Education

Elementary School and Child Development

When a little one is growing physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually and socially, it’s essential for parents to identify their child’s development phase and stage. Recognizing the differences in the growth stage can help parents to change their parenting approach successfully as their baby grows older. Listed below are some of the vital developmental differences that you can go through and take help.

Physical Growth

Children in elementary school have steady growth patterns for the aspect of physical development. At this age, kids become able to jump and run and manage the leg muscles. They learn through action, while their body and brain seldom act jointly. Physical teaching is essential during this stage of development.

What parents need to do?

  • Allow your child to move more and explore with each movement.

  • Help your kid to practice the use of scissors and keep utensils in the kitchen or any activity that help in finger movements.

  • Do not allow kids to do heavy exercise and activities that cause stress in large muscles.

Emotional or inner Development

  • Children face lots of mood swings which are quite predictable and sometimes very easy for parents to handle the same. At this age, they need reassurance from adults including parents and teachers. Kids of elementary school age usually wish to please elders especially their parents. They also show kindness for others.

What parents need to do?

  • Start teaching your children to accept their personality and themselves. It’s good for them to learn about their negative points to overcome from the same.

  • You need to be careful about your little one’s stress level. Help him to have a balanced life with learning time, family time, alone time and social time.

  • Parents should help their child to build their self-esteem by putting them in a situation where they get a chance to prove their stability.

Intellectual Development

Children in elementary school like to learn but they have a very short attention span. At this age, kids do not find it easy to decide and choose something. They are not analytical in nature thus analyzing and processing is not a common growth feature.

What parents need to do?

  • Get ready to change the academic topic parts after 20 to 30 minutes to keep the little learner engaged. This includes writing, reading, counting and playing games. It will help you to get a better opportunity to get successful in teaching the child.

  • Parents should help their kids to make choices and good decisions by restricting their options.

  • Do not use many analogies if your kid is facing problems in processing information. You should give easy answers, explanations, and comparisons.

  • Do not lose patience! Kids generally love to learn, you just have to make learning a little fun and enjoyable for them.

Social Development

Children in elementary school generally lack social skills so parents need to teach and provide them sufficient time to learn to interact with peers and other people. They also avoid sharing and see their parents as their only friends. The requirement for making friends at this age may differ from child to child. It’s normal for kids to be alone sometime.

What parents need to do?

  • Parents should be a role model for their kids. So behave correctly.

  • Avoid forcing your little one to make friends and be social if they are not ready. You just have to be patient and motivate your child to be social.

  • Let your kid understand that making buddies takes practice. Help them realize that it’s vital to share, be polite and make friends.

  • Parents should offer their children with chances to be socially active outside of the family environment. It is also vital for you to be social with other parents in your child’s school.

At the end, parents should understand that learning for a child will go on for many years ahead so it’s important to take things easy. Do not make things difficult for your little one by imposing rules and hard regulations. Be patient and let your child grow at his own pace.

Contributed byhttp://www.arrowmontessori.com/

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