Stages of child development and how mothers deal with each stage

Children go through many stages of life until they become adults, as they undergo many physical and physiological changes during these stages.

Therefore, mothers always try to know these changes and how to deal with each stage in the right way, so that the child is psychologically and physically healthy.

So here are the most important of these stages, how to deal with them and know the behaviors your child does, and also how to develop or change those behaviors.

Stages of child development and how to deal with each stage

• From birth to 2 years.
• Early childhood.
• Middle childhood.
• Late childhood.

From birth to two years

At this stage, the child begins to get to know the outside world, perceive what is going on around him, pay attention to new things, and begins to discover and satisfy his curious desire.

• In the first months, the child begins to listen to sounds and get to know the new world around him, and to distinguish the smells close to him, especially the smell of the mother, as she is the closest person to him.
• In the first months, he can also make some movements, such as moving his hands in different directions, rolling to a different side, and grasping his hands or holding small objects.
• After the first year, the child is able to move and walk and begins to move from one place to another. He can move some small things and distinguish the things he prefers, such as some toys.
• During this period, the child can say some words, such as “mama” and “dada,” and he can repeat some simple words after you.
• The child goes through many changes during this period, as some organs grow, and he begins to understand information and implement some instructions given to him.

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What you as a mother should do at this stage

Since the mother is the closest to the child, she is primarily responsible for his behavior and actions, so as a mother you must follow your child well at this stage.

• One of the things that should be done is to develop the child’s auditory and visual skills, such as teaching him some new animal sounds, and introducing him to some distinctive and easy-to-pronounce colors.
• Taking care of the child and paying attention to all the actions he does, guiding him to what is right, and allowing him to try some limited things on his own, such as drawing with a pen, or assembling cubes, while encouraging him.
• Try to talk to him and teach him to pronounce some words he needs to deal with the people around him.
• Providing a calm and comfortable environment for the child’s psyche to maintain his comfort, give him love, and make him feel that he is important to you as his mother and father.
• Pay attention to the actions that the child uses to express himself, such as crying when hungry or in pain, and smiling and laughing when playing with him and making him feel safe.

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Early childhood

This stage begins after the age of two until the age of five. It is the stage in which the child begins to interact with the external community around him and communicate with different people in his family.

• At this age, the child is ready to go to kindergarten, meet and communicate with new people, and form his own personality.
• Children also have hyperactivity at this age, and have a lot of energy that they try to release through playing and various activities. As a mother, you must know how to deal with this activity.
• Excessive curiosity about many things and constant questions are among the things that help the child to grow mentally, as he tries to understand everything around him and wants to try everything new that he sees.
• Also, the child has a strong memory at this age, so he can write down everything in his mind, whether it is good or bad, and it is often difficult to forget what he learned at this age.
• Children also tend to prove themselves to others, and that they are able to take care of themselves in an attempt to impose their personalities and opinions and feel free and independent.
• The child likes to test the extent of his parents’ love for him at this stage, by asking for something, being stubborn, and sticking to his opinion, so parents must know how to deal with this matter without negatively affecting the child.

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What you as a mother should do at this stage

This stage is considered the most important educational stage in which the mother must care for her child, as it is easy for her to control the child and raise him with good and sound values ​​and qualities, so that he becomes a miniature version of the person she would like to see when he grows up.

• You should exploit the child's mental ability to teach him useful things such as reading and writing, memorizing some English words, and teaching him religious matters and how to perform them in the correct way.
• Also, exploit his great kinetic energy and continuous activity in practicing sports that are beneficial to him, so that he gets used to them and they become an important part of his life.
• At this stage, you can teach your child the correct way to communicate with others, and how to deal with them when they differ in opinion, as he may be exposed to any similar situation when he goes to kindergarten and mixes with his colleagues.
• Give him some tasks to do, such as tidying his room and toys, or helping with a household activity, so that he learns the meaning of responsibility, how to commit, and how to depend on himself in some of his personal matters.
• Teaching him right from wrong and how to differentiate between them, and encouraging him to do good deeds such as helping others, loving others and not feeling jealous of anyone.
• Explain to him some fictional stories, and link them to some real-life examples. Do this when you want to explain something to him or convince him to change something wrong in his behavior.
• Make sure to spend a lot of time with him, and talk to him about many different topics, so that he develops his way of communicating with others, and gains self-confidence when speaking in front of them.
• Make him feel how much you love him, and that you are always there for him, so that he will always come back to you when he feels afraid of something, or confess to you when he does something wrong without feeling afraid.

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Middle childhood

This stage starts from the age of six to the age of nine, during which the child has developed more mentally and physically, and can do many things on his own. Most parents believe that the age of 8 is the most difficult within this stage of children’s development.

• After the child reaches 6 years of age, he begins to go to school, and is able to discover the world more and make new friends and acquaintances outside his family.
• The child tries to create a new space for himself, express his opinion freely, and tries to be independent from those around him.
• The child is ready to develop his educational abilities. He can learn to read and write, discover the skills he loves, and also learn some new activities.
• The child also has the ability to imitate adults to a great extent, as he imitates what he sees from his parents in particular more, as he takes them as a role model and acts like them.
• The child's desires and emotions calm down, he can control his feelings relatively and accept some opinions from others.

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What you as a mother should do at this stage

At this stage, the child feels a little free, and wants to try new things that are greater than what he used to do before, so you must help him and guide him carefully at this stage so that he does not acquire any inappropriate behavior from the environment around him.

• For example, you ask him to help you with some life matters, such as shopping, and ask his opinion on some things while buying them, or give him the freedom to choose something he wants as a reward for his commitment to your orders.
• You should also train him to do his homework by himself, without your help if there is no need for it.
• You also have to provide him with the appropriate environment in which he can practice the hobbies he loves, and provide him with assistance and encouragement to develop and improve them.
• You should also teach your child how to control his feelings and emotions, and how to behave if he is exposed to an inappropriate situation or feels angry with someone, for example.
• At this age, the child may have some feelings of jealousy, so you must know the things that generate this feeling in him and work on treating it. For example, these feelings may be due to his siblings or his friends in the class.
• Children also show some individual differences at this age, so the child must be taught how to accept others and accept the differences that distinguish some from others.

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late childhood

This stage begins at the age of nine until the child reaches adolescence and adulthood, and is one of the most sensitive periods for the child and his family together.

• The child's body is fully developed at this stage, and his mental maturity may be complete with the appearance of some changes in his body, such as the appearance of sexual characteristics.
• The child knows more about different feelings and can differentiate between them, and acts according to the state of the environment around him, and is also able to understand the feelings of others and how to deal with them.
• The child is able to solve some problems by himself, or how to deal with them when faced with them, as he can distinguish everything he does like adults and knows right and wrong.
• When the child reaches this stage, he becomes relatively stable. You can determine the skills he likes, the activities he wants to do on his own, and compare between them and choose what he likes to excel in.
• This stage is the stage in which the child's ability to communicate and form different friendships grows the most at school, club, etc., as they search for new people other than their families to spend a little time with.

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What you as a mother should do at this stage

When your child reaches this stage, he wants to be free and tries to impose his beliefs and suggestions on those around him, to feel completely independent and mature enough to deal with others.

• You should help him find good friends, be careful of bad friends and their company, and not follow anyone without thinking.
• To consolidate religious beliefs, and to be interested in educating himself by reading some external books other than school books, so that his linguistic knowledge becomes good.
• You should also take good care of his mental and physical health, and help him develop his sports habits so that he gets used to them and practices them always.
• Help him develop his communication skills by participating in some activities in the city, such as volunteering with community institutions.
• Also teach him good qualities such as altruism, selflessness, and competing fairly without hatred or malice towards others.
• He must also know how to trust himself and not pay attention to what others say, and be convinced of the existence of individual differences between people, and that each person has something that distinguishes him from others.

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Child behavior assessment

The mother is the closest person to her child, so she must take into account his behaviors and correct the wrong ones, so that he becomes a good and influential person in the society around him. So what does a mother do when she sees improper behavior from her child?

• As a mother, you must identify the behaviors that you do not like your child to do, and know how much they affect him so that you can find an appropriate way to modify them.
• You can also talk to him about this behavior, explain to him how harmful this behavior is, and why he should not do it again.
• If the child is doing this out of imitation because he saw someone else doing it, you should guide him that it is not permissible to imitate everything he sees from others, and that there are differences between people.

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Some methods used to modify behavior

There are many ways and methods that a mother can follow to change her child’s behavior, including:

• Reinforcement.
• Positive punishment.
• Ignore bad behavior.
• immediate punishment

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reinforcement

Reinforcement is a method used by the mother to express her opinion about a certain behavior performed by the child, and this behavior may be:

• Positive reinforcement: The mother praises the child when he does a certain behavior on his own, such as arranging his toys, without telling him. This encourages him to do that always.
• Negative reinforcement: This type is a warning from the mother to her child when he does something wrong, such as making a mess in the place, for example. This is evidence that if he does it again, he will be punished, and he then understands that this is wrong.

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positive punishment

This type of punishment is by ordering the child to do something positive as a result of his wrong behavior. For example, the child may annoy his brother or friend, so he is punished by doing one of the tasks instead of them, and thus he knows that he must not repeat that behavior or else he will have to do more tasks.

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Ignore bad behavior

The child always loves to attract the attention of those around him, so he does many things to see how much his parents pay attention to him. Some of these actions may be incorrect and wrong, so parents should not pay any attention to him when he repeats a wrong behavior, such as jumping off a chair, so that he knows that it is a wrong action.

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immediate punishment

This type of punishment is the result of repeated wrong behavior that was previously warned against, or an act that requires severe punishment, such as taking something that does not belong to him from someone else or lying about some matters. This is done by depriving the child of the things he loves, such as toys, or not watching some of his favorite movies.

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This punishment must be implemented immediately upon the occurrence of this behavior and not postponed, so that he knows the severity of the mistake he made, taking into account that this punishment does not negatively affect him or his psyche, and that it does not include beating or physical harm of any kind.

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