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Milestone 1 - Physical Development
By the age of 6, a child will weigh about 46 lbs and will have less of an appetite, so the caregiver should be wise about what they feed their child and avoid sugary or salty snacks. The brain will be about 95 percent of its adult weight and the prefrontal cortex continues to develop, allowing greater regulation of emotion and ability to understand more rules. Visual pathways between the eyes and the brain continue to get stronger, and children will also become more curious about their bodies. -
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Milestone 2 - Cognitive Development
Preschool age is Piaget's stage of preoperational intelligence. Children, who are just learning to use language, think symbolically and struggle using logic. Pretend play is an important way children learn and cooperate with others, as egocentric children are learning to consider someone else's point of view. During this time, they will also exhibit syncretism, assuming two simultaneous events are caused by each other, and animism, giving living qualities to objects. -
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Milestone 3 - Psychosocial Development
As children grow, they become increasingly more aware of themselves. They may exaggerate their abilities and seek validation by claiming to be the best at something, and will take more initiative to assert independence, like getting dressed for bed, or trying to make their own food. If the initiative is inappropriate and the child is reprimanded, they'll feel a sense of guilt. Children become more aware of gender as they receive messages about what is considered appropriate for their gender. -
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Milestone 4 - Language Developement
Skinner believed that children learn language through operant conditioning, that it they receive rewards for using language correctly. Chomsky thought children have a language acquisition device that gave them the innate ability to learn language. Piaget held that children used assimilation, changing the environment to fit previous ideas, and accommodation, changing one's ideas to fit a new environment. Vygotsky found that language is learned through interacting with others.
