Why are the First Five Years Important for a Child's Development?

From hearing your baby cry for the first time to having moistened eyes on seeing your child’s achievements, parenthood is a pure bliss. From hearing your child’s very first word to seeing them captivating the world through their words, from teaching your child to take its very first step to seeing them growing and taking many more steps of success, who doesn’t wish to see their child excel! 

But do you know that all this depends very much on the initial years of the child’s development? Wondering how? Do not worry, this blog post is at your rescue! Read till the end to discover what impressions the first five years leave on the entire life of the child.

Significance of the Early Years for Brain Development

The first five years are very crucial for the holistic development of the child. The child reaches many significant milestones in this period. Research shows that 90% of the child’s brain development gets completed by the age of five years. Various brain regions control different abilities like thinking, movement, communication and language, and emotions. This allows the child to think, speak, and move in more complex ways.

A child does have all the necessary neurons for the lifetime but the connections between these cells make the brain functional. And the early years are crucial for the formation of these connections. These connections are formed by the everyday experiences and the child’s interaction with their parents and the world around them. So providing the child with the right stimulation for the proper growth of the brain is essential. 

Stages of Child Development

A Child develops majorly in the following five stages of development:

• Newborn (0-3 months)

• Infant (3-12 months)

• Toddler (1-3 years)

• Preschool age (3-4 years)

• School age (4-5 years (and beyond)).

These stages are characterized by different milestones responsible for the child’s holistic development.

Features of Developmental Milestones

Cognitive development: The term “cognitive processes” refers to all the higher-order mental activities like problem-solving, thinking, memorizing, deciphering, and decision making. Children develop a deeper grasp of the world, a stronger memory, increased focus, and improved problem-solving abilities in the early years of development.   

Motor development: Through the processes of gross motor development (learning to utilize muscles like the arms and legs) and fine motor development (learning to use muscles to produce fine movements using the hands and fingers), the body develops in skill and performance over time.

Communication and speech development: Communication is the means of interacting with the world. When people wandering around seem like aliens to the child, communication becomes the medium for the child to relate with them. And it is in these initial years that the child learns to use language. The child utters words, starts understanding the significance they hold, and comprehends what these alien-like-humans are conveying.

Social and emotional development: The feelings and emotions, self-perception and the perception of the world, and the child’s identity blooms in its full swing. Additionally, they form relationships with others and gain social skills and manners.

Impact of the Early Years in the Later Life of a Child

‘First impression is the last impression’, they say. I don’t know how accurately this statement fits in other contexts but in this one it does. The early years leave a lasting impression in the child's later life. The quality of experiences a child has lays the foundation for health, attachments, learning, and behavior throughout life.

Babies' brains are wired for learning from birth, and they develop as they are used. And children’s best learning tools are their caregivers and the toys they play with. So providing the child with a nurturing and stimulating environment including fun and engaging activities is essential for its growth. 

Nurturing a newborn life not just brings joy and contentment but loads of responsibility as well. It’s an unpaid job which is more difficult than even rocket science. The task of directing the child towards the right pathway of growth falls on the shoulder of the parents. And if you’re a newbie in this journey then a plethora of nervousness might creep in your mind. 

But worry not! With the right guidance, you’ll learn to sail in this journey. You’ll make mistakes, along with your child you’ll fall too but learn from your experiences. Find the right sources that guide and help you in creating a safe and growth-oriented universe for your tiny universe. And remember that every child is unique! 

Did this post help you in any way? Let me know in the comment section below :)

Is it Okay to Quit?

 

“Quitters are losers”, “Quitting is equal to failure”, “You just don’t dare to continue”, these ‘words of wisdom’ might have shaken your self-esteem many times. And it’s the people around us who continue to gift us such terms.

Quitting at anything be it a career, relationship, or a habit is depicted as a lack of strength and commitment. But is it really the case? Is it always a bad decision to quit? How to know when holding on is necessary and when it’s time to let go? Read till the end to dive deeper into it. 

 

What Does Quitting Mean?

Quitting is a word stained by society by attaching different synonyms to it like cowardice, failing, losing, and disappointment. We are taught that our career is a plant that requires continuous watering of your blood, sweat, and tears. Even if you are watering the wrong plant, you shouldn’t stop because stopping means failure. 

We are conditioned to the fact that relationships require a hell lot of effort to sustain them. You should keep making efforts to revive a relationship even if you’re the only one bothered about the relationship reeking of toxicity.

Quitting doesn’t mean giving up without even trying. It means realizing that you’ve been trying for too long and it is now exhausting you, it is stealing away your mental peace. It means that you've been trying hard to walk on this path but the direction of your hard work seems to be wrong. And perhaps you need to quit on this road to find the right path meant for you.

When is it Okay to Quit a Relationship? 

We all know that creating bonds is easier but sustaining them is not. So if I tell you to cut all ties with your best friend over a trivial reason, you would slap me on my face (and of course, I’m not saying that so chill ;)). 

Relationships are what binds us together. They are the sugar and salt of our lives. But if a relationship starts shattering you, if it starts poisoning your life, it’s time to do something about these red flags.

Ups and downs are a part of every relationship. So not every downfall you’re going through requires quitting. There may be times when you are making more efforts to sustain the relationship and at times the other person involved will have a larger role to play. But quitting comes into the picture when there’s no reciprocation at all in every aspect.

When you’re the only one always making efforts and the other person seems to be unbothered all the time; when the other person’s toxicity is taking over you and your relationship; when you wish to communicate your worries but the other person is not willing to understand; when you know that you are suffering, it’s time to stop right there. Relationships are a two-way street and a single person cannot always be responsible to keep it alive.

If I talk about myself, I had to let go of a close friendship too. I realized quite late that I was holding on for too long and it was bruising my self-respect and mental health. When communication didn’t work, I had to cut off that friendship.

When I did that, people called me unreasonable. I was told that relationships require effort and even if you’re the only one making efforts, you should continue doing that to save your friendship. I knew I had to turn a deaf ear to such comments because my mental peace was at stake.

No matter what others say, you must know that they are just spectators and are unaware of what goes inside. If pain is all you get out of a relationship, if your patience is tired of being tested again and again, and if there seems no way out then learn to let go. Does quitting a relationship mean you failed at it? No, it means that you dared to stand up for yourself!

Related Post: What Happened When I Started Saying NO?

When is it Okay to Quit on a Career Path? 

Just because “Abba nahi manege” doesn’t mean you tie the knots of your life with a career incompatible with you. Finding the right career path can seem as clear as water sometimes but at times it can be a mix of passion, struggle, failure, and experiments. 

Sometimes we are forced to make the wrong career choices and sometimes we unintentionally do it because we are unaware of our boundaries and what’s meant for us. But whatever the case is, quitting the wrong choice for the right reasons is a wise decision. It doesn’t make you a loser!

It might be your dream to crack that one exam, you might have poured every cell’s energy into it but still couldn’t make it even after numerous attempts. Does life stop there? No! But does that mean you should keep walking on the same path that's deteriorating your mental health? My answer would again be a NO. Yes, it was your dream and chasing dreams is what life is! But you are more than your dreams. 

It’s okay if it doesn’t work for you. There might be something else yearning to be chased by you. And until you’re too focused on forcing your feet into an ill-fitting shoe, how can you find the right fit for you? Quitting, thus, becomes a liberating step here.

It’s okay to quit that job as well which made you sacrifice your satisfaction (of course, not everyone has that privilege). Yes, moving ahead in a path requires strength but realizing that the chosen road is not yours and stepping back to find a new one requires a lot of courage too.

Life is not just about reaching that finishing line of everything, it’s more about finding happiness and contentment in the journey. And if a journey doesn’t align with your mental peace, it's okay to quit it. Quitting is a wise decision but only when made with the right intent and for the right reasons. Quitting certain things in life that are damaging your mental health is okay, but quitting life itself is not at all okay, remember that!

Did life ever made you quit something? How did it make you feel? Let me know in the comments below :)