Social & Emotional Development in Child Development

Social and emotional development is a domain in child development in which a child understands their experiences, the emotions, and that of others, which enables them to fit in the social environment and live with others. The human mind develops mostly during the first five years, a period during which the charter ad personality f the child is hoped. Several theories explain this development of the child and the adjustments that take place. This paper aims to discuss the social and emotional development of children.

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The behavioral theories of psychology explain that the behavior an individual, even at their adulthood, is influenced by the environment in which they grow. People view what is happening, internalize it, and experiment with it. Over time, the repeated action of this would lead to habit and character. An example, when a child picks a spender and present to the mother who fears spiders, the mother is likely to scream and tell the child to throw it away. The next time, the child will know that siders are a terrible thing, and they would most likely freak when they see spiders. This explains how the environment in which the child grows influences their behavior.

Social and emotional development enables the child to understand what they feel and know what to expect when interacting with others in society. This development allows for the child to develop positive relationships and experience, manage and express emotions, engage, and explore the environment. The positive development will enable the child to have self-confidence, ul, and long-lasting relationships empathy and be able to develop meaningful relationships (Perry, 2010). This social and emotional development affects other areas of growth in the child as well.

The children pick most of these factors from the environment, and that means parents and caregivers have a huge role to play. The behavior is selected from the environment, especially from the people the child spent most of the time with. Therefore, how the child would be would depend on what the parapet and the caregivers decide to show the child. It is advisable that the parents and the caregiver exhibit behaviors that would induce a positive response in the child. For example, they should show love affectionately and care. This way, the child will learn to know that care, affection, and love is the way to live.

Several types of research have shown that there is a considerable correlation between emotion and cognition. The study has shown that the neural mechanism that regulates emotions may be the same that regulate cognitive processes (Malik & Marwaha, 2019). Emotion and cognition often work together to inform the child's impressions and situations that would influence their behavior. The passion and social behavior affect the child's ability to stay in a goal-oriented activity, be able to seek help when it is needed, and participate in developing beneficial relationships. This also influenced their intellectual development in that child who exhibits social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment most likely would perform better in school than the others.

The child's social and emotional development occurs mostly through four main stages. These include temperament, attachment, social competence, and emotional regulation. Temperament deals with how the child can act and respond to varied situations to parents, caregivers, and strangers. Attachment deals with emotional bonds that the child develops. Social competencies enable the child to get along with others, while emotional regulation is the child's ability to control their emotions and responses to the environment.

Temperament explains the personality of the child, which is mainly categorized into three. These include easy babies, slow-to-war-up babies, and delicate babies. The easy babies do not disturb and often are characterized by having regular sleeping hours. They readily accept people and are quickly soothed. The slow-to-wars=up is characterized by being a bit hesitant in new situations and to strangers. The delicate babies are very aggressive and would easily be agitated. They are very sensitive to sounds and sights and would not accept people easily. They are difficult to convince and cannot be soothed that easily.

Attachment is the bond that a child develops s with a caregiver or with their parents. It enables the child to have a sense of safety. The child develops a dependence on the caregivers, and most of the support would be dependent on them. This stage is very significant as it promotes a positive relationship between the caregiver and the child. It also reduces than insecurities that the child may be having or could potentially develop. This attachment also enables the child to develop healthy relationships away from home as they learn from the caregiver. It also fosters positive relationships that may be progressive into middle childhood, adolescents, and even adulthood of the child.

Social competence enables the child to develop a relationship with others outside their caregivers and the attachment and knows how to respond to situations. This may be characterized by the child's ability to internalize facial expressions and sounds and know how to respond to these items. This way, the child would be able t learn new skills and share their behavior in the environment. They exercise what they learn in this social competence in their play with other children.

Emotional regulations deal with how the child controls their emotions in the environment and be able to relate with others. In children, they often cry or throw tantrums to communicate their needs. Once satisfied, most of the babies would likely cool down. However, others may not cool down even after their needs being met. This ability to calm down and control their emotion is captured in the emotional regulation.

It is, therefore, very prudent that the children developed in proper social and emotional skills during this stage of development. Social and emotional skills have a significant impact on the child, such as making friends and maintaining them. The child can develop confidence, resolve conflicts, and manage stress and anxiety. It also influences the decision-making skill of the child, where they resist negative social pressure, be able to learn their strengths and weaknesses, learn the social norms of the community and gain awareness at what they fell about others.

The development stages also take place mainly in the child's first year, toddler year, and preschool years. The first year involves the first three months in which the child develops a bond with the caregiver and communicates through crying (Dowling, 2014). The second phase is at seven months when the child responds to their names and finally at 12 months when the child shies from people, show preference of other people or toys. The toddler age is between the second year and the third year. During this period, the child imitates the behavior of others and also recognize themselves. They are likely to desire to play with other children and be around them. The last stage in the child's development is the preschool years, which is mostly between the age of four and age 5. The child is likely to be concerned about others more than they are worried about their parents. At this stage, when the child seems insecure, fearful, and withdrawn and cannot interact with the other children, it is most likely that the child has a problem.

In conclusion, the social and emotional development of everyone is very vital, especially in the early childhood stages. It is during this time that the brain of the child develops. The parents and the caregivers play a critical role in shaping the environment in which the child is growing and how they treat them. When the child is fed with positive in the situation, they are most likely to grow up well and have positive growth, which would affect another aspect of developments such as the cognitive process. This would change the performer of the child. Parents and caregivers have the responsibility of ensuring that they provide a favorable environment for the child. They are also mandated to understand these developmental stages in the shield so that they help the explore the best and develop the best personalities which would help them. This way, society would have better with reduced deviance and positive growth generally. The child should be corrected on the deviant behaviors that may affect their personality negatively.

References

Dowling, M. (2014). Young children's personal, social, and emotional development. Sage.

Malik, F., & Marwaha, R. (2019). Developmental stages of social-emotional development in children.

Perry, G. (2010). California Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Foundations. YC Young Children, 65(5), 110.