Doubt and Shame vs. Autonomy

The psychological cognitive development relates specifically to infant development in terms of information processing, language acquisition, conceptual resources and brain development. This is an important part of the growth of children. Through this process, the child is able to learn how to overcome issues in the future. Apart from this, it enables the child to develop memory which is an essential tool that permits the child to think and remember the previous events critically. Also, it empowers the child with the ability to concentrate in whatever activity that he/she would be performing. Notably, the ability to concentrate plays a role in the academic and life success. Furthermore, this development imparts the child with imagination skills that are significant in his/her life. Notably, through imagination, the child is able to become creative and think critically about life. Above all, it is through the cognitive development that the child would be able to learn on how to work out things. As each and every child grows from infant stage to the adult stage, he/she goes through cognitive development. A point to note is that this development significantly impacts the child family with fear and anxiety of not being able to predict the child's personality when he/she grows to adults. Notably, as the child goes through different stages of development, he/she faces many crises. The ability in solving these crises play a major role in the success of the next stage of development and his/her future development. Importantly, the parents must provide the child with all the needed support to assist in solving these crises. The paper seeks to provide the in-depth discussion of the psychosocial and cognitive development as the child undergoes various stages of development. It also discusses crisis found in each stage of development, its impact and how it should be addressed.Background InformationErik Erikson who is a renowned psychologist came up with eight stages that represent a life stage that a child undergoes from the infancy until he/she reaches the old age. The mentioned stages represent various psychosocial and cognitive developments that impact the child growth. The focus of the research, however, will be limited to Erikson's second stage of the child development. During the second stage of the development, the child is expected to indicate specific cognitive development that aims at indicating that the child has undergone the mental development (Robinson, 2012). Erikson reveals that during this stage of the development the child should evince the independency from the parents. Apart from this development, the stage also expresses crisis that emerges as a child move from one stage to another. For instance, if the parents are overprotective, the child would not learn to be independent, therefore, lowering his/her self-esteem. This crisis significantly impacts the family members, and they should move with haste in addressing them because if they are not ironed out, the child development would be affected (Click & Parker, 2011). The low self-esteem would be an impediment to the child in terms of goal achievement. Notably, as the move from one stage of development to another, he /she experience the psychosocial changes.DiscussionDescription of Autonomy vs. Shame and DoubtAutonomy vs. Shame and Doubt is a child stage of development that takes place between the age of one and a half and three years. Notably, during this stage of development, a child experiences both the physical and the mental development and becomes more mobile. Additionally, at this stage, children become independent and would walk away from the caregiver or the mother. Also, they make choices and decision on what clothes they would prefer to wear (Click & Parker, 2011). On a similar note, during this stage, the child would start to discover the skills and abilities that he/she possesses, for instance, playing with toes, wearing shoes and clothes. By doing the mentioned tasks by himself/herself the child is developing a sense of independence and autonomy which is very important for his/her development (Click & Parker, 2011). This stage of the development is characterized by the autonomy of the child because he/she get away from the caregivers or the parents to start doing things on his/her own. Apart from the efforts that the child would indicate by dressing or play games, he/she would also start to demand that feeding himself/herself. It is important to point out that this is a vital stage of the development that calls for the support from all the parties involved. If less support is provided, then all the remaining stages of the development would be affected (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Most importantly, the child's cognitive development would be mostly affected. Hence the child-parent should offer the needed support to assist the child.Cognitive DevelopmentIt is important to point out that a child under the age of one and a half do not only experience the physical growth but also undergoes the mental development. It is through the mentioned mental development that would permit them to be effective interacting with the world around them in various ways. For instance, the skills acquired in this stage such wearing of clothes would allow him/her start understanding how to be independent and operate in his/her new world. Through the cognitive development, children are able to undergo the brain development which very significant in their early childhood growth (Smith & Elliott, 2011). The child's growth is incomplete without the cognitive development. Importantly, it is through this type of the development that makes the child be a reasonable and thinking human being once he/she grows of age. Also to note is that the measurement of the cognitive development during the discussed stage of the development is not easy. It can only be concluded that the child has efficiently and completely undergone this stage when he/she is in a position of start to wear clothes by himself/herself or if the child is able to play the games without the assistance from other the caregiver or the parents (Smith & Elliott, 2011). On the other hand, when the child is between the outline age and he/she is not able to perform the mentioned tasks then it can be noted that the child has not undergone the cognitive development. The use of the Erikson stage of the development, therefore, provides the indication that assists in knowing whether the child has experienced the cognitive development (Siegal & Surian, 2012 ).During the Autonomy vs. Mistrust, the child starts to employ the mental development which is depicted by the thinking nature of the child at this stage of the development. It is through thinking and reasoning that the child learns on how to wear clothes by himself/herself. Thinking is an important part of the cognitive, and as the child learns to carry out some tasks independently, it is a clear indication that mental development has successfully taken place (Schneider, 2010). Another important aspect of the cognitive development that a child experience in this stage of the development is the creativity. The mentioned skills would significantly assist the child to engage in the playing of games. Additionally, creativity is a mental task that puts the brain to task in resolving out a given task. It is through thinking and creativity that would enable the child to be independent and start to perform some tasks by himself/herself. Furthermore, another important cognitive development that occurs in this stage is the ability of the child to have a memory of remembering (Schneider, 2010). The good memory would assist the child to clearly recall how he/she had dressed a given cloth and apply the memory in wearing another cloth. Therefore, the cognitive development such as thinking, creativity, and memory are important in the early childhood as it assists the child to be independent and positively interact with his/her environment (Xu, 2012).For a successive cognitive development in this stage, both the caregivers and the child have an important role to play. The process of the mentioned development commences with the environment in which the specified parties have offered to the child. As mentioned earlier, during this stage of the development, the parties involved are not supposed to be overprotective. A point to note is that overprotectiveness would prevent the child from starting to perform various tasks on his/her own (Robinson, 2012). This means the child would be denied the opportunity to put the cognitive development that he /she have acquired to practice which is risky for the mental development of the child. Another important point that is pivotal in this stage is that the parties involved should not condemn the child when/she is unable to wear clothes or shoes on his/her own but they should continually encourage and motivate the child to continue trying as this would build the confidence in the child. More importantly, when a child acquires confidence in this stage this is important in the cognitive development because he/she would find a need to explore the mental growth to think, reason, become creative and use his/her memory to perform considerable tasks independently (Xu, 2012). If the parents and the caregivers failed to support the child during this stage, then his/her cognitive development would be significantly affected. The child would develop fear and low self-esteem that would prevent him/her from achieving goals in life.Crisis during the StageDuring this stage of development, the child should be encouraged and supported to allow him/her to develop confidence in himself/herself that would enable him/her to be independent. Notably, provision of the child with support and encouragement would lead to the virtue of will which is vital in his/her next stage of development. Failure to support the child during this stage would result in loss of confidence and a low self-esteem (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). It is important to point out that when the caregiver or the parents become too protective, the child would not have been given a chance to be independent. This crisis would make a child to have a fear of doing things by himself/herself, and when he/she grows to an adult, there is a likelihood of failure in life. The crisis that a child may experience during this stage would directly affect his/her cognitive development. Once a child has undergone the mental development he/she should be given a positive environment to put into practice his/her brain (Click & Parker, 2011). By denying him/her this opportunity of thinking, reasoning, memorizing, and being creative then he/she would be a person who fears to try out things. It is, therefore, important for the parties involves to ensure that the child is supported at this stage so that he/she have full confidence and high self-esteem about himself/herself (Siegal & Surian, 2012 ).Impact of Crisis and how it Should Be AddressedAs a result of the negative consequence of the mentioned crisis, both the parents and the caregiver should look into the ways of assisting the child to ensure that he/she becomes a useful person in future. The parents should ensure that the child is continuously motivated and encouraged to learn the ways of being independent (Newman & Newman, 2014). For instance, the mother should give a child a dress so that he/she learns to wear on his /her own. Such an opportunity would enable the child to become more independent and also assisting in the cognitive development. Apart from this, they should completely avoid being overprotective as this would deny the child a chance of tying things on his/her own (Newman & Newman, 2014). The literate members in the society can only sensitize the ignorant parents on the need for a child to be supported during this stage of the development.The discussed crisis has adverse effects on not only the immediate family but the extended family and the society at large. To start with, the parents of the child would have a child without confidence and low self-esteem. This means he/she would fear to engage in a various task, therefore, preventing his/her success in life (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). For instance, there is a high probability for the child to register a dismal performance in school because a low self-esteem in him/her would affect his/her ability to participate in class fully. Another important area that child would be affected in his/her ability to engage in teamwork, he/she would fear to involve himself/herself because the fear of being laughed and brought to shame when he/she has failed to adequately perform the given task (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). The society would also be affected by this crisis in the sense that the child would not be productive in the affairs of the society. The child would fear to engage in the affairs in the society because the lack of confidence would make him/her avoid the performance of tasks that involve numerous people.ConclusionFrom the above discussion, it is clear that as the child moves from one stage of the development to another, he/she undergoes both the psychosocial and cognitive development that is characterized by the physical and mental development. In an effort of allowing the child to undergo a successive cognitive development, the parents, caregivers, and the teachers should ensure that the child is provided with the needed support and encouragement as this reduced the emergence of crisis that might affect him/her in the next stage of the development. Most importantly, the crisis has a negative impact on the child development because if it is not addressed then his/her development in the next stage would be affected. The family members of the child would be equally affected by this crisis because their child would not be the person that they wish he/she could be.ReferencesClick, P., & Parker, J. (2011). Caring for school-age children. Nelson Education.Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2014). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.Robinson, O. (2012). Development through adulthood: An integrative sourcebook. Palgrave Macmillan.Schneider, W. (2010). Memory development in childhood. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, 347-376. doi:10.1002/9781444325485.ch13Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2016). Theories of personality. Cengage Learning.Siegal, M., & Surian, L. (2012). Access to language and cognitive development. Oxford University Press, USA.Smith, L. L., & Elliott, C. H. (2011). Child psychology and development for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.Xu, F. (2012). Rational constructivism in cognitive development (Vol. 43). Academic Press.