Domain Development

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nIntroduction

nThe development of children begins at birth and progress to adulthood. The effective completion of developmental milestones assists the child to achieve full potential. Physical development of a child only covers one domain of his or her early childhood development. The early childhood teacher plays a crucial role in facilitating the language, cognitive and physical development that determines the future success of the child in adulthood (Ahola & Kovacik, 2007). Domain-specific learning theories of childhood development suggest that there are various independent, specific knowledge structures instead of specific knowledge structures. Therefore, the effects of one domain do not affect the other independent domains (Becker & Becker, 2009). For instance, a teacher role in physical development does not affect the cognitive development.

nPhysical development of a child involves the way a child progresses and develops physically. Physical development of a child involves learning balance and movement. During the physical development of a child, the balance improves. A child is able to walk on a line or small balance beam (Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). Additionally, he or she is stable when standing on one of the foot. A child also develops skills to catch or throw a ball, walk down and up the stairs without help of the teacher (Ahola & Kovacik, 2007). These skills are distinguished into two main categories. Gross motor skills apply large groups of muscles in the legs, arms and trunks. A teacher helps the child in climbing, crawling, skipping, walking, jumping, running and rolling that enhances the process of physical development. In addition, an early childhood teacher helps the child to learn to apply all the big muscles in the body (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009). The fine motor skills help the child to apply small muscles. An early childhood teacher assists the child to use fingers for exercises such as using a fork, fastening shoelaces and drawing (Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). The fine motor development also involves the hand-eye coordination mechanism. Besides, a teacher helps a child to learn motor skills that permit him or her to create block towers use safety scissors and draw crosses and circles.

nFor successful physical development of a child, a teacher ensures that he or she gets sufficient rest, good nutrition and safe and hygienic environment (Becker & Becker, 2009). The physical act of eating and nutrition play a crucial role in physical development. A child needs nutritious food to develop and grow as well as jaw and mouth muscles require stimulation like other muscles (Ahola & Kovacik, 2007). A teacher helps a child to take foods that contribute to speech development.

nAn early childhood teacher plays an active part in cognitive development of a child. Cognitive development involves skills regarding thinking and learning. As the child grows, he or she establishes capacity to sort objects and can arrange materials by color or size (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009). Moreover, childs attention rises and he or she pursues information through questions. A teacher helps a child to count numbers, for instance, from one to ten and know colors. A child also has the ability to read his name. An early childhood teacher assists a child to understand the differences between fiction and facts (Becker & Becker, 2009). In this respect, a teacher makes a child to know the difference between a lie and the truth.

nAn early childhood teacher enables the child to store and apply information concerning the world around them. Therefore, a child develops the ability to practice and gain new skills, to think and solve new problems. However, successful cognitive development requires a child to be emotionally secured physically healthy and socially competent. To facilitate cognitive development a teacher gives a child many opportunities to experience the pleasure of handling a problem and deliberating on how get a solution (Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). A teacher develops activities such as “Where does the ball go when I put it down on a chute?” In addition, a teacher nurtures the innate sense of a child’s curiosity and wonder. She conducts this via language, for instance, by speaking to the child about their interest and facilitating that interest. In this regard, a teacher introduces cognitive activities that are appealing, relevant and fun for the child that mirror the interest of that child. However, these activities are categorized on age of a child (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009).

nThrough cognitive activities, the teacher enhances the chances of a child to practice mental skills that provide a base for future life skills acquisition, for instance, arranging items in order, matching, common relations and cause and effect (Becker & Becker, 2009). Furthermore, a teacher promotes a thought process in a child by helping him or her to ask the appropriate mind-challenging question with a child. An early childhood teacher can use open or closed questions. Open questions, help a child to give an original and creative answer to the questions (Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). Closed questions, however, give a child a chance to give right or wrong answers.

nLanguage is the avenue of learning. It is the means that a child shows and shares what she adventures and discoveries in the surrounding. An early childhood teacher plans crucial activities for children to offer rich language experiences. The opportunities permit the teacher to share background information and offer creative discussions, for example incursions or cooking (Brooks-Gunn, Fuligni, & Berlin, 2003). Languages to provide the child with a chance to prepare their thoughts and have conversations with their peers and the teacher (Ahola & Kovacik, 2007). Language development empowers a child with the skills to understand the spoken word and communicate him or herself verbally. An early childhood teacher helps him or her to speak from short sentences to speaking in long sentences. During early childhood, a child establishes a clear language and gains courage to speak with strangers. A child talks about experiences and shares personal information. Moreover, a teacher helps a child to increase his or her capacity to conduct a conversation.

nLanguage development of a child is categorized into three areas. Receptive language helps a child to understand sentences and words (Martin, Fabes & Fabes, 2009). Besides, expressive language increases the capacity of the child to make sounds, detailed sentences and two-word sentences. Finally, a teacher uses symbolic language to increase the ability of the child to identify symbols and capacity to write languages in its symbolic form (Becker & Becker, 2009).

nConclusion

nAn early childhood teacher has three main roles in achieving the domain development of a child. A teacher must facilitate physical, cognitive and language development. Physical development involves the establishment of motor and fine muscles of the child. Cognitive development helps a child to establish thinking skills, ability to match items and recognize colors. Finally, language development is a core domain in communication. During early childhood development, a child will be able to express him or herself and speak about his or her experiences. Therefore, these domains of development are fundamental steps in children.

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nReferences

nAhola, D., & Kovacik, A. (2007). Observing and understanding child development. Australia: Thomson Delmar Learning.

nBecker, N., & Becker, P. (2009). Developing quality care for young children. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

nBrooks-Gunn, J., Fuligni, A., & Berlin, L. (2003). Early child development in the 21st century. New York: Teachers College Press.

nMartin, C., Fabes, R., & Fabes, R. (2009). Discovering child development. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.