The development stages for learners

" The discussion of development stages "

In this blog discuss four aspect about: 

• Definition about " young learners" 
•  Describe the developmental stages that learners go through between birth and puberty 
• Discuss the practical implication of learner characteristics at developmental stages
• Describe challenges and solution in teaching young learners
• Discuss the pros and cons of the early introduction of a foreign language 

Young learners they are in age 2 – 13 years old (Kindergarten & Elementary school)

The development stages that learners go through between birth and puberty : 

Infancy (First 12 Months of Life) and Toddlerhood (1—2 Years of Age)

This period refers to the coordination and integration of motor activities with perceptions. As children mature from infancy to  toddlerhood, learning is enhanced through sensory experiences and through movement-and manipulation of objects in the environment. Children at this stage have short attention spans, are easily distracted, are egocentric in their  thinking, and are not amenable to correction of their own ideas. Unquestionably, they believe their, own perceptions to be reality-asking questions is the hallmark of this age curiosity abounds as they explore places things. They can respond to simple, step-by step commands and obey such directives as a kiss" or "go get your teddy bear".  

FOR SHORT-IERM LEARNING

• Read simple stories from books with lots of pictures.
• Use dolls and puppets to act out feelings and behaviors.
•  Use simple audiotapes with music and videotapes with cartoon characters. 
•  Role-play to bring the child's imagination closer to reality.
•  Give simple, concrete, nonthreatening explanations to accompany visual and tactile experiences.
•  Perform procedures on a teddy bear or doll first to help the child anticipate what an experience will be like. 
•  Allow the child something to do— squeeze your hand, hold a Band-Aid, cry if it hurts—to channel their responses to an unpleasant experience. 
•  Keep teaching sessions brief (no longer than about 5 minutes each) because of the child's short attention span.
•  Cluster teaching sessions close together so that children can remember what they learned from one instructional encounter to another.
•  Avoid analogies and explain things in straightforward and simple terms because children take their world literally and concretely.
•  Individualize the pace Of teaching according to the child's responses and level of attention.

Early Childhood (3—5 Years of Age)

Children in the preschool years continue with development of skills learned in the earlier years of growth. Their sense of identity becomes clearer, and their world expands to encompass involvement with others external to the family unit. Children in this developmental category acquire new behaviors that give them more independence from their parents and allow them to care for themselves more autonomously. Learning during this time period occurs through interactions with others and through mimicking or modeling the behaviors of playmates and adults (Richmond & Kotelchuck, 1984; Whitener et al., 1998).

Children in the preschool years begin to develop the capacity to recall past experiences and anticipate future events. They can classify objects into groups and categories, but have only a vague understanding of their relationships. The young child continues to be egocentric and is essentially unaware of others' thoughts or the existence of others' points of view. Thinking remains literal and concrete—they believe what is seen and heard. Pre causal thinking allows young children to understand that people can make things happen, but they are unaware of causation as the result of invisible physical and mechanical forces. They often believe that they can influence natural phenomena, and their beliefs reflect animistic thinking—the tendency to endow inanimate objects with life and consciousness (Pidgeon, 1977; Santrock, 2006).

Preschool children are very curious, can think intuitively, and pose questions about almost anything. They want to know the reasons, cause, and purpose for everything (the why) but are unconcerned at this point with the process (the how). Fantasy and reality are not well differentiated. Children in this cognitive stage mix fact and fiction, tend to generalize, think magically, develop imaginary playmates, and believe they can control events with their thoughts. At the same time, they do possess self-awareness and realize that they are vulnerable to outside influences (Santrock, 2006; Vander Zanden et al., 2007).

In the preschool stage, children begin to develop sexual identity and curiosity, an interest that may cause considerable discomfort for their parents. Cognitive understanding of their bodies related to structure. function, health, and illness becomes more specific and differentiated. They can name external body parts but have only an ill-defined concept of the size and shape of internal organs and the function of body parts (Kotchabhakdi, 1985).

FOR SHORT-TERM LEARNING

• Provide physical and visual stimuli because language ability is still limited, both for expressing ideas and for comprehending verbal instructions.
• Keep teaching sessions short (no more than 15 minutes) and scheduled sequentially at close intervals so that information is not forgotten.
• Relate information needs to activities and experiences familiar to the child. For example, ask the child to pretend to blow out candles on a birthday cake to  practice deep breathing.
• Encourage the child to participate in selecting between a limited number of teaching—learning options, such as playing with dolls or reading a story, which promotes active involvement and helps to establish nurse—client rapport.
• Arrange small group sessions with peers as a way to make teaching less threatening and more fun.
• Give praise and approval, through both verbal expressions and nonverbal gestures, which are real motivators for learning.

Middle and Late Childhood (6—11 Years of Age)

In middle and late childhood, children have progressed in their physical, cognitive, and psychosocial skills to the point where most begin formal training in structured school systems.  They approach learning with enthusiastic anticipation, and their minds are open to new and varied ideas.

Children at this developmental level are motivated to learn because of their natural  and their desire to understand more about themselves, their bodies, their world, and the influence that different things in the world have on them (Whitener et al., 1998). This stage is a period of great change for them, when attitudes, values, and perceptions of themselves, their society, and the world are shaped and expanded* Visions of their own environment and I the cultures of others take on more depth and breadth (Sancrock, 2006).

Children in this developmental phase are capable of engaging in systematic thought through inductive reasoning. They are able to classify objects and systems, express concrete ideas about relationships and people, and carry out mathematical operations. Also, they begin to understand and use sarcasm as well as to employ well developed language skills for telling jokes,- conveying complex stories, and communicating increasingly more sophisticated thoughts (Snowrnan & Biehler,) 

FOR SHORT-TERM LEARNING

• Allow school-aged children to take responsibility for their own health care because they are not only willing but also capable of manipulating equipment with accuracy. Because of their adeptness in relation to manual dexterity, mathematical operations, and logical thought processes. they can be taught, for example, to calculate and administer their own insulin or use an asthma inhaler as prescribed.
• Teaching sessions can be extended to last as long as 30 minutes each because the increased cognitive abilities of school-aged children aids in the retention of information. However, lessons should be spread apart to allow for comprehension of large amounts of content and to provide opportunity for the practice  of newly acquired skills between sessions.
• Use diagrams, models, pictures, videotapes, printed materials, and computers as adjuncts to various teaching methods because an increased facility with language (both spoken and written) as well as with mathematical concepts allows for these children to work with more complex instructional tools.   Choose audiovisual and printed materials that show peers undergoing similar procedures or facing similar situations.   Clarify any scientific terminology and medical jargon used.
• Use analogies as an effective means of providing information in meaningful terms such as "Having a chest X-ray is like having your picture taken" or "White blood cells are like police cells that can attack and destroy infection.
• Use one-to-one teaching sessions as a method to individualize learning relevant to the child's own experiences and as a means to interpret the results of nursing interventions particular to the child's own condition.
• Provide time for clarification, validation, and reinforcement of what is being learned.
• Select individual instructional techniques that provide opportunity for privacy, an increasingly important concern for this group of learners, who often feel quite self-conscious and modest when learning about bodily functions.
• Employ group teaching sessions with others of similar age and with similar problems or needs to help children avoid feelings of isolation and to assist them in identifying with their own peers.
• Prepare children for procedures well in advance to allow them time to cope with their feelings and fears, to anticipate events, and to understand what the purpose of each procedure is, how it relates to their condition, and how much time it will take.
• Encourage participation in planning for procedures and events because active involvement will help the child to assimilate information more readily.
• Provide much-needed nurturance and support, always keeping in mind that young children are not just small adults. Praise and rewards will help motivate and reinforce learning.

Adolescence (12—19 Years of Age)

The stage of adolescence marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. During this prolonged and very change-filled period of time, many adolescents and their families experience much turmoil. How adolescents think about themselves and the world significantly influences. 

Formal operational thought enables adolescents to conceptualize invisible processes and make determinations about what others say and how they behave. With this capacity, teenagers can become obsessed with what they think as well as what others are thinking, a characteristic known as adolescent egocentrism. They begin to believe that everyone is focusing on the same things they are—namely, themselves and their activities. Elkind (1984) labeled this belief as the imaginary audience, a type of social thinking that has considerable influence over an adolescent's behavior. The imaginary audience explains the pervasive self-consciousness of adolescents, who, on the one hand, may feel embarrassed because they believe everyone is looking at them and, on the other hand, desire to be looked at and thought about because this attention confirms their sense of being special and unique (Santrock, 2006; Snowman, 2006; Vander Zanden et al., 2007).

Adolescents are able to understand the concept of health and illness, the multiple causes of diseases, the influence of variables on health status, and the ideas associated with health promotion and disease prevention. 

 

FOR SHORT-TERM LEARNING

•  Use one-to-one instruction to ensure confidentiality of sensitive information.
• Plans related to teaching strategies, expected outcomes, and determining what needs to be learned and how it can best be achieved to meet their needs for autonomy.
• Suggest options so that they feel they have a choice about courses of action.
• Give a rationale for all that is said and done to help adolescents feel a sense of control.
• Approach them with respect, tact, openness, and flexibility to elicit their attention and encourage their responsiveness to teaching—learning situations.
• Expect negative responses, which are common when their self-image and self integrity are threatened.
• Avoid confrontation and acting like an authority figure. Instead of directly contradicting their opinions and beliefs, acknowledge their thoughts and then casually suggest an alternative viewpoint or choices, such as "Yes, I can see your point, but what about the possibility of .

Stages of Cognitive Development

1.  The stage of sensory-motor intelligence (age 0 to 2 years). During this stage, behavior is primarily motor. The child does not yet internally represent events and “think” conceptually, although “cognitive” development is seen as schemata are constructed. 
2.  The stage of preoperational thought (age 2 to 7 years). This stage is characterized by the development of language and other forms of representation and rapid conceptual development. Reasoning during this stage is pre-logical or semi-logical, and children tend to be very egocentric. Children often focus on a single feature of a situation at a time—for example, they may be able to sort by size or by color but not by both characteristics at once. 
3. The stage of concrete operations (age 7 to 11 years). During these years, the child develops the ability to apply logical thought to concrete problems. Hands-on, concrete experiences help children understand new concepts and ideas. Using language to exchange information becomes much more important than in earlier stages, as children become more social and less egocentric. 
4. The stage of formal operations (age 11 to 15 years or older). During this stage, the child’s cognitive structures reach their highest level of development. The child becomes able to apply logical reasoning to all classes of problems, including abstract problems either not coming from the child’s direct experience or having no concrete referents

Challenges and solution in teaching young learners

When the students refuses to participate/do the task : 

This is a frequent problem that can have many different causes. In the first few lessons, this may simply be shyness, but it is important to identify the cause early on in order to devise an effective strategy. A few other causes might include:

• Lack of language required to respond or do the task. Provide differentiation tasks or scaffolding to help students with a lower level complete the task or have them respond in a non-oral way.
• Low self-confidence in their ability to speak English. Again, differentiation and scaffolding can help here. Have students work in small groups or pairs first, before being asked to speak in front of the whole class.
• Lack of interest or engagement in the topic. If students aren’t interested, they won’t have anything to say. Adapt the topic or task, or just move on.
• External issues e.g. a bad day, a fight with a friend, physical problems (tiredness/hunger/thirst). Talk to the student privately to find out if they are experiencing any problems. Allow them to “pass” on a task if necessary, and give them something less challenging to do. 

It is important not to force students to do something they don’t want to do, as this will cause a negative atmosphere and can affect the whole class. At the end of the day, if a student skips one or two tasks, it’s not going to affect their achievement in the long run.

The pros and cons of the early introduction of a foreign language 

Language is always an important part in daily lives, personal qualifications, and job requirements. Nowadays, many parents would like their children to learn a second language at an early age to let them be one step ahead of others and increase their competitiveness in future. However, it is controversial that whether language learning at an early age is good for children.

• Pro .....
• : Motivate kids' skills in their native language, research shows that children who study a foreign language perform better in their native language than non-bilingual students, and the advantages increases the earlier you expose them to second language.
• Encourages wisdom, empathy, curiosity , cultural sensitivity, and tolerance
• Improves kids' brains function , brain scans show they have more gray matter in the regions of their brains which is vital for the executive functions skills ( emotional control, working memory, inhibition, planning and prioritization, shift, organization and self-monitoring)
• It improve test scores in English, mathematics and science
• It prepare children for more future career opportunities
• Helps connecting kids to their heritage

• Cons...
• Additional effort for the parents
• Speaking later : while there's no scientific evidence that proves multilingual begin speaking later. However , many parents estimate that there is a three to six month delay compared to monolingual children the same age. Even so, six month is a small price to pay for the ability of your kid to speak two or three language.
• Mixing language
• Bilingual education is not cheap

References :

https://www.education.com/magazine/article/learning-a-second-language/

Richmond, J. B. , & Kotelchuck, M. (1984). Personal health maintenance for children. The Western Journal ofMedicine, 141(6), 816—823.

Ryberg, J. W. , & Merrifield, E. B. (1984). What parents want to know. Nurse Practitioner. 9(6), 24—32.

Santrock,J. W. Life-span development (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Snowman, J. , & Biehler, R. Psychology applied to teaching. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.