Developmental Theories Of Childhood

Developmental theory, with Piaget as the most prominent theorist, presents the idea that children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore the world around them. Development is seen to take place in broad stages from birth through to adulthood, with each stage characterized by qualitatively distinct ways of thinking. However, some developmental theorists, in contrast to Piaget, place more emphasis on personal, social and emotional development rather than cognitive development and prefer to delay ‘academic’ experiences until later, for instance after the age of seven years in Steiner’s theory.

In this writing it will be discussing childhood development, as well as some vital issues that might come along during those stages of development. Child development consist of the stage where the child is developing physically, cognitively, socially and spiritually. During these stages of development a child is maturing from infancy to becoming a young adult. For many years theorist such as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Lev Vygotsky’s have researched how children mature from infants to adulthood. Each of the theorist have profound facts to how children develop, but which of the three men are correct on their findings?

When an infant arrives in the world they are helpless tiny humans who depend on adults for every need from love, to feeding them. It is amazing how these tiny babies grow into adults able to make decisions and become self-dependent. There are many theories about how children develop and what roles the environment plays, what people affect their lives and how events can shape their personalities. Some of these children have and easy life and some have a harder time making that journey to adulthood.

There is a plethora of child development theories that have a degree of influence over current practice. Each of which both have criticism and contrasting theories.

From the day they are born, children are immersed in a social world. Rapid learning takes place and is supported not only by parents, siblings, teachers and friends but also the important values and beliefs within their culture. All of this provides the foundations for cognitive development. As trainee teachers, it is fundamental that we have a deeper understanding of how children learn and how we can support learning. In order to do this we must first look at some of the theories of learning.

There have been many ideas on how to define childhood that have been expressed over the years, from more controversial concepts such as the psychosexual stages developed by Freud to the more polished concepts like Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s tabula rasa. Despite these differing academic views about how to describe childhood, there is a universal understanding that childhood is a distinct space from adulthood. Childhood is often depicted as a stage in life that is filled with unruly behaviour, an abundance of imagination and irrational thought processes. It is also commonly portrayed as a vulnerable period in which children should be sheltered from neglect, abuse, and exploitation. As newcomers to

Developmental psychology is viewed as different approaches which aims to look at how children and adults develop. Theories such as Bowlby 's attachment theory can explain how a child 's development can be altered by their attachment, thus leading to the ideology of the nature vs nurture debate, nature referring to the process of biological maturation while nurture is referring to the impact of the environment or surroundings, which involves the idea that a person learns through experiences. (McLeod, S. A, 2012)

Developmental psychology recognizes three main models of psychosocial and cognitive development. The first theory, presented by developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget, addresses cognitive development. The second theory, presented by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, focuses on the development of morality. The third theory, proposed by developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, outlines psychosocial development. All three theories are applicable from birth to death.

Child development theories focus on describing how children change and also grow throughout childhood. Such theories fixate different aspects of development consisting of social, emotional and cognitive development.

This assignment will discuss the main theories of child development and discuss the main principles across all area of development. The assignment will also evaluate an observation conducted on a child and link their behaviour to relevant child development theories. The assignment will firstly highlight some child development theories from behaviourists such as Bandura, humanists such as Maslow and constructivists such as Piaget. Secondly the child’s observation will be discussed and evaluated here relevant link to development theories will be made. Lastly the assignment will finish off with a reflection. Jennie Lindon defines development as” the sequence of physical and psychological changes experienced by human beings, which start with conception and continue throughout life.”(Jennie Lindon 2012:5) the early year’s foundation stage (EYTS) framework states that there are seven areas of learning and development however they view some are more important these are called the prime areas of development. There are three prime areas of development these are: communication and language, physical development, personal social and emotional development. The EYFS also states that “children develop in different ways at different times” (Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage 2014) which is why the development matters promote the message that every child is unique and has their own way of learning. (Development matters in the Early years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2012)

There are many areas in which an individual must develop to reach a mature level of adulthood. Several theories and ideas have been created in an attempt to describe the process that in which the individual passes to reach the desired levels of maturity. A few of those theories will be addressed in better understanding the development of Precious on a psychological and social plane. It can be assumed from observing Precious that she has been biologically developing normal as she is experiencing growth and hormonal changes and dealing with acne and obesity.

I would consider myself as developing with practicing child development theories. However, now that I have spent a couple of weeks with students, making the connection to the literature is easier. After reading the student’s paragraph during an assessment, I observed that most students in the class did not know how to write in cursive script. My mentor and I are in the beginning stages of planning a lesson that I could teach on typography; using type as art to include their signatures on the back of their artwork.

Child Development Theory: There were three theorists that we talked about that looked at child development. The first one was Erik Erikson, who believed that there was two main stages of children development during the first three years. The first of the two stages was Trust vs. Mistrust and the second stage was Autonomy vs. Doubt. During these stages the child developing many close relationships with those that are frequently in their life. As children are building these relationships they are also learning to become more of an individual and have more awareness of their own self. The second theorist we discussed was Jean Piaget, who believed that children develop actively by how they explore their "world". When the child has mastered that

The critical period in childhood development is when the newborn needs to spend time with the mother. As the mother bonds with the child it creates a baseline of interaction where the child can learn how to trust the parent. Many newborns need to be close to the mother after birth because if not they are liable to fall into illness. Thus, in chapter one, Erikson’s idea of 8 stages of the human life span, the first one is trust vs. mistrust (Santrock 17). As the child receives the attention required it will learn how to trust adults, however, when going thru mistrust it is not receiving the care it needs and later on in life develops trust issues. Also it causes further more complications later on thru the child’s life-span

Throughout the history of our Western culture the ways in which we have viewed childhood has changed dramatically. Woodhead (2005) recognises that childhood has been viewed as both a natural process and as a social and cultural process, as well as being viewed as an interactive process between the two. These changeable and evolving attitudes confirm James and Prout’s (1997) assertion that “childhood is constructed and reconstructed”. This essay will take in to account four theorists, who have contrasting views of how a child develops, these theories stem from three opposing philosophies; Hobbes, an authoritarian; Rousseau, a nativist; Locke, a rationalist; Kant, an interactionist. Even to this day there are still differing views on what