Barrier to Healthy Lifestyle for Development of Children

DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
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Introduction
Child development is a critical stage in shaping a person’s growth and future. At a young age, children need to be brought up and be guided to grow healthy and properly. They need to develop holistically, in their language, cognitive skills, psychosocial and moral development. There are theories that have been developed about child development, which constitute the various levels of development per months or years. This essay will look into the development of children of about ten years and then identify the health barriers that these children face during their development (Crone et al, 2016).
Describe the cognitive, language, psychosocial, and moral development of children up to about 10 years of age. 
Cognitive development refers to the process of thinking and understanding in the growth of a child. Basically, this is how a child interprets language, processes information, and gains perceptual skills. Jean Piaget, coined a theory in cognitive development that sums up four stages which are divided by age. The sensorimotor stage starts from zero up to two years and is about the child’s perception of an external stimulus and having a mental idea and participation in a play. The Preoperational stage is where a child develops egocentric ideas and animism and begins responding to their own idea and giving objects priority and emotions. Then the concrete operational and the formal operation come later above the age of ten years (Pitts, 2013). Language development should happen throughout a child’s life. A child gets the ability to communicate, feel and understand feelings. It is the basis for a child’s literacy in writing and reading (Colona, 2015).
Psychosocial development is when a child learns to communicate with others, communicate needs and have a sense of identity. Erick Erickson coined a theory in psychosocial development describing five stages a child goes through. These are; trust and mistrust, autonomy and shame; initiative and guilt; inferiority and industry, and role confusion and identity. Each of the above stages is progressive. Moral development is geared towards a child relation to people and distinguishing what is right from what is not. Jean Piaget insisted that children learnt actively in the consequences and effects of their actions and hence formed their own judgement rather than being forced to stick to rules (Crone et al, 2016).
Some influences on development that would help the school nurse understand and assist families to identify barriers to a healthy lif...