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Read this article to learn about Emotional Development in Child during Three to Five Years. After reading this article you will learn about: 1. Introduction to Emotional Development 2. Reflex Stage 3. Manipulation Stage 4. Interactive Play 5. Aggressive Play.
Contents:
- Introduction to Emotional Development
- Reflex Stage
- Manipulation Stage
- Interactive Play
- Aggressive Play
1. Introduction to Emotional Development:
“An emotion is characterised by the occurrence of a fairly intense physiological response (sudden increase in heart rate, contraction of stomach muscles, increase in blood pressure, increase in muscle tension, release of adrenal hormones) in association with a specific internal need, image, thought, or external stimulus.
The name we apply to the emotion—fear, joy, sorrow—is determined by the content of the image, nature of the need, or meanings of the external arousing stimulus”.
Arousal of emotions is very much related to maturity. A very small child cannot realise what it is to lose, forever, and the one that he loves so dearly, hence, is not likely to suffer from the emotion of grief at such a loss. No failure still causes any intense emotional upset. “……..an adult emotion is the product of a learned association between a specific thought or situation and a physiological or postural reaction.”
A bashful gesture can be a reaction of a three-year-old child when a stranger enters his room, but a small baby, only a month old, cannot be expected to indicate the presence of any emotion in such a situation. In the process of emotional development, the role of perceptions happens to be very important—the higher will be the emotional development as the perceptual capacities grow in acuity.
2. Reflex Stage:
It is the first stage in the series, when the children’s movement towards one another happens to be unlearned or totally natural. Many a time, children may be seen, clinging to each other out of peer affection. They may be seen close to each other in ventral clasp.
The mother, often, has to adjust their positions, looking to their physical needs. During the play-session of children, clinging and clasping episodes occur as reflexes, and, are indicative of the presence of a strong emotion of peer-affection.
3. Manipulation Stage:
During the per-school period, co-ordination goes on increasing, in case of movement of eyes, hands and other larger muscles of the body. This coordination gains in acuity as the child indulges more and more into exploratory launches.
The movements of the child may be to the effect of bodily exploration of the mother, for the first instance. As the child grows in age, the area of its exploration and number of objects of exploration, also increase [Fig. 11.1 (a), (b), (c)].
The child becomes better able to explore its surroundings because of the growing co-ordination among the functions of different organs of the body. The manipulative activities happen to be surcharged with a strong feeling of curiosity and attachment.
Such a strong feeling may also be taken to be an emotion. The manipulative stage persists into the stage of interactive plays; and “social play emerges from the matrix of manipulatory play”.
4. Interactive Play:
The stage of interactive play is a step further in the process of child’s socialisation. This is a step further, also in the development of peer-affection. “It marks the true social interactions among peers”. It overlaps with manipulatory plays as they start being interspersed with many sequences of physical exploration.
Plays are directed towards the age-mates, and may be towards the younger or the older. Social- interactions continue, subject to the availability of responsive partners.
More complex type of interactive play develops. The rough and tumble play, is replaced by a play where close body contact is not so much required. This pattern has been described as “approach-withdrawal” or “non-contact play”.
The movements at this stage, generally, happen to be pursuit and retreat types in quick succession to each other. There is no clear-cut separation, in times, of rough and tumble play from that of the approach- withdrawal one; the occasions for the former type grow less in number gradually, as for that ; of the latter increase in the same proportion.
5. Aggressive Play:
It is the final stage. It is the stage when improved motor skills are displayed. The spirit of competition pervades throughout the period of such a play; the motive, working behind the motor activities, happens to be to secure a place of importance in society.
Social status is among the important needs of a man. What a man feels about such a need, how seriously he persists in fulfilling that need—would depend upon his emotional character; and all this also affects as an important factor in the emotional development of a man. “Aggression is simply additional social mechanism operating in peer-interactions”.
A strong intra-group affectional relationship develops. Every member of the group, is bound to all the other members of the group in an emotional tie. “The in-groups cohere against out-groups. Though, gradually, friendship develops among members of different groups; living together, playing or indulging in activities together, engenders relationships.
Nonetheless, when a member of one’s own group is threatened, all the other members of the group will unite to protect him, to rescue him, an evidence of esprit de corps.
Suitable playful environment is helpful in a proper emotional growth. Suitability of a play is a relative term; it is relative to age and sex. By the time, the child is five years old, he or she starts preferring the company of the like-sexed playmates.
Play is an important social behaviour; it is predominately an infantile behaviour which persists into adolescence, but continuously grows weaker with age. Play also shows the continuance of affectional ties which bind those, who are together in playful activities.