Child Development

CHILD DEVELOPMENTARNOLD GESSEL

Main Theory

Development is genetically determined by universal

"maturation patterns" which occurs in a predictable

sequence.

• Arnold Gesell pursued the task of observing and recording the changes in child growth and development from infancy through adolescence.• Gesell is a maturationist; his

descriptions of developmental patterns in childhood emphasize physical and mental growth that he saw as determined primarily by heredity.

• Gesell's classic study involved twin girls, both given training for motor skills but one given training for longer than the other.

• There was no measurable difference in the age at which either child acquired the skills, suggesting that development had happened in a genetically programmed way, irrespective of the training given.

• A child learns to whether or not an adult teaches him/her, suggesting physical development at least is largely pre-programmed.

• By studying thousands of children over many years, Gesell came up with "milestones of development" - stages by which normal children can accomplish different tasks. These are still used today.

• By carefully observing children in his campus school, Gesell established norms or typical behaviors of children throughout childhood. He categorized these typical behaviors into 10 major areas that he called gradients of growth (Gesell & Ilg, 1949):

1) Motor characteristics. These include bodily activity, eyes, and hands.2) Personal hygiene. These include eating, sleeping, elimination, bathing and dressing, health and somatic complaints, and tensional outlets.3) Emotional expression. These include affective attitudes, crying, assertion, and anger.4) Fears and dreams.5) Self and sex.

• 6) Interpersonal relations. These include mother-child, child-child, and groupings in play.

• 7) Play and pastimes. These include general interests, reading, music, radio, and cinema.

• 8) School life. These include adjustment to school, classroom demeanor, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

• 9) Ethical sense. These include blaming and alibiing; response to direction, punishment, praise; response to reason; sense of good and bad; and truth and property.

• 10) Philosophic outlook. These include time, space, language and thought, war, death, and deity.

THEORY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT BY ROBERT HAVINGHURST• Havighurst's educational research did much to advance education in

the United States. Educational theory before Havighurst was underdeveloped. Children learned by rote and little concern was given to how children developed. From 1948 to 1953 he developed his highly influential theory of human development and education. The crown jewel of his research was on developmental task. Havighurst tried to define the developmental stages on many levels.

• Havighurst identified Six Major Stages in human life covering birth to old age.

• Infancy & early childhood (Birth till 6 years old)• Middle childhood (6–13 years old)• Adolescence (13–18 years old)• Early Adulthood (19–30 years old)• Middle Age (30-60years old)• Later maturity (60 years old and over)

• From there, Havighurst recognized that each human has three sources for developmental tasks. They are:

• Tasks that arise from physical maturation: Learning to walk, talk, control of bowel and urine, behaving in an acceptable manner to opposite sex, adjusting to menopause.

• Tasks that arise from personal values: Choosing an occupation, figuring out ones philosophical outlook.

• Tasks that have their source in the pressures of society: Learning to read, learning to be responsible citizen.

• The developmental tasks model that Havighurst developed was age dependent and all served pragmatic functions depending on their age.

• Developmental Tasks• (Ages 0–6)• Learning to walk. * Learning to crawl. * Learning

to take solid food. * Learning to talk. * Learning to control the elimination of body wastes. * Learning sex differences and sexual modesty. * Getting ready to read. * Forming concepts and learning language to describe social and physical reality.

• (Ages 6–18)

• Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games. * Learning to get along with age mates. * Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism. * Learning on appropriate masculine or feminine social role. * Developing concepts necessary for everyday living. * Developing conscience, morality and a scale of values. * Achieving personal independence. * Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions.

• (Ages 18–30)• Achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both

sexes. * Achieving a masculine or feminine social role. * Accepting one’s physique and using the body effectively. * Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults. * Preparing for marriage and family life. * Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior. * Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior.* Selecting an occupation.

• (Ages 30–40)• Selecting a mate. * Learning to live with a partner.

* Starting family. * Rearing children. * Managing home. * Getting started in occupation. * Taking on civic responsibility. * Finding a congenial social group.

• (Ages 40–60)

• Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults. * Achieving adult social and civic responsibility. * Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one’s occupational career. * Developing adult leisure time activities. * Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person. * To accept and adjust to the physiological changes of middle age. * Adjusting to aging parents.

• (60 and over)• Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health.

Adjusting to retirement and reduced income. * Adjusting to death of a spouse. * Establishing an explicit affiliation with one’s age group. * Adopting and adapting social roles in a flexible way. * Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements.

Theory on Cognitive DevelopmentBy Jean Piaget

4 stages of Jean Piaget’s theory

• Stage 1 : Sensorimotor Thought

• Stage 2 : Preoperational Thought

• Stage 3 : Concrete Operational Thought

• Stage 4 : Formal Operational Thought

Stage 1 : Sensorimotor Thought [birth to 2 years]• Infants know the world only in terms of their own

sensory input and their physical or motor actions.• They do not have internal mental representations

of objects and events that exist outside their own body.

Stage 2 : Preoperational Though [2 to 7 years]• Flourishing Mental Representations ~ Symbols in Language ~ Symbols in Artwork ~ Symbols in Play• Emergence of Intuitive Thought:“It seems that”• Conservation problems.

Stage 3 : Concrete Operational Thought [7 to 11 years]• Decentered thinking – they consider multiple

aspects of the problem.• Children’s cognitive structures are operational.• Show their logical abilities when they solve class

inclusion and transitive inference problems.• One major limitation – the use of mental

operations is closely tied to concrete materials, contexts and situations.

Stage 4 : Formal Operational Thought [appr. 12 and above]• Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning. ~ the use of deductive reasoning to systematically manipulate variables, test effects in a systematic way &reach correct conclusions.• Abstract Thought ~ thought about things that are not real/tangible.