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The 6, 7 & 8 Year Old |
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The easy going period of the early school aged years. Could life get any sweeter?
The first five years of a child’s life are filled with one developmental milestone after another, and although it’s an exciting time, it can also be a tumultuous one. But by the time children reach their early school years, things have settled down a little. By then a youngster has mastered many things resulting in a time that is calm, rewarding and usually very happy.
Child psychotherapist Janet Morrison says “the early school aged child of five, six, seven, has achieved an enormous amount in those first years, and this is now a period where the expectations are fairly clear and fairly limited. There’s a much smaller gradation of events and things that they have to learn, and if things have gone well in that early period, then the child feels good. They’ve mastered what’s expected of them, and so the child’s natural generosity and good feeling is something that spills out all over and you see many happy periods in the day and many days upon days when the child is feeling good about him or herself.”
Many parents find that these early school years are the perfect time to really get to know their child and instill their values during a period when a child still wants to be very connected to family. It’s also a stage with few developmental changes.
Morrison adds that “people talk about the grade school years as organizing years for both the child and the parent. The parent knows the child has to be at the school at a quarter to nine and is being picked up at a quarter to four or a quarter to six depending on day care and so on. The child knows and the parent knows, and so this is a nice period for both parents and children to feel good about themselves, and good about their lives.”
With the more turbulent preteen years around the corner, those special early school years are ones to savor. So spend time with your primary grade child. You’ll both gain from this special time of bonding.
Adapted from The Parent Report Radio Show. Any advice or information contained herein should never be a substitute for professional and/or medical advice, diagnosis and treatment. For more information please review Terms of Service.
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