A Checklist of Socioemotional Development for Six-Year-Olds
Children from 6 to 8 years old are in their last stages of childhood development before becoming an adolescent. The social and emotional development of a 6-year-old are characterized by his personality becoming more of an individual or "little adult," and the child is able to reason and understand the logic behind his own responses.-
Language
-
The child will use language as the primary means to get what he wants. For example, if someone else takes his toy, the child will not react with physical aggression or throw a tantrum but simply ask for the toy back.
Use of Logic
-
The child will employ his own logic for problem solving. The logic may not necessarily be correct, but to the child the process is very logical. The important point is that the child is using logic and not just intuition to solve problems.
Mood
-
It is common for a child of 6 to have mood swings.
Closeness With Parent
-
The child needs the parent to be his friend less and wants to play more independently. However, the child still wants closeness and nurturing, but on his terms.
Attention and Approval
-
The child will constantly seek attention and approval from the adults. The child will be eager to please and will want praise when doing things. The child may also exaggerate his needs to seek attention.
Perspective
-
The child will have a single world view -- his. The child will experience difficulty adopting another's point of view. This is common.
Failure
-
If the child fails (even if it is only in his eyes) at something, this can make the child upset, frustrated and disappointed.
My Way
-
The child will want things to always go his way. If things do not go his way, the child may act out and demand to get what he wants.
Ethics and Morals
-
The child will have difficulty understanding morals and ethics, especially around subjects and things that have no defined rules. For example, if no one has told the child that it is not nice to kill insects for fun, the child may see nothing wrong in doing that. The child will only understand when he has been bad based on the values of others, that is, his parents.
Fears
-
The child will begin to experience increasing fears of things that are unknown, such as the dark, noises and new places. The fears will generally center on things that the child is not intimately familiar with or cannot perceive.
-