Human Relations and Life Transitions

Child development determines further socialization and adaptation within a certain group of people, which is peculiarly important as the process of activation in the first years of life. Various deviations from the norm and their timely noticing help define possible problems and resolve them better before they complicate. Language skills and physical capabilities define cognitive and social factors occurring in early age, which influence further development of a personality.

Professional assistance from the side of nurses or midwives after having observed the deviations predetermines addressing two principal constituents, cognitive and social factors, which involve proper development. Cognitive development finds its reflection in the theories of the world famous psychologist J. Piaget (2013), whereas the social development is the subject of the scientific understanding of E. Erikson (2013). By the age of three, children usually have language skills developed, and they are toilet trained. The absence of these skills states about the lack of attention of either a teacher or parents and shows that a child cannot adapt to new social environment. Close parental attention, teacher’s guidance promoting social environment, and physical capabilities of a child comprise the key factors of social and cognitive development because they help acquire necessary language skills, form the essential behavior and attain the hygiene understanding as socially accepted norms that impact further adaptation and social acceptance.

The first years of life are vital as a child enters the society within the family and the kindergarten. The age period from one to three years, i.e. the toddler, is the time when the child starts attending the kindergarten and makes friends playing with children of the same age. This period marks the formation of basic skills regarding hygiene, speech, and emotional literacy.

Cognitive development measures the level of learning and skills acquired by an identity. When considering the cognitive development, Piaget (2013) defines several stages of assimilation, accommodation, and operational schemes in a child. When assimilating, a child forms a certain thinking scheme regarding different objects, which further adapts to existing knowledge and builds into operational scheme. According to Piaget (2013), there are sensorimotor (1.5-2 years old), preoperational (2-7 years old), concrete operational (7-12 years old) and formal operational (12 and older) stages of cognitive development. Landry et al. (2014) agree with Piaget (2013) that cognitive skills of toddlers and elementary schoolchildren comprise the basis for the formation of concrete operations of children they will use in the teenage period. Learning environment and communication are vital for the efficient language skills development in preoperational phase as children start using language in communication, i.e. imitation or game. Toddlers often have difficulties in classifying objects. Therefore, their sentences can be incomplete, which means that when a child bubbles at the age of three, for instance, he/she can meet the milestones in the interaction with other children.

Cognitive development is instable in terms of thinking processes a child uses. At different ages, a child can use various types of thinking. Those thinking types are the strategies overlapping of which means that each child can have an individual way of thinking, thus, its cognitive development differs (Siegler, 2016). Physical and mental capabilities impact cognitive development and create individual thinking. The presence and development of cognition within the society can equalize the way of thinking.

Proper social development of a toddler presupposes that a child of this age is energetic and willing to learn. Directing the energy into the right trend can help form necessary social values. According to Erikson (2013), searching for the balance between holding on and letting go is natural to a three-year old, which marks early childhood, primary aim for the age. Toilet training is the skill, which shows child independence. If a child has difficulty in training, it shows the need in care or holding on (Erikson, 2013). For instance, if a child attends a day care twice a week, the probable cause can be the lack of parental care hindering further socialization. That is why crisis period is peculiar for each age stage of identity formation in the society. The lack of parental or peer assistance can lead to such crisis and hinder cognitive development.

Parental attention and assistance are important for creating the necessary background for social development of a child and adaptation among the representatives of the same age. When mothers start to work after several months of maternity leave, a child starts attending a kindergarten and can have less attention of a teacher. At this time, parental care is what the child needs. Close attention of a parent is irreplaceable due to constant control over the development of skills. A child learns to understand oneself as a social individual being in the family and then within the society, the kindergarten (McAdams& Zapata-Gietl, 2015; Bjorklund & Causey, 2017). Individual differences mark that not all the children can acquire language skills within the group simultaneously. That is why childcare assistance in case of problems in relaxed atmosphere can help find out the reasons of slowing language development.

Selecting the individual program can resolve the language issues and assist in acquisition of the necessary speech skills. According to the social and emotional learning programs, emotional component and teaching care promote the social development of a child and creates equal condition for all regardless of their skills (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015). Mutual support between kids and from the side of teachers promotes better self-realization of a child as a social identity.

Parental care and social impact are the factors, which impact the development of a child. The main problem of the absence of toilet training at 3 year old is that about 80% of mothers are unaware of the techniques of teaching their kids (Siegler, 2016; Goyal, 2017). That is why creating special programs are vital for the mothers of the toddlers if their kids have difficulties in toilet training.as the parents know individual skills of a child. As parental assistance is primary in teaching and training, it proves to be primary factor in further social development of the toddler and establishing social acceptance of him/her as an identity.

Parental care, teacher’s assistance, and individual cognitive and physical possibilities of a child comprise the primary factors that influence social and cognitive development of the kid. Cognitive skills influence social development, and vice versa, social skills influence cognitive development. Language skills linked to cognitive development are possible to form parental and then social assistance. Increased communication within the group can quicken speaking development. Parental care is vital for toilet training as the ground for social acceptance and depends on cognitive skills.

The conception of cognitive development by Piaget and the model of social development by Erikson are helpful in determining the degree of psychological formation of a child. Children in the age of three strive for independence and develop the needed skill to handle hygiene. Parental unawareness is the principal problem of the impossibility of acquisition of this skill. Social impact is profound in language development when a child is in the environment of the same age group. That is why social development depends upon the environment and peers more, though parental care on initial stages prevails.

Cognition development identifies the degree of language skills. Individual possibilities and physical abilities are primary factors influencing cognitive development. Parental assistance and constant attention are vital as the background for the formation of learning skills. Communication with parents and the family are prior to entering the society and principal in acquiring learning and thinking skills.

Parental care proves to be the principal factor determining both social and cognitive development of a toddler. Mother’s and father’s attention in the first years of life is vital for easier social adaptation of a child entering the kindergarten. The lack of such assistance triggers slowing in development of essential skills and creates more difficulties in reaching the age standards.