Introduction to Child Development - Essay Example

[The [The [The Child Development This paper would discuss and evaluate child development and would give a broad introduction to the psychology of human development over the first 15 years or so of the lifespan. It would also cover the methods of psychological enquiry as they are applied to the processes of human development. Introduction The study of child development is dominated by the theories of two key psychologists - Piaget and Vygotsky. Other theories have been developed but they usually have foundations based upon these key theories. It was Piaget who first noted that children were not just miniature replicas of adults, but in fact were different in the ways in which they thought about and interpreted the world. Piaget's idea was that adults did not simply know more than children, but that their knowledge was structured differently. Indeed, Piaget suggested that children at different stages of their development thought about and interpreted their worlds in different ways. Piaget developed the idea of children as ' "little scientists" who were engaged in active exploration, seeking understanding and knowledge' (Bee, 164). Principles of Piaget's theory Piaget's theory of cognitive development was based on three main principles - those of assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. These will be explained below; however, first it is important to define the term 'schema'. Schema is a cognitive representation of activities or things. When a baby is born it will have an innate schema for sucking in order to ensure that it can feed and therefore grow. As the baby grows, this schema will become integrated with other feeding schemas as the baby's experience and nutrition changes. Assimilation is the process of putting a new experience into already existing mental structure. Children develop cognitive structures to help them make sense of their world and when they encounter a new experience they place this into the schemas they have already developed. The process of assimilation is an active one. Children are not merely absorbing knowledge via a process of osmosis, they are actively engaged in the assimilation process. They are active insofar as they are selective - they do not absorb all the information they encounter. Accommodation is the revising of an existing schema due to a new experience. For example, a child may have a schema that describes all flying objects as birds, but when he encounters a Frisbee this does not fit the schema. It isn't alive; therefore a new schema is necessary. As children develop they will encounter experiences which their existing schemas are incapable of explaining. Therefore they must develop new schemas in response to new experiences. Equilibration is the process of seeking to achieve cognitive stability through assimilation and accommodation. The child is constantly trying to interpret and understand the world while encountering new experiences. The child builds an understanding of the world and how it works, but this is constantly challenged by new experiences that conflict with their current understanding. They seek to develop schemas to help this interpretation process. The drive for equilibrium is that all these interpretations and schemas fit together and make a general picture of the world that is logical. However, equilibrium is a constantly changing thing, as each time a child encounters a new experience they are in a place of disequilibrium until assimilation or accommodation has taken place. If we return to the example of the Frisbee, when the child first encounters it they are in a state of confusion (i.e. not equilibrium) - 'It isn't alive, I can't explain it with my present schemas or ways of thinking'. Through accommodation and the development of new schemas the child returns to a state of equilibrium, until the next new experience. Piaget's Stage Model of Cognitive Development Piaget suggested that the child's cognitive development could be divided into stages. As the child develops and goes through the process of assimilation and accommodation, their brain will develop through the natural process of maturation, and therefore their understanding of the world matures and their ability to accurately interpret and predict the world develops. Piaget thought that there were clear links between children's cognitive development and the natural biological maturation of the brain. According to Piaget, cognitive development is an inevitable process - as the brain matures the thinking matures, and the understanding increases. However, Piaget also saw interaction with the environment as an important factor in cognitive development. Biological maturation takes place over a period of time. Piaget thought that children's cognitive development was based to a large extent on their biological development. Piaget thought that cognitive development took place in stages, each new stage becoming possible as the brain matures. Piaget developed a stage theory, based upon his research with children. This theory described different stages of cognitive development. Piaget's theory can be thought of as based upon the idea of a staircase. Each stage represents a step and each step represents more development and a higher level of cognitive ability. It is important to note that these stages are fixed in sequence. The Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years) This stage encompasses the child from age 0-2 years. This is a stage of rapid development. During this stage the child will change from a fairly helpless newborn baby to a walking, talking toddler. This stage is dominated by sensory and motor activity. The newborn baby is dependent upon built-in schemas and reflexes, and is unable to imitate or integrate information. An example of a reflex is the sucking reflex, which is necessary for feeding and growing. As the child develops, their sensory and motor activities develop and increase, so that by the end of this stage they are able to imitate and integrate information to some degree. A 2-year-old child is capable of using objects to represent other objects, for example a cup can become a boat in a game. Object permanence is a key factor in this stage of Piaget's model. Piaget hypothesised that at 8 months the child develops the concept of object permanence, which is the knowledge that an object is 'permanently present, even if temporarily out of sight' (Smith et. al: 40). Before a child acquires object permanence they will cease to look for an object when it is out of their field of vision - 'If I can't see it, it does not exist' - but once object permanence is acquired they will actively search for the object, as they know it still exists, so it must be somewhere. Object permanence is important because it demonstrates that the child has mentally represented the object. (Fraser, 20-22) The Pre-Operational Stage (2-6 years) This stage is divided into two sub-stages. These are the pre-conceptual period and the intuitive period. This stage is characterized by an increase in language development, continuation of symbolic / internal representation and the development of imaginative play. The child begins to use symbols and language to represent things. Limitations on thinking are due to egocentrism and animism. The term egocentrism is used as the child can only view the world from their perspective and finds it difficult to understand any other perspective. Piaget investigated egocentrism in children by the use of the Three Mountains Test. The Three Mountains Test Piaget developed the Three Mountains Test to investigate egocentrism. A child is shown a 3D scene with mountains that differ in size and colour. Then the child picks from a set of drawings or models. First they choose the picture or models that represent how they see the scene, i.e. their view or perspective. Then they are asked to pick out a drawing that shows how someone else at a different angle sees the scene. Children usually choose the picture depicting their own viewpoint again (Bee, 166). Piaget thought this failure was due to egocentrism. The child has not yet cognitively developed the ability to view the world from another perspective. The Intuitive Period (4-6 Years) This stage is characterised by the development of mental ordering and classification. It is intuitive because the child has no idea about concepts/principles that underlie the classification. Conservation is the realisation that quantity or amount does not change when nothing has been added or taken away from an object or collection of objects, despite changes in form or spatial arrangements. The ability to conserve is an important aspect of a child's cognitive development. Conservation experiments are a key part of Piaget's theory. Piaget considered children at this stage to be unable to conserve. He tested conservation of: liquid, volume, mass, number, length, weight and area. Piaget tested children's ability to conserve liquid by presenting them with two glasses of liquid. Before the child is able to conserve they judge by appearance that glass b has more, as the level is higher. After they develop the ability, they recognize that as nothing has been added or subtracted the glasses must both contain the same amount regardless of appearance. Rutter & Rutter (1992) elaborate the social interactional activity pf growing children in the following words, "Children's styles of prosocial behaviour alter in pattern as they grow older but empathy and altruism are part of children's make-up from early on. Positive social interactions tend to increase over the first five years or so, but competition and rivalry with other children also become more prominent. Talking, of course, also comes to play a much greater role in social interactions." p.146 Vygotsky's Theory of Child Development Vygotsky agreed with Piaget that a child does not sit back and somehow passively absorb knowledge but instead actively constructs knowledge. This idea was in direct contrast to the view that learning was essentially a passive activity. However, Vygotsky's theory differs in key principles from Piaget. He stated that children's complex thinking was acquired through social interactions between children and the adults around them. The child will interact with others - peers, parents and teachers - and these interactions will result in learning. Vygotsky's theory focused upon three key factors. These were culture, language and the zone of proximal development. Vygotsky thought that the culture and social environment of the child was a vital part of their construction of knowledge. That is, that what children learn about the world and the way this knowledge is learned is determined by the society to which they belong and the social settings they are part of. The child learns through interactions with others but also through elements of their own culture, for example songs, language, art and play. For instance a child who grows up in a predominantly Catholic country may encounter, through language and society, strong anti-abortion views. This will affect his or her learning, knowledge and viewpoint on this issue. Vygotsky stated that first culture affects learning, as children learn through interactions and cooperation with others and the environment, and second the child develops through the symbolic representations of the child's culture, i.e. art, language, play, songs etc. The child's development both reflects and internalises the culture to which they belong. Therefore, the culture provides a framework in which the child constructs meaning. Vygotsky saw language as of central importance in the learning process. He thought that there was a clear relationship between language development and cognitive development. Vygotsky thought that we encode and represent our world through language that language is a symbolic system by which we communicate and that language is a cultural tool. (Harland, 263-72) Vygotsky stated that language was an important part of cognitive development. An important question concerns the relationship between language and thought - what comes first, language or thought, and what is the relationship between them Do we need language in order to be able to understand our thoughts, or do we need thoughts to understand what language means Vygotsky felt that language was necessary for an individual to organise their thought. He placed more emphasis on the importance of language development than Piaget did. Vygotsky's theory suggested that at first language and thought are separate processes. Young children's language and thinking are both basic and not yet developed. Initially language is used for social purposes and is not connected to inner thoughts. Vygotsky stated that by the age of 2 language and thought become related and language starts to have a major influence on cognitive and social development. Vygotsky suggested that from the age of 2, cognitive development was at least partly controlled by language. As a child develops and matures their thought processes become more developed and more mature, as does their use and understanding of language. Vygotsky saw a definite relationship between language and thought. Language, Vygotsky also thought, directed behaviour. Vygotsky saw cognitive development as deriving from conversation with parents and others, and dialogue with the wider society (Smith, et al., 54). A young child might struggle to complete a 25-piece jigsaw, but an adult working with them might suggest strategies such as turning pieces round, making the edge first or trying to put together pieces of the same colour. In this way the child makes use of the more expert other's knowledge, but it is the child who completes the jigsaw. They are able to achieve something which is not in their own levels of capability. Thus they move from their actual level to their potential level. The child is not a scientist trying out solutions but is an active learner guided by experienced others. These others can help the child's development and enhance their achievements. Social and Emotional Development of Children Talking about children development from the perspective of acquaintance and companionship in their lifespan development, Rutter & Rutter (1992) writes, "Sometimes, children's relationships with other children have been viewed as a later development than their attachment relationships, and derivative of them. However, that is not really so. As we have seen, impairment in early attachment does have implications for the quality of later peer relationships. But an interest in other children is evident from early infancy and, in many respects, peer relationships and parent-child relationships develop in parallel. As early as two months of age, infants orient to other babies; by three months they reach out and touch them; and by six months their interactions involve smiles and vocalizations." p.145 On the other hand, Schaffer (1996) gives the following notion regarding social development and involvement in social activity on behalf of a growing child, "Children learn early rules through the routines of family life. Children are expected to become reasonably compliant with parent requests and to internalize the family standards for behaviour so that they comply in the absence of supervision. Self-control of this kind becomes evident during the third year of life. Sensitive and consistent care-giving and warm but firm parenting styles have been associated with the development of self-control and compliance to social rules, whereas power assertive methods of controlling child behaviour (especially with hostile affect) generally have been associated with less compliance and less internalization of standards in children" ( Schaffer, p.13-16). Development of Gender Stereotypes Children are amazingly adept at devising their own stereotypes and learning the gender stereotypes of their culture. At an early age, they develop ideas about how the sexes look and act. Children apply these gender stereotypes when making judgments about others' behaviour and preferences. Developmental researchers have focused attention on how stereotypes about others develop, what kinds of information are first associated with the sexes, and how these gender cognitions then influence children's thinking and behaviour. (Munger, 110-16) Children show evidence of having rudimentary gender stereotypes between the ages of 2 and 3. For instance, even toddlers believe that boys hit people and girls cry (Durkin, 90). Young children's stereotypes are quite rigid, meaning that they often link gender-related characteristics exclusively to males or females. During early childhood, children's stereotypes develop in a number of domains associated with the sexes. For instance, whereas young children may stereotype the sexes in appearance and in power-related behaviours, older children begin to add to their stereotypes information about occupational differences and, even later, personality differences. (Butterworth, 166-70) Key concerns of the content-focused research are what kinds of information children first develop stereotypes about and why these particular stereotypes develop at such an early age. As children grow older, their stereotypes become less rigid and more flexible. For instance, older children acknowledge that there are exceptions to stereotypic patterns, for instance, that some girls play with trucks. This increased flexibility is due partly to older children having more advanced abilities to classify, especially on multiple dimensions (Durkin, 92). and a greater understanding of the cultural relativity of gender norms. Surprisingly, older children also show more extreme views about crossing gender boundaries. For example, older children respond more harshly to another child who shows cross-gender behaviour than do younger children (Durkin, 93) Works Cited Bee, H. (2000). The developing child 9th Edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 164-66 Butterworth, G. & Harris, M. (1994) Principles of Development Psychology. Hove, Lawrence Eribaum Associates. Durkin, K. (1995) Developmental social psychology: From infancy to old age. Oxford, Basil Blackwell; 89-93 Fraser, S., Lewis, V., Ding, S., Kellet, M, and Robinson, C. (2004). Doing research with children and young people, London, Sage. 20-22 Harland, T. (2003). Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and problem-based learning: linking a theoretical concept with practice through action research. Teaching in Higher Education, 8(2), 263-272. Munger, M. P. (2003). The History of Psychology: Fundamental questions. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 110-16 Rutter, M, & Rutter, M (1992) Developing Minds: Challenge and continuity across the life Span, London, Penguin 144-47 Schaffer, R. 1996 Social Development Oxford; Basil Blackwell; 13-19 Smith, P. K., H, Cowie & M. Blades. (1998) Understanding Children's Development. (3rd Edition) Oxford, Basil Blackwell. 40-54 Read More