5
Early Childhood
Children developing through this stage are continuing to advance their skills in observation and interaction. At this age children are developing the most cognitively, they change from simple make believe to involving more characters and more complex scenarios. They are not only developing cognitively but they are also developing their critical and creative thinking. They are able to create imaginary scenes in their head and also critically think about rules for games.
Middle Childhood
Throughout early childhood, the child is building the foundations and the abilities to think critically and creatively. When the child reaches middle childhood, their cognitive development has reached a level where they are able to improve their language development; their reasoning abilities and their memory expands. The children are able to increase their academic skills such as reading, writing and computing.
The 21st century or what is now referred to as the ‘information age’, requires the ability to be both critical and creative in our thinking as it is considered an important element of life success. Therefore this needs to be taught from the moment we are born.
Child Development Stages