his sense of time. When he learns to creep, crawl, and walk, you better watch out as his world becomes much wider. He is now beginning to explore his environment using his senses as well as physical actions.

Many parents find this phase very difficult for them because they now have to start dealing with things such as guidance and protection. The sensorimotor period lasts from birth until two years of age. The mode of learning in the first phase of child development continues through adolescence, but becomes less sharp as the years pass by.

2. Preoperational Period

In the preoperational stage, children build on what they learned in the sensorimotor stage by expressing words, images, and drawings. This lasts from two to seven years of age. In this phase, the child is preoccupied with collecting information. They then try to figure out how to solve problems. In this phase, your child now thinks in specifics and finds it very hard to generalize what he senses. For a child, a ball is something that he throws, not something that he uses to play with.

The preoperational stage is the period when your child asks a lot of question repeatedly. He actually learns by asking questions. In general, it does not matter whether your answer is real or not; young children do not real answers to their questions at this point in time. When your child asks why you have flowers in the garden, he only wants to know what it is for him to play in. Your child needs no technical answers.

Children two to seven years of age judge everything they see or feel or experience on the basis of "me". I don't like it. Give it to me. It does not affect me. They also are incapable of going back in reason and time. Children in this stage generally forget what has just happened.

3. Concrete Operational Period

In the concrete operational stage, your child can now manipulate data mentally. He gathers information and begins to process this information by defining, comparing, and contrasting it. He develops the ability to reason logically in the context of specific or concrete examples. Your child in this stage functions very matter-of-factly, but does not yet grasp abstract concepts. This stage lasts from about seven to 11 years.

If you ask your child, "Why does it rain?" his likely answer would be: "Because there are showers behind the clouds." On the other hand, a child who thinks concretely would think a little more and his likely answer would be something like this: "Because God is intelligent and he made those clouds just so children could play in the rain."

An operational child who thinks concretely can process information logically. While he still learns using his senses, he no longer depends on just them to learn. The child is now thinking. In teaching children in this age group, the teachers should begin their lessons at the concrete level, then gradually head to a more generalized level.

For example: Statement: Jessica is a very nice girl: The teacher would first tell about what Jessica did to be very nice. (Concrete)

The teacher then would talk about how Jessica went about being very nice. (Less concrete and more general)

Finally, the teacher would teach that Jessica is very nice. (General concept)

A concrete operational child thinks very literally. In other words, your child will absorb everything you teach, do, and say at face value. Green is green and YELLOW is yellow. In this stage, your children will have a hard time understanding figurative language and symbols.

4. Formal Operational Period:

The final stage is called the formal operational stage, and it begins at around 11 years of age through adulthood. In this stage, your child transitions from concrete rationalization into more abstract thinking. His thinking is not restricted to time and space anymore; the child now is now more reflective on things. He now also hypothesizes and theorizes.

In this period, you need to help your child develop his cognitive abilities. There are six types of cognitive abilities:

1. Knowledge of facts and principles - how your child memorizes names, dates, words, and definition.

2. Comprehension - how your child understands ideas and facts.

3. Application - what your child needs to know and how he applies principles, procedures, and rules.

4. Analysis - how your child learns to branch out concepts.

5. Synthesis - how your child puts information or ideas together.

6. Evaluation - how your child judges the value of gathered information.

Learning Factors

1. Children hardly ever learn in isolation.

2. Children learn most effectively when they interact with other children of the same age group.

3. Peer relationships, motivation, and child-teacher communication are factors that influence learning.

4. Other factors include socio-cultural norms, emotional situation, environment, and physical setting.

In general, as your child becomes older, his capability of learning improves. This suggests that, as parents, you should be more responsible in guiding him to handle his new found capabilities.