Table of contents:
- The various stages of development of a 7 year old child
- Physical development of children aged 7 years
- Cognitive development of children aged 7 years
- Psychological development (social and emotional) of children aged 7 years
- 7 year old language development
- Tips for parents in helping child development
As a parent, you may be wondering if a child's development at the age of 7 is appropriate. At this age, parents will generally feel a lot of changes in their baby. Therefore, you need information about the standards for growth and development of children at 7 years of age. What will happen to a child at the age of 7 years?
The various stages of development of a 7 year old child
There are several stages that a child will go through when he enters the age of 7 as part of the development of a 6-9 year old child.
At the age of 7 years, children will experience various stages of development, including physical, cognitive, psychological, and language.
The following is a variety of development or development of children at the age of 7 years:
Physical development of children aged 7 years
In children aged 7 years, physical development is one of the stages that shows the greatest change.
Imagine, your child who previously looked like a toddler, is now starting to get taller.
This may make the child who initially looked fat and cute, now looks thinner with a more appropriate body proportion.
In fact, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average height of a 7 year old child will increase to 6 centimeters (cm).
Meanwhile, the child's weight can increase up to 3 kilograms (kg).
In addition, some of the physical developments or developments that will be experienced by children at the age of 7 are:
- The baby teeth are still loose one by one, so the child has to be toothless for a while.
- Becoming more aware of her body image.
- Starting to be able to combine some of his gross motor skills.
- Able to do house cleaning activities properly.
- Can maintain balance and coordination well.
- The ability to coordinate eyes and hands is much better.
At the age of 7 years, physical growth and development of children is not too much, but quite drastic.
Encourage the child to continue doing physical activity outside the home or encourage the child to exercise regularly.
Currently, the development of children's motor skills is more striking. This is evidenced by several children's motor skills that continue to develop, such as:
- Actively doing sports that require body coordination, such as swimming and climbing.
- Starting to be able to use scissors well.
- Can write his own name.
- Able to draw a person's body completely.
Cognitive development of children aged 7 years
The cognitive development of children aged 7 years is shown by the increasing curiosity that children have about the world around them.
However, you don't need to worry because this child's curiosity is still relatively normal.
As a parent, you must be prepared for the questions the child may ask.
The reason is that at this age, your child may actually ask you about various things that you do not even know what the answer is.
Some of the things that may occur in cognitive development of children aged 7 years include:
- The more aware of his abilities, so that it triggers the habit of comparing himself with peers.
- Better to know what weaknesses and strengths it has.
- Starting to learn to accept differences of opinion between himself and peers.
- The ability to read is increasing, so that children start memorizing some simple words that they find in reading books.
- Children's numeracy skills have also improved.
- Children have an imagination, even though it's starting to diminish.
In addition, as a parent, you also need to be there when your child talks to strangers.
The reason is, at this age, apart from asking a lot of questions to other people, children also tell a lot to people they may even just know.
Therefore, you need to accompany the child and always remind the child not to give information to strangers.
However, this may have a good impact if your child shares information with other children who are younger than him.
To help improve your child's cognitive abilities, you can also try a variety of other things. One of them is using musical exercises.
This is because musical exercises for children are thought to improve brain power.
Psychological development (social and emotional) of children aged 7 years
Emotionally, the psychological development experienced by children aged 7 years is characterized by children who cry less and less.
In fact, at this age, children begin to learn to deal with changes that occur in their lives.
Children may not have good self-control, but at least they already know how to "go with the flow" of the things that happen in their life.
Other developments that may be experienced by a 7 year old child psychologically are:- Children have a sense of care for others outside of their family members.
- Be open to the feelings and thoughts he has.
- Starting to have the desire to be the perfect child so often blame yourself.
- Maybe you will have more worries than when you were 6 years old.
- Tendency to frequently protest against things that are deemed inappropriate.
- Begins to understand the difference between the good and the bad.
- Little by little, children begin to "detach" themselves from their parents, even though they often need their help.
- Begins to have a feeling of guilt or shame.
- Have a great desire to be liked by their peers.
Quoting from Mott Children's Hospital, at the age of 7, the child's empathy begins to grow so they can care more about others.
Even so, 7 year olds still have a strong desire to carry out their daily routine.
Children will feel comfortable when they get together with their family and can carry out the routine they have always done since they were little.
Unfortunately, at 7 years of age, children tend to feel insecure or not feeling safe with himself.
In fact, children can be the worst critics of self-criticism.
Little things like not getting what you want or losing the game can destroy the confidence a 7 year old has.
Therefore, as a parent, make sure you always accompany your child through the "ups and downs" of psychological development at the age of 7.
7 year old language development
Another development that is also experienced by children at the age of 7 is the development of speech and language.
Entering the age of 7 years, the development of children's language skills is certainly developing rapidly.
Moreover, if children really like reading books, usually the development of language skills of children aged 7 years can be much faster.
Most children aged 7 years experience language development which is characterized by a more fluent reading ability.
Especially when judged by the speed and accuracy of reading, as well as the ability to express the reading.
In addition, the speech and language development of children aged 7 years is also characterized by:- Better speech skills and can follow longer orders.
- Already able to compose complete sentences without help.
- Be able to understand that a word may have more than one meaning.
- The vocabulary that children understand has increased.
- The more he likes reading, he even acts out the stories he reads.
- Already know the time.
As a parent, you can support the development of language and speech for 7 year olds by encouraging them to read a variety of books.
If all of your children's reading has been read, buy a new book so that the child will love reading more.
By doing so, you have helped enrich the vocabulary of children.
Tips for parents in helping child development
As a parent, your main task is of course to provide full support for the child's growth and development, including when he is 7 years old.
The form of support you provide can be anything.
For example, you can facilitate children with various needs that support their growth and development.
In addition, you can help your child to be more confident in himself.
However, you don't want to give yourself too many inappropriate compliments.
Because at this age, children are very vulnerable to praise, which makes all praise received by children can be misinterpreted.
If you want to praise your child, do it right. It's best to do it when the child has tried hard no matter what the result.
This will allow the child to focus on effort rather than results. You also need to be more patient with the mood swings that your child is experiencing.
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