With the conception of first friendships developed in early childhood comes the introduction of social problem solving. This mechanism concerns both generating and applying strategies to resolve disagreements. Resulting outcomes are beneficial to the individual and acceptable to others. Diverse social understandings largely contribute to the decided outcome. Children ages 2-4 increasingly exhibit positive emotion when negotiating and interacting with their peers. Additionally, 5-7 year olds have the ability to deliberate alternative plans concerning peers when their initial ideas fail (Berk & Meyers, 2016). The model below organizes the steps of social problem solving using an information-processing approach. This approach explicitly describes the steps a child must exercise to solve a social problem (Crick & Dodge, 1994).

At as early as 2 years old, your child can emulate awareness of make-believe play as a representational activity. There are many benefits to this form of play. Many studies suggest that make-believe play strengthens a wide variety of of cognitive capacities including sustained attention, inhibiting impulses, memory, logical reasoning, language and literacy, imagination, creativity, reflection, regulation, and empathy. Story comprehension and storytelling skills are also fostered through make-believe play (Berk & Meyers, 2016). During early childhood, encourage your child as they begin taking an interest in using and evolving their imagination.

(Salmon, 2020)

There are many physical development milestones to be met during the early childhood age range. All recounts are in regards to average physical development trends. One of the most notable trends occurs in reference to “baby fat.” Early childhood aged children gradually become thinner as they continue to grow. Typically speaking, girls retain more body fat than boys, which are slightly more muscular. This occurs by the age of 5, when your child resembles the proportions of an adult with a streamlined physique. Another physical development trend especially prevalent during early childhood is the appearance of individual body size variations in children (Berk & Meyers, 2016).

During this time period where they use their new strong stature, children are able to sharpen their motor skills. See the infographic below for specific milestones with respect to fine and gross motor skill development based on age (Lancley, 2018).