Child Growth and Development

The study of human development is essential for the reason that is provides us with the answers we seek by enabling us to understand, explain, predict, and even control behavior (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). Having stated that, a theory greatly contributes to our understanding and analysis of our findings. Theories do so by providing a scheme that helps

Several studies have supported human capital as a significant source of economic growth. Barro(2004) ,empirical analysis, based on 98 countries from 1960-1985, uses school-enrolment rates as representations for human capital, supported the convergence hypothesis of neoclassical growth models, and says; if poor countries have high human capital than they tend to catch up with rich countries, but only in relation to level GDP per capita. Further stated; ‘As a related matter, countries with high human capital have low fertility rates and high ratios of physical investment to GDP’.

To raise a healthy child, there must be many factors incorporated with the child’s development, such as safety, money, and healthy, stable, and loving parents to take care of the child. In case one of the critical factors is missed, the child and his/her parents would face a variety of obstacles. One of the essential factors that influence child development is money because many life aspects depend on money, for example, how much money the parents make decides whether the child would participate in preschool or not, and it also decides the quality of the preschool. Furthermore, money influence the kind of food people eat, and how nutrition it is. These decisions have an impact on the child development and the child’s future.

With the inclusion of these three theories among others, into the mental health care field one can see the similarities of these theories. All three of these theories deal with the environment of a child, the learning process by which the child was exposed, the development of the cognitive ability of the child and by the social development of the child. All three theories believe the environment plays an important part in the cognitive development of children. They each believe it has an impact on how the child learns and develops. They all agree when there is a disruption of the process such as the child being subjected to mental or physical neglect or abuse the child can grow to be developmentally challenged or develop a mental illness as a result.

Being able to make decisions is very significant in a growing child’s initial development. This speeds up their mental development and their personality. The simple act of selecting what color to paint the grass will rapidly speed up their decision making skills tremendously. Unlike much of the core curriculum in which accurate answer and instructions triumph, in the arts, it is ruling and creativity rather than rules that conquer; this generates a free mind in a child and that develops a basis to a new way of thinking. This will lead them down the road to be able to teach children that problems can have more than one solution in life. It clarifies to kids that in harder arrangements of problem solving purposes are infrequently fixed, but can alter with situation and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it folds. (Eisner). The arts develop a sense of independence, and confidence within a child which can benefit them for years to come.

There are five major theoretical perspectives that have guided the most research on children and their development. They are The Biological Perspective, Psychodynamic Perspective, Learning Perspective, Cognitive-Development Perspective and the Contextual Perspective. The Biological Perspective

What is a theory? A theory is an organized set of ideas that is designed to explain development. These are essential for developing predictions about behaviors and predictions result in research that helps to support or clarify the theory. The theorist I am choosing to talk about is Jean Piaget who discovered the cognitive development theory and who broke it down into different stages. The different stages are the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational thought, and the formal operational thought. To sum up Piaget’s theory he believes children learn more about how the world works by little experiments in which they test their understanding. The stages he broke the theory down into are in which children understand their surroundings and become more advance and accurate with age.

This essay consists of a critique of the major theories in relation to the development of children from birth to three years and if they apply to all children’s development. The physical development of children is explored by Freud. His theory displays children at a very young age, showing interest in their own bodies, as he believes they receive pleasure from exploring their genital area. This sexual fixation is started at infancy when the infant takes nourishment and pleasure from suckling milk from their mother’s breasts. This is labelled by Freud as the ‘Oral stage’ which lasts from birth to 18 months. The next stage focuses on the ages 2 to 3 months which consists of the anal region providing a major source of pleasurable experiences. Whilst many have found Freud’s ideas to remain influential, others discovered flaws in some of his theories, with modern thinking; analysts recognised a more advanced, critical approach towards the physical stages of development. Although his line of work remains influential, he was regarded as a prominent thinker whose theories helped broaden the concept of the human mind and how it was acknowledged that a personality is developed by childhood experiences. Another theorist who worked in this area was Klein; she developed an activity which allowed children to express themselves. Using this technique, she became aware of the importance as symbolisation depicts children’s performances of their physical understanding. Most psychoanalytic

Human development involves a series of complex stages which bring about pivotal changes in a child’s cognitive and physical development. Ozretich and Bowman suggest other periods of rapid growth through middle childhood and adolescence such as moral development, self-concept, psychological and emotional traits, relationships to adults including parents, and peer relationships (2008). Undoubtedly, these dramatic psychosocial changes, when integrated with other biological fluctuations, impact children in a tremendously significant manner. For instance, puberty begins approximately between the ages of eight and eleven: this is considered to be the middle childhood periods. Girls appear to experience the most changes since this is when menstruation manifests itself and propagates different and more varied hormonal changes within the female anatomy. However, psychosocially, both sexes may experience “logical thinking with limited ability to extend logic to abstract concepts; disdain for imaginative and illogical thinking of early childhood” (Ozretich & Bowman, 2008). Social development is an additional component of a child’s growth and includes self-worth based on material assets, academic skills and athletic abilities. This may also be considered the “egocentric” stage of moral human development which involves the development of a “conscience”, morals and values which are assimilated through interaction with parents, peers, as well as, other adults, such as teachers,

There have been many theorists throughout history that have given their own unique explanation of why and how children develop mentally and physically.

Individualism– Giving priority to one’s own goals over group       goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes       rather than group identification.     For the first time in my life I am being an individualist. I am giving greater priority to my own personal goals. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking changing careers at the age of 42 but I am determined to get my nursing degree. For the next 2 years it will be about me and my own personal achievements.

The learning and development processes of a child have been debated for years, with no one theory sticking out as the best explanation as to how and why we learn. Looking at the behaviourist and humanist views of learning and development and the key theorists within them, you can see just how different they can be with their explanations of this.

Under these conditions, a multiple linear regression model is set up, having the working hours (usual basic working hours per week excluding overtime of the married women) as the dependent variables, denoted as Yhours ; and independent variables, denoted as follow:

For the past couple class we have been talking about different theorists. Most of the theorists I have heard of before because of past psychology classes that I have taken and also from CIED 100. In the past I have often just applied the theories to myself and never thought about how the theories would affect my future students. Even though I have heard about the theorists before I often get them confused but talking about these passed couple weeks has helped. The theories look at many different parts of a child’s development, their social/emotional and moral aspects, and their behavior and cognitive development. From what I can remember most of the theories were broken up into stages. Some stages were based on age while others were

Developmental theories are essential in understanding how early environment and parenting affect personal upbringing and development. I believe that my family and sociocultural contexts of my childhood had a significant influence on my development, making me the person I am today.