PSY 104 Week 5 Final Paper: Community Child Development Center Proposal

Community Child Development Center Proposal

PSY104: Child and Adolescent Development (PTG1908A)

Community Child Development Center Proposal

Great Morning, and Welcome City Council Members. My name is Travunty Linares Towles, and I speak for myself and the remainder of my team. My team and I have been chosen to be the representative for our locale in a proposal for a Community Child Development Center. The Community Child Development Center is to help the children in our community with continued development and educational activities. All throughout this proposal you will certainly perceive how this Community Child Development Center will give a greater quality future to our children, and to the future children to come. The Community Child Development Center will provide five separate rooms with each relating to particular age categories ranging from infancy to adolescence. The goal of the Community Center is to improve the psyches of the considerable number of children in our locale. We need to indoctrinate our children for what they may experience in their future. With your assistance we can do this. Much obliged to you for your time.

ROOM #1 – Infant Room

Physical Development Activity

As infants are between the ages 0 to 6 months, they are not prone to doing much movement other than the normal arm leg and head movements. As the child reaches the age of 6 to 12 months, this is when the child begins to obtain posture. During this stage some of the milestones that the infants will begin are things such hold their heads up, sit without help, stand while clutching an individual’s hand, pull themselves up to a standing position, stand-alone by themselves, and start to walk with support of an object or a person (Mossler, 2014). The connection between postural control and fine motor skills is the essential focal point when clinicians are working on the motor skills of infant children. This standard proposes that motor advancement at first happens proximally (i.e., in the head and trunk) and from there on advances outwardly toward the distal pieces of the body (i.e., the hands and feet). Postural control, the capacity to keep up the middle weight or a body part over a steady or moving base of support, is a case of a proximal motor functions (Wang, Howe, Hinojosa & Weinberg, 2011). This activity will prepare the infant for the toddler stage in which the toddler will need balance and posture to walk and run, along with other activities that will need balance and posture.

Cognitive Development Activity

One of the activities that will be incorporated into the infant room at the community center will be hide-and-seek. During this activity the caregiver or caregivers can go partially hide themselves behind or under an object (i.e. shelf, chair, table, or blanket) and allow the child to see some part of them. Also, hide-and-seek can be done by taking an item (i.e., child’s favorite toy or snack) and hiding it with the item being partially visible or putting the item in something that is transparent so that the child can still see it. Looking for a hidden object reveals that infant children start to comprehend that objects continue existing even during the point that the object may not be seen. Jean Piaget focused on the fact that the comprehension of object permanence is one of the most imperative achievements of infant children cognitive development. This milestone that an infant goes through during the first 1 to 2 years of his or her life is the development of object permanence, which is one of the developmental functions of the sensorimotor stage. Infants are said to usually start playing hide-and-seek around the ages of 9 to 11 moth old (Carvalho & Sarinho, 2016). Doing activities with infants such as hide-and-seek helps to promote the development of object permanence in infant children while also giving the child happiness and a sense of achievement when finding the object or person that are hidden. Both psychosocial development and cognitive development are a factor with infants playing hide-and-seek due to the interacting with others (Mossler, 2014).

Psychosocial Development Activity

Security items help infants figure out how to change from familiar places to new or scary environments. Security items such as stuffed animals or security blankets can give the baby a sense of comfort to that it is directly there alongside them when they’re introduced to new individuals or new places. It will make them feel not so much alone but rather more secure. Infants are at the basic trust vs mistrust stage. This stage ranges from birth to 1 year old. Erickson suggested that the principal conflict of infancy derives around the infant’s reliance needs and parental responsiveness. They want to feel safe that they will be fed, changed, supported, and comforted. At the point when guardians are responsive and reliable the infant child becomes certain that their requirements will be met, which in return causes the baby to build up a feeling of trust (Mossler, 2014). By using security items this can enhance the emotional psychosocial development of infants because when infants feel secure and needs are consistently met, it can prevent mistrust, suspicion, and anxiety from developing.

Physical Development Activity

• ROOM #2 – Toddler Room

As infants become toddlers, they begin to develop more from both a physical and cognitive perspective. They begin to explore more due to their imagination and their need to explore more things. One of the biggest activities that toddlers begin to do in the 12 to 24-month stage is playing with blocks. By playing with blocks, one milestone that the toddlers will begin at this stage is utilizing their critical thinking skills. They do this by figuring out what they want to build. Additionally, by figuring what squares they need to place where so as to make the structure taller and more extensive. Another achievement that is used is self-expression. This is on the grounds that when the babies work with squares they can investigate, express themselves and utilize the squares to make little words that they have learned. Social and emotional development is additionally another milestone that is at this stage. Squares help toddlers figure out how to take turns and share materials, grow new friendships, become independent, increase the capacity to focus, collaborate with others, and create confidence. Regardless of whether it is accepted or not, playing with squares help babies to create in all territories. Block play requires both fine and gross motor skills. Block play upgrade kids’ critical thinking capacities, mathematics abilities, and language and education capacities. Additionally, assembling “creations” builds confidence and feelings of achievement (Derrhy, 2015).

Cognitive Development Activity

An activity that can be incorporated into toddler room that fosters cognitive development at the community center is playing with play-doh. During this activity the kids can get play-doh out of the containers and use them as an arts & craft activity. They can mold the play-doh and use their imagination and creativity to make thing with it. Also, using the play-doh can help to strengthen the children’s hand, fingers and arms. Cognitive development is the factor of toddler stages when dealing with play-doh due to it being able to make the children aware of changes in similar objects. Each of the children are using their cognitive skills and relying on their language and communication to be understood by others, and to understand others as well. When playing with play-doh, children are starting to utilize symbolic thinking, or imagining the play-doh is something different. This is an essential skill for cognitive adaptability, and a manner by which kids express their thoughts. Activities that include utilizing play-doh lend themselves to the presentation of the ideas of color and shape. For instance, you can make the play-doh in a range of various colors by adding food coloring to the mixture during the preparation process and utilizing the colored play-doh to make shapes, such as long yellow “bananas” and round red “strawberries.”

Psychosocial Development Activity

An activity that can be incorporated into the toddler room that fosters psychosocial development is Duck, Duck Goose. During this activity the children will sit in a circle while one child out of the group is chosen to go around the circle touching each child on the top of their head while saying “Duck”. The child will continue this until he or she chooses an individual that he will say “Goose”, and that child must stand and chase him or her around the circle and make the tag before he or she can make it back around the circle and sit in their place. Duck, Duck Goose probably won’t seem like an especially important psychosocial activity to many, yet it is. Playing Duck, Duck, Goose requires your 3-year-old to comply with a peer’s directions, wait his or her turn to run and quickly react when chosen as the “Goose.” Because of its organized, straightforward rules and objectives, this activity is particularly helpful for 3-year-olds who are new to engaging in group playing.

Physical Development Activity

• ROOM #3 – Early Childhood Room

An activity that can be utilized in the early childhood room is dancing. One example of a dance that can used for physical development is Hokey Pokey. The Hokey Pokey is a dancing game where the instructor usually stands in front of the children and begins to dance while singing the Hokey Pokey song. Dance commands are given by the instructor during the song which the kids will have to follow, with some command from the song being “You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about! This milestone is between the ages of 3 to 6 years old, with some of the physical developments being obtained consisting of things such as balance, coordination, and self-control with the movement of different body parts.

Cognitive Development Activity

Another activity that can be utilized in the early childhood room is learning the alphabet, which can be used for cognitive development of the children. The children can be assisted to distinguish letters by singing along all together in unison the alphabet song, by teachers reading books about the alphabet, and giving the children alphabet puzzles to play with. With the alphabet puzzles the educators can cut out singular squares that include each letter of alphabet written in bright colors. Blend them up and tape them on different surfaces in the room. The teacher will then go through the letters of the alphabet with the children while urging them to look around the room to locate the letters and tape them to the wall all together in order. Whenever completed, leave the set letters all together up on the wall until the time comes to play the game again. With this milestone in early childhood when children are between the ages of 3 to 6 years old cognitive development can be achieved through earning academic skills and building a knowledge base, while learning letters and colors.

Psychosocial Development Activity

One last activity that can be utilized in the early childhood room is a stacking game that can be used for psychosocial development. This activity is helpful with psychosocial development because of the fact that it promotes milestones such as communication between children and their peers. In many instances, children may find it difficult to maintain a conversation with their peers. Dr. Susan Williams White built up various social skills activities to support children, including Checker Stack, which is an activity that expects children to alternate and remain on topic. To play this two-player activity, you only need a set of stackable tokens such as checkers or stackable blocks, and a grown-up to help judge the relevance of every player’s contribution. The activity starts when player one sets down a token or block and says something to start a discussion. Next, player two reacts with a suitable statement, and places another checker or block over the previous one. The players continue alternating to propel the discussion to perceive to what extent they can keep the discussion going and how high they can make their stack. At the point when a player says something irrelevant or off-topic, the conversational stream is broken, and the activity is finished (White, 2011).

Physical Development Activity

• ROOM #4 – Middle/Late Childhood Room

A physical development activity that will be utilized in the middle/late childhood room will be indoor hopscotch. The indoor hopscotch will be created with a 10ft long, 3ft wide nonskid runner, duct tape, number stencils, and spray paint that will be used to number each single and double set of squares. Each square will be 12in long and 18in wide. Each child will use a beanbag as their marker. The first player stands behind the starting line to toss his or her marker in square one. Hop over square one to square two and then continue hopping to square eight, turn around, and hop back again. Pause in square two to pick up the marker, hop in square one, and out. Then continue by tossing the stone in square two. All hopping is done on one foot unless the hopscotch design is such that two squares are side-by-side. Then two feet can be placed down with one in each square. A player must always hop over any square where a maker has been placed. A player is out if the marker fails to land in the proper square, the hopper steps on a line, the hopper loses balance when bending over to pick up the marker and puts a second hand or foot down, the hopper goes into a square where a marker is, or if a player puts two feet down in a single box. The player puts the marker in the square where he or she will resume playing on the next turn, and the next player begins. Physical development milestones from hopscotch helps children to master body control. Hopscotch also helps children to manage body rhythm, which is the core of numerous other skills. Movements involved build body strength, balance, eye/hand coordination and more.

Cognitive Development Activity

A cognitive development activity that will be utilized in the middle/late childhood room will be baking. Baking small things such as brownies, cupcakes and cakes can be very helpful with a child’s cognitive development. When getting creative you can incorporate a few parts of Piaget’s theories into this activity. Baking includes measurements, which would be helpful to the idea of conservation. Mossler (2014) mentions that Piaget states that the conservation milestone is said to begin between the ages of 7 to 12 and is “the awareness that changing the appearance of a substance does not change the properties such as mass, number, or volume of the substance” (pg. 10). When getting creative you can incorporate a few parts of Piaget’s theories into this activity. Baking includes measurements, which would be helpful to the idea of conservation. Measuring containers come in different shapes so it is enjoyable to measure precisely the same measurement utilizing different sorts of measuring utensils. Additionally, the ingredients could be arranged into various categories such as the dry ingredients, the wet ingredients, etc. Numbers and arranging become an integral factor with the unmistakable directions. Children in the middle/late childhood age group will usually appreciate assisting in the kitchen, particularly if it’s heating something fun like treats, so it transforms into an extraordinary learning opportunity.

Psychosocial Development Activity

A psychosocial development activity that will be utilized in the middle/late childhood room will be drawing. Drawing empowers the child’s creative ability to become increasingly more active. Each time they draw they get to access their creative energy and make physical portrayals of what’s in their mind. When drawing, a kid is faced with multiple choices, whether it’s what color would it be a good idea for me to use here? or how would I draw an animal and interface one piece of its body to another? Children can’t always express themselves with words and activities, so drawing is another imperative type of communication. The industry vs inferiority stage ranges from the age 7 to 11 years old. During the industry vs inferiority stage children build an expanding feeling of competence in which they take initiative, grow their opportunities, experience a feeling of achievement, and become productive. These traits are accomplished through self-reinforced learning and discovery. Industry is reflected with the manner in which the children assemble, fix, sort out, and acquire learning (Mossler, 2014). Drawing in this childhood development room can enhance both emotional and moral development. Complementary to music, art is an undeniably common play intercession that advances self-articulation and healing in children. Taking part in expressive exercises gives chance to self-expression and emotion regulation guideline for the children and can permit guardians and staff individuals to more likely evaluate how the child is understanding and adapting to their experience (Jones, 2018).

Physical Development Activity

• ROOM #5 – Adolescence Room

A physical development activity that will be utilized in the adolescence room will be yoga. Before starting yoga or any other exercise that cause a lot of movement on the body it is best to sufficiently stretch your body. When it comes to doing yoga there are many different poses that can be used that are said to help get our body in good health, while also helping to make our bodies. A few basic yoga poses are downward facing dog, upward facing dog, and the plank. Yoga does more than burn calories and tone muscles. Therapeutic yoga is characterized as the use of yoga stances and practice to the treatment of health conditions and includes guidance in yogic practices and lessons to avert diminish or ease basic, physiological, emotional and spiritual pain, suffering or limitations. A study done by the National Institutes of Health demonstrate that yoga practices upgrade physical development milestones such as muscular strength and body flexibility, advance and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function, promote recuperation from and treatment of addiction, diminish stress, anxiety and chronic pain, improve sleep patterns, and enhance general health and quality of life (Woodyard, 2011).

Cognitive Development Activity

A cognitive development activity that can be utilized in the adolescence room at the community center is card games. Card games such as spades and UNO can teach the adolescents can improve logical thinking and problem-solving skills. During the adolescent stage, the children will advance from the operational concrete stage to the operational formal stage. During this milestone the adolescents will begin learning how to utilize deductive reasoning and hypothetical thinking in order to form different outcomes (Mossler, 2014). Playing card games such as spades and UNO enforces the use of deductive reasoning and hypothetical thinking in order to win the game. Athletic games, both competitive and noncompetitive board games, and card games, appeal to adolescents and are compelling approaches to invigorate communication, establish an association with someone else, and help ease tension (Breen & Daigneault, 1998). Both psychosocial development and cognitive development are a factor with infants playing hide-and-seek due to the interacting with others, along with utilizing thinking and reasoning skills.

Psychosocial Development Activity

A psychosocial activity that can be utilized in the adolescence room at the community center is charades (Acting). When playing charades, the children will think of something in particular that they will act out with movements or object without talking (such as what career field they want to work in). Whomever guesses what the person is acting out will then get the chance to act out what they want the other peers to guess. This activity is categorized in the identity vs role confusion stage. This stage take place during the adolescence stage. Eric Erickson felt that amid the beginning stages of identity vs role confusion, adolescents are attempting to create self-concept and confidence. The teenagers are finding who they really are, which incorporates their sexual character and what they might want to do throughout in their future. Diverse practices are normally attempted by the adolescents before finding their career pathway. All these things are the procedure that adolescents experience in the identity vs role confusion stage to discover a sense of self and identity that they believe they can discover themselves with (Mossler, 2014). Both self-esteem and self-concept are viewed as a vital segment of emotional well-being. They envelop both self-confidence and self-acceptance. It is simply the manner in which people perceive themselves and their self-value.

Taking everything into account, we ensure that when the children of the community enter our locale center that they will be in the best hands. We will give the important educational necessities to every child including each age and grade level. We aspire on the significance of how we intrigue the children to develop and respond to activities that help assemble their physical, cognitive, and psychosocial advancement skills. We as a whole make progress toward great education for all the children that come to our Center. Especially with our infants and toddlers on the grounds that at their age we are shaping them to be the best at a highly developmental level. I truly welcome the time you took to see our proposal for the locale Community Child Development Center. I likewise want to thank you for considering the idea to roll out positive improvements in our area. I trust that kids are our future and in order to have any kind of effect in our future we must concentrate on our children’s well-being and their successful future, and we believe that this Community Center will make a positive future possible for the children.

References

Breen, D. T., & Daigneault, S. D. (1998). The use of play therapy with adolescents in high school. International Journal of Play Therapy, 7(1), 25–47. Retrieved from https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1037/h0089417

Carvalho, E. B., & Sarinho, S, W. (2016). The Nursing Consultation in Monitoring Child Growth and Development in the Family Health Strategy. Journal of Nursing UFPE / Revista de Enfermagem UFPE, 10, 4804–4812. Retrieved from https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.5205/reuol.8200-71830-3-SM.1006sup201612

Derrhy, K. (2015, March). National Association for the Education of Young Children. Ten Things Children Learn from Block Play. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2015/ten-things-children-learn-block-play

Jones, M. (2018). The Necessity of Play for Children in Health Care. Pediatric Nursing, 44(6), 303. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=133645947&site=eds-live&scope=site

Mossler, R. A. (2014). Child and adolescent development (2nd ed). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/

Wang, T.-N., Howe, T.-H., Hinojosa, J., & Weinberg, S. L. (2011). Relationship Between Postural Control and Fine Motor Skills in Preterm Infants at 6 and 12 Months Adjusted Age. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(6), 695–701. Retrieved from https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.5014/ajot.2011.001503

White, S. W. (2011). Social Skills Training for Children with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. New York: The Guilford Press. Retrieved from https://www.parentingscience.com/social-skills-activities.html

Woodyard C. (2011). Exploring the therapeutic effects of yoga and its ability to increase quality of life. International journal of yoga, 4(2), 49-54.