Sandwich Generation AND Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
Question1
The sandwich generation refers to middle-aged adults who are caught between the demands of supporting their children while providing care to their ageing parents. Tackling both childcare and eldercare negatively impacts a person’s health and wellbeing during middle adulthood. Most of the sandwich generation issues include stress and financial hardships. Stress results from the fact that a sandwich generation caregiver has to maintain the balancing act. Thus it becomes mentally exhausting and physically challenging for them. Due to the financial burden of taking care of the children and the parents at the same time, the wellbeing of members of the sandwich generation is reduced. The reason is that they might sacrifice their wellbeing for their children and parents. For example, years after my grandmother moved into our house; my father sold the family home to finance senior and child care.
Question 2
According to Piaget, cognitive development in the preoperational stage (2-7 years) is marked by symbolic representation, conservation, and egocentrism. Symbolic representation implies that the child can reason symbolically and utilize images to represent objects. Here, a child may pretend play where the child’s arm become aeroplane wings, and he zooms around the house. Concerning conservation, most children under five years cannot understand that quantity remains the same even when the size and the shape of the container it is in is changed. Therefore, if one pours equal amounts of milk into two identical glasses and then pours one into a tall thin glass and asks a four-year-old to choose the glass that contains more, they point to the tall thin glass. Due to egocentrism, children in the preoperational stage struggle to see things from the perspectives of other people. For example, when a three-year-old boy is asked to pick a gift for his 15-year-old sister, he would select an Iron Man action figure thinking if he likes the toy, she will love it.