Week 4 - Early & Middle Childhood

I continue to be engaged in the chapter readings as they continue to bring insight regarding the physical, motor and cognitive developments with children.  This weeks chapters shed light on the early childhood years (ages 2 to 5 years) and the middle childhood years (ages 5 to 12 years).  I know I blog a lot about my sons but so much of our reading provides additional insight as to how or why my sons develop their cognitive, social and physical skills.    

Regarding the early childhood years, I found the left hand and right hand views interesting.  My oldest son started as a toddler favoring his right hand when picking up finger foods or grabbing a utensil or crayon.  As time continued, he started using his left hand more.  In our family my husband and I each had a grandfather that was left handed.  When we enrolled our son in t-ball, he started batted and fielded the ball left handed.  We encouraged it but also let him do what seemed to be natural for him.  The following summer when we enrolled our son in t-ball again, he switched to a right handed ball player.  There were times we could see even he didn't know which hand he preferred to use.  As he matured, my husband and I noticed he preferred to write, draw and use utensils with his left hand while athletically and musically he used his right hand.  Cognitively he is creative and analytical.  He creates stories with his drawings and has played three different instruments, all right-handed.  These activities help to relax his brain and provide a sense of pride and accomplishment.  On the other hand, he is very analytical and enjoys science, engineering and design classes and applying math concepts practically rather theoretically.  He truly seems to be able to use both sides of his brain.  

The other concepts I relate to are daycare impact and free play.  My sister and I are a product of older family generations providing child support.  My parents were very young when I was born and the concept of daycare or early childhood learning was not a prevalent as it is today.  Our early teaching was not only provided by our parents but by our maternal grandparents.  Our grandfather,who worked overnight as a pressman for the Chicago Sun-Times, would take care of us during the day while our parents were at work.  We learned by watching our grandfather cook, go grocery shopping and understanding the value of money and spending wisely, engaging in free and imaginative play and being loved and supported by family.  My sons are the product of daycare with a national chain, Kindercare.  My husband and I both worked, his family is out-of-state in Pennsylvania and my parents were still working as well.  We researched the various daycare centers near our home and ultimately decided on the center closest to our home.  The teachers were all caring and the center classrooms allowed for age appropriate free play and as the children got older, there was more structure built in that lent toward art, reading, word development and shapes.  Our sons also learned to develop social skills not only with their peers but with adults as well.  The learned how to work and interact with adults and speak up for themselves.  These skills translated well once they started public school.  I will note that our boys did not have a significant advantage over other children that were in pre-school or at home full-time.  I was once told that all children catch-up when they start kindergarten. 

For middle childhood, this section expounded on physical development, cognitive development, moral development and social development.  First, my husband and I emphasize activity and healthy eating.  We are fortunate that our family genes do not have a propensity for being overweight and our extended families were typically active.  My husband and I played various sports and we encouraged our boys to do the same based on what they liked to play.  They learned how to work with a team and use their muscle groups.  With regards to cognitive development, there was the section on ADD and ADHD and the use of medications.  Both of our sons need medication to help balance the chemicals in their brain to assist with focus.  For our one son that has ADD, we tried natural supplements to assist with his tendancy to "zone out".  I recall when he was diagnosed that his current elementary teacher did not believe he had ADD.  She said he paid attention, was not disruptive and did good work.  The one thing my husband and I typcially observed is we would have to repeat instructions despite him looking at us when speaking to him.  He would also skips problems or entire lines on a test or foget to turn the paper over to complete the rest of the test.  When my husband and I did our research on medications, we reluctantly agreed to try it based on the doctor's recommendation.  Needless to say we saw a difference almost immediately.  The teacher noticed more active participation in class, stronger scores and he was no longer skipping lines of problems on tests.  The biggest supporter was our son.  I will never forget when he came home from school and told me that he actually could pay attention the whole time and understand the lesson being taught!  He was 11 years old and that sold my husband and I that we made the correct decision.   Our other son is ADHD with all components, hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattentiveness.  We had him tested at a younger age since we hand hindsight from our other son.  We could start to see our other son's characteristics.  We further adjusted his diet, used more natural supplements, eliminated artifical ingredients and preservatives as much as we could.  Again, we determined through testing and experience we need intervention to help him calm his mind so he could take instruction and be successful.  He was already developing a low self-esteem at 7 years old!  That is crazy!  We found a medication after much trial and error that worked for him.  What a difference that made as his reading leapt by leaps and bounds.  He was able to sit and read and actually recall what he read where previously it was a struggle to even read to him longer than 5 minutes.  As both my boys matured, we instilled in them that the medication is not a cure-all.  We work on emotional skills so they know how to handle situations by the time their medication has worn off.  Medication when combined with behavioral therapy and consistent physical activity allow for a more focused and centered child.

I could write so much more about my learning experiences as a parent since I have two sons that seem to have experienced a lot socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically.  It seems no matter which childhood stage, my sons have experienced something discussed in the chapter!