Child and Adolescent Development

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THE CORRELATION BETWEEN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Many of the most important theories of human development in the 20th century stress the role of early childhood. Specifically, the work of Erik Erikson, Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget all, in their different schemes of development, note the importance of early childhood experiences. Features 1. All major theories of human development stress the movement from grasping concrete things, which the child perceives as symbols, to abstraction, which involves coming to conclusions using logic; this occurs roughly from toddlerhood to fourth or fifth grade. The issues of each stage in human development differ not so much in kind but in the degree of complexity. Basic human development theory stresses that if the early childhood stages are not mastered, these gaps will return to cause serious problems later. For writers like Jean Piaget, if early stages in development such as the acquisition of language and symbols are not mastered, then the later stages of logic and hypothetical thinking cannot develop. Types 2. Erikson's approach differentiates the mastery of childhood issues from adult ones by stressing the different virtues necessary for each stage. Hope and will are the two major virtues in the early childhood stages of development, and these develop into industry and competence as the child grows. Unless basic childhood issues of trust, purpose and autonomy are mastered in the early stages of life, the proper foundation of personhood will not be laid out for the later, more complex issues of identity, vocation and fidelity. 3. For Vygotsky, the movement is from a teacher helping the child to the child helping himself. Vygotsky stresses the interaction between child and teacher within the broader social world where problems are seen, discussed, expressed and solved. The final virtue is the
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