The author bases his argument on how young children acquire their social and emotional status such as following instructions, sharing with others and regulating their behaviors. Children’s brains tend to develop rapidly during their early years of their lives (Berk & Meyers, 1998). Additionally, they emphasize on how children develop attachments patterns which determines their future romantic relationships in their adulthood. The author uses theories such as the theory of Vaillant adaptation to life to explain how young adults develop changes following a strict age-schedule while adapting to their intimacy needs. The subsequent parts of the book focus on how teenagers create interactions and relationships with adults, peers, and friends. The author explains matters related to life cycle such as developing intimacy with opposite sex, cohabiting, leaving homes to join in marriage, engaging in marital roles, parenting, divorce, and remarriage.
I find the author’s perception on how children adapt to the society to create interactions, bonds, relationships and later develop intimacies quite interesting. This concept is fascinating because children develop from infants to create voluntary control of their behavior based on the social expectations modelled. The author indicates that the society educates children on the significance of group care setting and peer interaction, which helps them practice impulse-control behaviors.
The authors explain their main arguments and points on social and emotional development in a coherent and direct manner. I agree with their understanding of this broad topic especially on the aspect of how teenagers express their emotions unlike children. The author clearly presents that children tend to express their emotions through body languages, vocalization, and facial expressions unlike adults who may reside to loneliness, depression, and withdrawal. The author also shows how emotion expressions is built on culture and societal understanding on emotional well-being.
The author’s arguments are presented in a clear convincing manner that leaves readers questioning the life cycle of human beings. The author appears to clearly understand the development cycle of humanity and therefore supports their facts using different stories, theories, and images. In this manner, they fully convince their readers that the facts they are analyzing correspond to the real situations governing emotional and social development in early childhood.
Reference
Berk, L. E., & Meyers, A. B. (1998). Emotional and social development in early childhood. Development through the Lifespan, 463-497.