What Are the Stages of Early Childhood Development?

The process of children's physical and mental development is a continuous process from quantitative change to qualitative change, and is a process from gradual quantitative change to leaping qualitative change. The whole development process shows several consecutive stages, and different stages show typical characteristics and main contradictions that are different from other stages. This is the stage of physical and mental development.

The process of children's physical and mental development is a continuous process from quantitative change to qualitative change, and it is a process from gradual quantitative change to leaping qualitative change. The whole development process shows several consecutive stages, and different stages show typical characteristics and main contradictions that are different from other stages. This is the stage of physical and mental development.

Chinese name

Stage of development

Applied discipline

psychology

Application range

Developmental psychology

Development stage division criteria

(1) Cognitive development is used as the dividing standard. The representative is Piaget Piaget believes that the development of children's psychology is divided into the following four stages: (1) Perceived motor stage (born ~ 1 and a half years old, 2 years old); (2) Pre-computing stage (1 and a half years old, 2 ~ 6, 7 years old); (3) Specific computing stage (6, 7 ~ 11, 12 years old); (4) Formal computing stage (11, 12 ~ 15) year old). ^[1]

(2) Physiological development is used as the standard for classification, and the representative is L. Berman.) The endocrine glands are used as the standard for classification, and psychological development is divided into: thymus (infancy); pineal gland (in childhood); gonad Period (youth); endocrine peak (adult) and endocrine deficiency (senile).

(3) According to the theory of eroticism, the representative is Freud. According to Freud, according to the main body parts of libido, child development can be divided into: (1) lip period (0 ~ 1 years); (2) anal period (1 ~ 3 years); (3) pre-genital period (4-5 years old); (4) incubation period (6 years to pre-puberty); (5) reproductive period (puberty).

(4) Personality characteristics are used as the criterion for classification, and the representative is Erikson

Based on personality development, Erikson divides psychological development into: trust vs. doubt (0 ~ 1 years old); autonomy vs. shame (1 ~ 3 years old); active vs. guilt (4 ~ 5 years old); diligence vs. inferiority (6 ~ 12 years old); character unification versus role confusion (12 ~ 20 years old); intimacy versus loneliness (20 ~ 24 years old); reproduction versus stagnation (25 ~ 65 years old); perfection versus disappointment (65 ~).

(5) Leading activities are used as the criteria for classification. Representatives are Leontief. Angfie advocates that activities such as games and learning play a leading role in the classification. It is divided into six stages: (1) direct emotional communication activities (0 ~ 1 years old); (2) physical activities (1 ~ 3 years old); (3) game activities (3 ~ 7 years old); (4) Learning activities (7-11 years old); (5) Social welfare activities (11-15 years old); (6) Professional learning activities (15-17 years old). ^[1]

In summary, we can see that although the criteria for division are different, the differences in actual age are similar. Development in the aspects of physiology, intelligence, personality, education, and life has its own characteristics. We use the various indicators of physical and mental development to comprehensively divide the respective age stages, but at the same time we must see the internal consistency.

Differentiation and Analysis of Stages and Continuity of Children's Psychological Development

The development of children's psychology is a continuous process of contradictory movements, and it is also a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. As contradictions are generated and resolved one by one, the psyche constantly produces quantitative changes, and qualitative changes occur on the basis of quantitative changes. The qualitative changes also include quantitative changes. Many small qualitative changes often become a large qualitative change preparation. For example, the development of children's thinking is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. Children between two and three years of age can produce some thinking activities under external influence. As more and more images of external things and connections are kept in memory, on the basis of quantitative changes, he can rely on the images maintained in the memory to think without the influence of external stimuli. This results in a qualitative change in thinking activities. So image thinking came into being. On this basis, due to the accumulation of more and more images and their connections, and the generation and development of language, and the connection with these images, children gradually transitioned from thinking mainly based on images to thinking mainly based on language. When a new qualitative change occurs, abstract logical thinking is born.

The qualitative change in the process of contradictory psychological development determines the stage of psychological development. Some psychological characteristics that are qualitatively different between each stage of development and other stages, or more generally, some general, essential, and typical characteristics, which we call psychological age characteristics, because psychological development is a continuous contradiction During exercise, qualitative change is generated on the basis of quantitative change. The division of each age stage of psychological development cannot be regarded as absolute, unrelated or abrupt. When we see the stages of psychological development, we must also see its continuity. Some features of the next stage have begun to sprout at the end of the previous stage, and some features of the previous stage often leave marks at the beginning of the next stage. In terms of the same stage of development, there have also been great changes at the beginning and the end. For example, we say that image thinking is a characteristic of early childhood thinking, but in the early stages of early childhood, the characteristics of intuitive action thinking in the previous stage remain; on the other hand, at the end of early childhood, abstract thinking has begun to emerge. ^[1]