HOW WE LEARN TO READ
How Young Children Develop
As young children grow, mature, and acquire new skills they go through specific stages of development in four areas: physical, cognitive and language, social, and emotional.
- Physical development includes gaining control over the small muscles used to pick up and hold things and building the large muscles used to walk or throw a ball.
- Cognitive and language development includes the thinking and reasoning skills used to solve problems and the acquisition of language.
- Social development involves learning to develop relationships and get along with other children and adults.
- Emotional development is closely tied to social development and leads to a sense of identity and self-esteem.
Children tend to follow the same sequence and pattern of development. For example, most children crawl before they walk, play alone before playing with others, and think all animals with similar features are the same before noticing the differences that make a dog a dog, and a cow a cow. However, each child develops according to an individual time clock that is set at his or her own pace for gaining new skills.
Because child development is dynamic in nature, it is nearly impossible to consider one area of development at a time. For example, when a child paints a picture he uses physical skills to hold the brush and control where the paint goes on the paper. Cognitive skills allow him to solve problems such as how to keep the paint from dripping or how to create a new color. He uses social skills to ask a friend to help him hang the picture. His pride in the finished picture helps him feel competent — a feeling that supports emotional development.
Language skills are central to cognitive development. Children use their thinking skills to make sense of language and use their language skills to talk about their activities. Language skills are also closely tied to social and emotional development. Children use language skills to play, make friends, express feelings, and develop ties to family members and others.
Children first learn to listen and speak, then use these and other skills to explore reading and writing. Like child development in general, language development is interrelated. Children who have many opportunities to listen and speak tend to become skilled readers and writers. Children who can put their ideas in writing become better readers. Children who are read to often learn to love reading and become better listeners, speakers, and writers.
Source: On the Road to Reading, U.S. Department
of Education
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