(2 years to 6 years) is a critical period in the development of the human potential. Foundations for all aspects of development are laid during this stage. It is the child acts on his needs. If these attempts are supported and are quite successful, he develops a sense of confidence in himself. It is also referred to as preschool age.

THE PRESCHOOL CHILD IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTAL SELF-HELP SKILLS: 1. Control of elimination 2.Self-feeding, self-dressing and doing some things without much help 3.Development of motor skills that allow him to explore and do things to satisfy his curiosity 4. acquisition of adequate vocabulary to communicate his thoughts.

 THE PREOPERATIONAL PHASE 1. Deferred Imitation- 1. Deferred Imitation- The preoperational child can imitate what he has previously observed but which is now not present. 2. Symbolic Play- 2. Symbolic Play- Children often play games of “pretending”. they reenact some experiences common to them like being put to bed, scolder, or hugged using a doll to represent themselves. 3. Drawing 3. Drawing- Serves as an imitative expression of what they have seen 4. Mental Image- 4. Mental Image- This is an internalized kind of imitation. 5. Verbal Evocation- 5. Verbal Evocation- Children use a word or two to signify a past event in their experience.

 THE INTUITIVE PERIOD Piaget discovered several characteristics of preoperational thought during the intuitive period; inattention to transformations, centration, and irreversibility. Each of these characteristics is an obstacle to the development of truly logical thought. They are illustrated by the conversation tasks.

 CHILDREN’S EMOTIONS Early childhood is characterized by heightened emotionality. emotions like love, fear, joy, and anger are experienced by the child just like the adult. However, young children’s emotions are usually felt more strongly and expressed more openly than those of adult  CHILDREN’S FEAR Among two-year old, common sources of fear are noise, objects that make noise and strange objects, persons and situations while four-year olds manifest fear of darkness, imaginary creatures, and being alone, and experience dreams that give rise to fear reaction.

 DEALING WITH CHILDREN’S FEAR 1. Setting up counter resources and skills that are helpful in meeting the fearful situation when it accurse 2. Promoting familiarity with the feared object by providing situations in which there is opportunity, but not coercion, to become acquainted with it 3. Arranging for the child to observe other who show no fear in the feared situation 4. Direct reconditioning.

 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD’S SELF- CONCEPT The family, playmates, teachers, classmates, and peer group exert a great influence in forming the child’s self-concept during childhood.They constitute his or her primary group which forms part of what is called significant others. These significant others become models for the child who usually identifies with them and patterns his behavior after them.  SEX-ROLE IDENTIFICATION An other aspect of the self-concept is sex-role identification. Knowledge and attitudes about sex differences are both inborn and learned. An individual’s sex identity is born with him.

 FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS AND MASCULINE IDENTITY  FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS AND MASCULINE IDENTITY The relationship with the father is critical to the boy’s development of masculine identity. The boys derives his male self-concept from his father through the process of identification. When the father-son relationship is inadequate because of physical or psychological absence, Then the boy is likely to form a identification with the remaining available parent masculinity

 THE ROLE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION  THE ROLE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION preschools-nursery, day care centers or kindergarten classes provide excellent socialization experiences from young children. Students have supported that enriched early childhood education is beneficial to children