Child Development Paper

The development of children is very important to me, there are so many children who enter Kindergarten struggling. My passion is educating the age group of three – five year olds. When I was asked to oversee the operations of a family owned Child Care Center, contracted with Hillsborough County Head Start Program, I thought I would be just overseeing the day to day operations and reporting. So after 18 years of being an Asset Manager I made a major career change. My focus was on learning all I could regarding child development. While working in the child care environment, I discovered children learn differently and this learning begins at birth. The development of children and the way children learn in the early stages of life has always

Key theories or theorists that you may be familiar with, include but are not limited to; Arnold Gesell’s maturational theory, B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist theory, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory, Jean Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, and Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Each theory or theorist views and explains development from a slightly different angle when considering four primary controversies: is development primarily the result of nature (biological and/or genetic forces) or nurture (environmental forces); is development by experiences that lead to predictable patterns of outcomes or diversity; is the child an active agent in influencing his own course of development or a passive agent (responds to forces); is development the result of qualitative changes (sudden periods of rapid growth and reorganization where the outcomes are different from the previous stage) or quantitative changes (gradual adding on of new skills to previous skills)? Biological-maturational Theory: According to Arnold Gesell’s theory, he believed that nature (genetics) contribute to developing structures of the body. Brain development and motor skills, occur automatically, without learning or instruction. Depending on the type of development, the idea that each child's unique makeup determines the

Erikson's theory describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan in eight stages. These stages overlap from one stage to the next. One of the main elements of the psychosocial theory is the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the sense of self that we develop through social interaction. According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others. Erikson’s theory concept ideas came from Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory, however, it is not necessary to understand or agree with Freud’s theory in order to understand Erikson’s theory. Erik Erikson’s ideas are one of a