Theories of Child Development

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Theories abound around how people develop emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Here I will examine the theories of five leaders on the subject of development. Jean Piaget believed in four stages of development that were fairly concrete in description (Atherton, 2010). 1. Sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years old) – Children begin to make sense of the world around them based on their interaction with their physical environment. Reality begins to be defined. 2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7) – Concrete physical stimuli are needed in order for a child to develop new concepts. 3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11) – As a child accumulates experience with the physical world, he/she begins to conceptualize to explain those experiences. Abstract thought is also emerging. 4. Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15) – Conceptual reasoning is present and the child’s cognitive abilities are similar to an adult’s (Atherton, 2010). Piaget was firm in his concept of these stages. He was convinced that a person had to progress from one stage to the next, that this was a natural biological process influenced by the environment and experiences. Biology limits the point in time, but the environment determines the quality of development. Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES 3 interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks. Language is crucial for development as it is with words that a child conceptualizes and makes sense of the world (Schütz, 2004). A precept of Vygotsky’s theory was the zone of proximal development or ZPD. ZDP is the difference between what a child is able to solve on its own
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