TECHNOLOGY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Social and Emotional Development

Emotion and behavior are based on the child's developmental stage and temperament. Every child has an individual temperament, or mood. Some children may be cheerful and adaptable and easily develop regular routines of sleeping, waking, eating, and other daily activities; these children tend to respond positively to new situations. Other children are not very adaptable and may have great irregularities in their routine; these children tend to respond negatively to new situations. Still other children are in between.

Language development

 

Language development is a process starting early in human life, when a person begins to acquire language by learning it as it is spoken and by mimicry. Children's language development moves from simple to complex. Infants start without language. Yet by four months of age, babies can read lips and discriminate speech sounds. The language that infants speak is called babbling.

Physical well-being and motor development

Gross motor skills generally refer to movements involving larger muscles, like those in the arms, legs, feet or the entire body (used for walking, jumping and so on).

 

Fine motor skills generally refer to movements involving smaller muscles, like those in hands, wrists and fingers (such as those used for holding a crayon or toy). However, as one thinks about these two groups of skills, it is easy to see how they overlap. For instance, an infant’s hands can be used for picking up toys from the floor (fine motor) more easily when she has already learned how to sit up (gross motor). When your child is getting something off a shelf, she is using both large muscles (walking to the shelf and reaching for the item) and small muscles (grasping the toy with fingers). As you can see, there is a pretty complicated coordinated to accomplish a “simple” task!