Understanding Childrens Personal Development

UNDERSTANDING CHILDRENS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Understanding children's personal development, not only through observation and experimentation, but also through introspection and empathy, which is the ability to place oneself in the child's personality, so that the child's psychological world can not only be understood, but can be understood (verstehen). Understanding the world of children, not only as biological beings, but as psychological and spiritual beings. As biological beings, children can be recognized in terms of their instinctive life (for example; self-defense instinct, sex instinct, fighting, running, associating with others, etc.). Meanwhile, from the psychological aspect, children can be recognized from various dimensions of their psychological life, such as their motivation, emotions, cognition, and psycho-motor life. Understanding the world of children is an effort to develop children's potential in order to understand their abilities and reach maturity. In general, the development of children's lives can be divided into the following periodizations: 1. Infant (0 - 1 year) 2. Kindergarten (1 - 5 years) 3. School children (6 - 12 years old) 4. Adolescence or adolescence (12 - 18 years old) 4. In each period of development, it has its own characteristics, because there are certain dimensions that stand out, so that we can understand the characteristics of the child's behavior profile in each period. Let us follow the description as follows: a. Infants (0 - 1 year), also known as the vital period (vita = life). This period has the meaning of maintaining life, namely the child is equipped with several abilities, especially with instincts or instincts. Instinct is the ability that has existed since birth which is psychophysical in nature (has psychological and physical aspects) to be able to react to the environment (through certain stimuli or stimulation in a unique way. The behavior of reacting to the environment occurs without prior learning, and includes aspects of cognitive (awareness), affective (emotions) and cognitive (behavior involving the psycho-motor system) and physicality. An example of instinctual action in children is the suckling reaction. When a mother brings her nipple to the lips of her baby, the child's reaction will be to suck milk and swallow it, without prior study. The instinct of the child to cry as a reaction to the cold, then after being picked up and caressed by his mother he immediately quiet, because he has fulfilled a sense of security. A sense of security is vital for a baby's survival. Babies will feel safe and satisfied when they receive caresses from their mothers. Petting (stroking hunger) is a primary need for babies. Babies who rarely get affectionate caresses from their mothers, will later become thirsty for caresses, live less calmly, always try to attract the attention of others. In infants, social instincts have appeared, as a tool to enable children to communicate with their environment (social environment). We can observe this when the baby reacts with a smile when his mother invites him to talk, even though the baby does not yet understand the words spoken by his mother. When there is a feeling that is less hisman in the baby, he will cry. The crying reaction is also called the flight instinct, although the child does not make a running movement, because it is not yet able to run. The flight instinct is accompanied by an emotional reaction of fear that we can notice in the facial reaction. Running in this case means avoiding. In children there is also an instinct to imitate, that is, children like to imitate their mother's actions, for example imitating the words "mama", or "papa". This happens at the beginning of a child learning to speak. Without the mimic instinct, children cannot learn language. Therefore, the language that children learn at the beginning of their lives is their mother tongue. Furthermore, the mother tongue is developed with the influence of the surrounding environment. Furthermore, what we need to understand in children is the existence of reflex instincts that are carried from birth. Reflex is an automatic reaction of certain parts of the body when exposed to stimuli, such as the seeds of the eyes (pupil reflex) when there is a change in the light that hits his eyes, then he will blink when exposed to light that is too strong. Other reflexes include knee, startle, grasp, toe reflex, etc. In addition to instincts and reflexes, infants also have the ability to learn, although not yet in the form of intellectual learning. The infant can improve skills that involve the movements of the body and other limbs such as hands and feet. They can learn to hold objects, lie on their sides, face down, crawl, sit, stand, walk, and run. Learning can also be in the form of habituation, so that the behavior is smoother and more efficient and orderly in terms of time and place. Some examples of learning as a result of habituation include sleeping, waking up, eating, and relieving oneself at a certain time and place. Previously this had not happened. The basis of learning is experience and repetition or doing certain actions frequently. In terms of the child's psychology, we can note the existence of sensory awareness, meaning that the child can react to external stimuli through their sensory organs: vision (light and color), hearing, smell, touch, taste. The mouth in infants is often used as a touch tool, to recognize objects around them including their own hands and feet. Children are also equipped with the potential for world expansion, namely by exploring space. During the period when the child starts walking, he/she begins to recognize various places/spaces and surroundings. What may be found and recognized from places and spaces are various objects, people, or there may be certain values that the child does not initially understand as rules. Next is the development of language in children. At the beginning of language development, children often say language that is reduplicated, for example the words "mama", "papa", "baba", and so on. This ability starts around 11-12 months of age. If the development is normal, then at the age of 12 - 15 months the child begins to speak conversationally. Similarly, at this age children also learn to walk. If at this age the child has not learned to speak or has not been able to walk, there is an indication that the child has slow intellectual development. b. The Childhood Period (age 3 - 5 years), which is pre-school age as a transitional period from infancy to school age. Before the child enters school, his soul is ripe for school, which is ripe because it is prepared in kindergarten or TPA, and other types of pre-school education. Kohnstamm calls this period the aesthetic period, which means beauty. Why is this period called the period of beauty? This period has three characteristics that are not found in other periods, namely ● the emotional development of the joy of life, ● freedom, and ● fantasy. These three characteristics can be developed through various forms of expression such as games, storytelling, singing, and drawing. That is why these four activities are often used as the content of curriculum materials in kindergarten. In a free and joyful childhood, children can enjoy the happiness of their lives as a very important element in human life Freedom and joy are recreation that can balance intellectual life which only seeks the usefulness of all human activities. This was once stated by J.J. Rousseau from France, who stated that childhood is a happy period as the right of every child in an atmosphere of freedom and joy of life. By developing the four types of activities, namely playing, storytelling, and drawing, children can develop their creativity by using a lot of their fantasy power. Fantasy is the mental ability to create all kinds of wishful thinking or ideas that did not exist before. The development of the sensing power also develops during this period, namely vision including distinguishing colors, hearing which includes singing, red smooth or rough objects, smelling fragrant and pungent odors, and tasting delicious flavors, sweet, sour, bitter, etc. Another very important development is language development. There are three types of language functions, namely to express the contents of the heart and feelings, to communicate with others, and as a function of thinking by using various types of understanding contained in each word and sentence. Language as a thinking tool is the most difficult function, especially the use of symbols or symbols, Symbol is a sign that contains the meaning or meaning implied in the symbol, meaning that it cannot be directly seen from the form of the sign if we do not know the key to the symbol system or language, for example the word "chair" is a symbol, while the picture is a sign. Children who are deaf mute, will not develop their minds if they are not given language lessons, both written and oral. Thus, language lessons that have started since childhood are very important lessons in order to develop thinking, imagination, creation, social, and emotional powers. In terms of interests, children have "egocentric" interests, meaning that all their attention still revolves around their own interests and views, and cannot yet understand the interests of others. This period is also called the "stubborn" period (trotzalter), which is a period where the will is difficult to be deflected and is often stubborn, cannot be forced, likes to roll on the floor to impose his will. This period is also a cheerful period, in which the child begins to learn to be clean from defecation, no longer wetting the bed and littering. c. School Children (6 - 12 years). This period is called the "intellectual" period by Kohnstamm, because most of the time is used for the development of intellectual abilities. Children's attention is mostly directed to the world of science about nature and its surroundings, where children enjoy reading about adventure stories that add to their world of experience. Children at this age are in elementary school, which begins to learn about nature and society. Interest in this period is called the objective period, meaning that attention is more directed to the world of reality or the objective world, which is analyzed and synthesized and understands the existence of cause and effect laws. Children at this age are easy to give tasks to carry out, and if their environment is full of understanding, they will easily learn various habits, for example; sleep and wake up at the time, eat and study at the time and place. Likewise, children are easy to work with and obey. Taking an active part in scouting will help build a stable personality. Children love to read books about adventure, about nature, and children easily memorize science and social studies facts. Behavioral problems such as bed-wetting, lying, fighting, mischievousness, bullying younger siblings, laziness in studying, wandering, daydreaming, running away from home, not going to class, smoking a lot, etc. can occur at this age. To correct the misadjustment, it is necessary to examine the background of the child's life, why these deviant behaviors occur. We often find the cause is a lack of attention from their parents, especially girls lack attention from their mothers, and in boys from their fathers, or because they are treated too harshly by their parents. d. Adolescence, puberty and adolescence (12 - 18 years). Kohnstamm calls this period a social period, because during this period children have an interest in community matters, and like to live in organizational ties or various sports clubs or other clubs. At this time, adolescents are very prominent in the development of their lust, because of the active sex hormone glands, and begin to be attracted to the opposite sex. It is not uncommon for children to masturbate with the accompanying symptoms of a sense of sin that disturbs their conscience, which sometimes causes anxiety or conflict within themselves, which is often seen in their inability to get along with their peers. At this age, the child experiences rapid physical growth, so he sometimes feels awkward because the ratio of the growth of his legs and hands to his body is not harmonious. He begins to pay attention to his body shape by often looking in the mirror, paying attention to his haircut, facial features, clothes, etc. As a girl, her physical growth is more indicative of a mature woman, with hips, breasts, smooth skin, hair, and so on. In moral development, at this time children begin to recognize spiritual values such as the value of truth, justice, goodness, beauty, and divinity. The child seeks his or her identity, wants to know how others perceive him or her, and pays attention to matters of society, politics and culture. In case of failure, at this age (whether at school or in dating) if there is no compensation in various fields (such as sports, arts, martial arts, or organizations) various forms of escape or violent aggression will arise (marijuana, smoking, gambling, stealing, stabbing, delinquency, speeding, raping, even escape to "nervous" pain or "neurosis"). Puberty, is the period between 12 and 15 years old, when the child attends junior high school. After that comes the time of adolescence which can be continued until the age of 21, that is, when the child has entered college. In this period the child begins to show the characteristics of maturity, more stable, greater responsibility, interested in work and stable ideals. In general, after the age of 18, children begin to have close friends of the opposite sex and begin to settle down. Good school performance will bring stability to the child's personality, which becomes more stable, whereas failure in school will cause various types of problems and inappropriate behavior.