Studies show that children ages 0-6 go through stages to acquire particular skills. While in these stages, they can take in and retain information quite easily. This is why early childhood education is so critical to developing your child’s learning ability. They are at a significant disadvantage when they start school without the ability to recite and recognize letters and their sounds and numbers. The five stages of development are outlined below and will hopefully give her an incentive for how your child learns and develops so that she can provide the support needed for maximum results.

Stage 1: sensory
This stage begins from the birth of the child. The child learns about the world through the use of the five senses. Through the use of sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing, the child can learn about her environment. This stage is most evident when children reach around 18 months. You will notice that they have a tendency to put objects in their mouths as they try to learn from their environment with taste. Parents should ensure that children are in safe situations so that they can learn in this way, as children with low sensory abilities will not learn as quickly in their natural environment.

Stage 2: Social
Social skills are a part of people’s character and create a foundation for relationships and help label and classify them within social classes. Studies have shown that children with poor social skills may experience trouble forming relationships, get into unfamiliar situations, and be at increased risk of involvement in criminal activity or underage pregnancy.

Stage 3: Language
Some parents do not understand the rate at which children can learn the language at an early age. Around 2 1/2 to 4 years of age, children reach a stage where they become highly sensitive to learning phonetic sounds. You may even notice that they can learn the entire alphabet in a couple of weeks. When they can recognize letters phonetically, they can read phonics books even before they start school. This is a good starting point, as there may be other issues to deal with when transitioning from preschool to school. However, it is observed that children who have been lost at this stage of their development have great difficulty in understanding this ability at a later age. In some cases, children have lost the ability to learn this method and have to learn to read through sight words.

Stage 4: Mathematics
As a parent, you need to make sure that you expose your children to counting from an early age. After all, counting is the basic language of mathematics. As with language, children enter an impressionable stage where they can learn to count and recognize numbers without much difficulty. Perseverance is essential in helping your child learn math skills. If successful, your child will grasp the concept of numbers with no problem. Studies have shown that children who enter school without counting skills have a harder time understanding math.

Stage 5: Cognitive
Cognitive development includes the use of gross motor skills, such as running and jumping, and fine motor skills, such as pre-reading and writing skills. Some examples of activities that build gross motor skills are simple yard games like playing hoops, while activities that build fine motor skills are puzzles and coloring. Having highly developed motor skills increases concentration and memory, while poor motor skills sometimes show learning difficulties in a child.
Parents are the primary source of their children’s future as they are given the opportunity to influence and educate them at all levels throughout their lives. Fortunately, as education moves into the 21st century, we now have a wide variety of ways to help ourselves with our children’s early education.