My Personal Theory of Child Development

Why you have chosen to be in the field. Children in this field can develop a positive self-esteem, foster a love of learning, and develop important social skills. I choice the field of child development because preschool age children are eager to learn and a joy to teach. I enjoy creating developmentally appropriate activities for children. They enjoy a variety of activities and need to be guided through play. The qualities most preschoolers share are they love to take on roles such as a mommy, teacher, or other grown up role, they want to please the adults and they are learning to communicate their needs. Early childhood education research shows children who attend preschool programs are more likely to succeed in many things such as going to college, graduate high school, staying out of prison. Children will learn important social skills that may help them such as learning good manners at snack, raising their hand during circle time, and many other skills. I plan to further my education by reading books by child development experts, taking more child development classes/workshops and professional development workshops as needed.

Child development theories provide various explanations of how children progress, and some also provide answers as to why certain outcomes or behaviors occur as a child grows. Two theories provide the best perspective regarding development when the two processes are used collectively: behavioral theory and cognitive developmental theory.

There have been many theories on how children develop and learn, some of the theorists who influence the educators of today on how to best teach children.

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.

On top of the expected pattern of children and young people’s development including “physical, communication & intellectual & social, emotional & behavioural development there are also “personal and external” factors which will affect how they develop.

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.

There are many different theories of development which we use to understand children’s behaviour, reactions and the way in which they learn.

The developmental theories can not be more evident than during the out of class assignment at the daycare facility. During this independent assignment, I was able to observe and interact with pre-school children in an environment that is both encouraging and facilitating to a child’s developmental growth. So, just as Piaget in his developmental theory believed that children takes an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world; the pre-school teachers allowed them to do just that. Indeed, the teachers at the day care provided room for the child to learn and explore while at the same time adhering to a structure that set boundaries and limitations. Thus, the pre-school children, begrudgingly, learns to follow a meticulous schedule of activities and rest.

| Peer centred relationships now of high importance. Peer acceptance of great importance to self esteem. An interest developing in sexual relationships, experimenting may start to occur. Peer groups begin to separate in those of attraction, mutual interests and more closely bonded friendships made. The youth experiments with social roles and explores options for career choice.

Theories of development are important as they can influence practice and help us understand a Childs way of learning, behaviour and reactions

There are five theories of development which are psychoanalytical, behaviorism, cognitive, socio-cultural, and epigenetic (Santrock). These theories help develop an outline from which to explain the patterns and problems of development (Berger). I am only going to discuss two of these which are psychoanalytical and behavioral.

When you hear Child Development you think of Children and the way they’re raised. When in reality Child Development is way more than that. Child Development is the biological, physical, and emotional changes that occur between birth and the end of adolescence. Child development is a continuous movement with the child. Early Childhood programs promote child development in their curriculums which is based off of the child care center’s education philosophy.

There are many theories on how a human develops. Most babies follow a certain pattern of development but the controversy is which person 's developmental pattern of development is correct? Erik Erickson, Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget 's developmental theories are similar. Each of the theories goes through a human 's development chronologically, giving a guideline of when certain developments happen. For example when a child is supposed to walk or when a child is going to speak. It is only a guideline and these theories are not supposed to be held too strictly.

According to Freud, the needs of a child during the first 18 months of her life are basically oral. The ability of a child to progress into the next developmental stage in his/her life is dependent on the type of care he/she receives during the early childhood stage. If the child receives consistent care and his/her individual experiences promote safety and security, he/she progresses to the next stage without a remainder of unsatisfied needs. However, if the individual does not receive this type of care, he/she becomes fixated at early childhood and develops oral fixated behaviors.

Different theorists have different ideas about the development of children. Two of these include Urie Brofenbrenner and Mason Durie. The western theorist, Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was born in Russia however was relocated to the United States in his early years, where his father worked as a clinical pathologist. This is likely to have impacted on Bronfenbrenners future career path of psychology (Moffitt, n.d.). Bronfenbrenner explores the ideas around ecological theory. A Maori perspective is Durie, born in New Zealand in 1938. He studied medicine and surgery at University of Otago, and continued on to do a postgraduate diploma in psychiatry (Massey University, 2010). Durie explores ideas around Maori wellbeing. Both of these theorists have implications on teaching.