How to Teach Early Childhood Development

Teach the first of the five components, physical development. Explain the major components of physical development, including fine and gross motor skill development. Explain that fine motor skills allow children to write, fasten clothing and hold small objects. Without fine motor skills, children may be unable to feed themselves, write legibly, dress themselves or turn the pages of a book or magazine. Gross motor skills use the larger body muscles and allow children to walk, sit upright, throw things and lift things. Without gross motor skills, children will be limited in their ability to move or function independently.

Teach about social development. Explain how children play with others, share and cooperate and form attachments that create enduring relationships with others. Children do not just innately know how to share and get along. They look for a model of behavior. Arrange for your students to observe in child-centered preschool classes. During these observations students can be given an opportunity to model sharing behavior or set up rules for sharing among children. Because children are self-centered, it's unlikely they will want to share, but they somewhat understand following rules. Be sure that the students understand that sharing influences the children's ability to get along, because it teaches them to consider others, not just themselves.

Teach about creative development. Explain that during early childhood, children often develop special talents. By participating in music lessons or musical events, creating or observing art, singing or even writing, the spark of creativity can be lit in children. Due to the large variety of creative children's activities, this lesson may be best taught through lecture and the use of video recordings of children involved in creative activities. In addition it should be stressed that creativity should not be forced. Yes, a parent, teacher or caregiver can require practice but not at an activity that is not of any interest to the child. That child will simply perform the activity, not enjoy the activity.

Teach emotional development. During early childhood, children become self-confident and self-aware. Children also develop methods for dealing with emotions and understanding emotions. Children will accomplish these developments through everyday interactions. Play gives children a chance to practice. In play children will find things that they are good at and remember how that felt. They also begin to understand the feelings of others through play. They remember what they were not good at and how that felt. They prefer the good feelings and recognize the anguish in others when someone else is not successful at play. The best understanding of this development can be gained through continued observation of preschool children. The students may even wish to play with the children they observe, serving as models for appropriate emotions.

Teach what may be the most important component of early childhood development, cognitive development. Explain that this development concerns how children react, think and how they make sense of their world.
Explain through lecture Swiss philosopher and developmental biologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which consists of four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations and formal operations. During sensorimotor stage, between birth and 2 years old, children display their intelligence though limited language and motor activity use, which is learned from physical interactions. They constantly explore their world with their five senses.
The second stage, preoperational, is from 2 to 7 years old. Children show their intelligence during this stage with improved language, creativity and memory. Children's imagination dominates most of their interactions during this stage. They do not use logical thinking. The third stage, concrete operations, lasts from 7 years old until about 12 years old, and intelligence is shown with more concrete thoughts and understandings.
During the last stage, formal operations, intelligence is shown with abstract thought. They are really able to think logically without much assistance. This stage lasts for the rest of their lives.
According to Piaget's philosophy, it is important to allow children to explore things of interest. Children who are challenged at their developmental levels are thought to have adequate cognitive development. His supporters and non-supporters agree that involving children in hands-on experiences in the real world with their peers aids cognitive development.