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

been a debate.
Some early childhood education professionals have assumed that the love of children was a primary component in the “quality equation.” In other words, if you love young children enough, then you would provide high-quality care and education for them. This theory is wrong. However, the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes now supports that, first and foremost, teachers must have knowledge, skills, and an understanding about child development and learning; after those components are in place then the love of children can be added.
In order to make an informed decision about how to make meaningful differences while providing high-quality care and education, teachers need knowledge of child development, learning, and best practices as well as tools for making sense of this information. The No Child Left Behind Act, for example, is driven by performance standards, calls for quality teachers and teaching, guarantees that all children have access to learning and can learn at high levels, and requires frequent assessment to demonstrate teacher accountability. Each day, teachers are faced with the decision to their professional and ethical responsibility of making a meaningful difference in the lives of children or to continue doing things as usual.
In an attempt to explain just how developmental theories inform our understanding of developmentally appropriate practice, we must first have an idea of the theories regarding development.

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

rate of development regardless of other potential environmental influences.
Behaviorist Theory: Development and learning are based upon the environment by conditioning. John Watson theory was based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. However, B.F. Skinner built his research upon Watson’s theory by noting that children’s (and adults, for that matter) behavior and learning can be shaped by providing rewards and punishment. He believed that there is a great deal of diversity in behavior and learning because all children experience different rewards and punishment from the adults in their lives.
Cognitive-developmental Theory: Jean Piaget’s theory focus on how children’s thinking and reasoning change over time. Children actively participate in their own development by creating their own understanding of the world. This understanding is built upon experiences with materials and working to resolve issues between prior knowledge and new information. At times, children may not have reached a level maturation and cannot make use of information or acquire new thinking skills.
Sociocultural Theory: Lev Vygotsky’s theory focuses on how culture is passed to the next generation through language and social interaction. Development depends on interaction with people and what the culture provides to help form their own view of the world. A child’s inherited traits influence the ways in which she approaches the environment and this impacts the types of experiences she has.
Psychosocial Theory: Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology.

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

kind.
The way each theory addresses each of the controversies leads to many views or approaches for explaining child development. Not all developmental theories are viewed today as equally valid. “All contemporary theories view children as active, purposeful beings who make sense of their world and contribute substantially to their own development” (Berk, 2003, p. 12). However, the biological-maturational and the behaviorist theories view the child as passive. When discussing the behaviorist view, Berk and Winsler (1995) stated this even stronger when they said, “Since it denies the existence of the child’s spontaneous development, it is antithetical to current conceptions of developmentally appropriate practices…” (p. 104).
Teachers must be willing to use careful reflection in examining their beliefs and practices. This simply means that you understand the different theories, can explain your beliefs, and can utilize them to make effective educational decisions in planning. “If you find that you utilize aspects of several different theories, you have taken what is called an eclectic approach. Being eclectic, however, does not mean “going with the flow” or “doing whatever works” (Marion, 2003). “Taking an eclectic approach is believed to be the most practical method for using theories of child development to inform classroom practices because no one theory is comprehensive enough to adequately explain all aspects of development” (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2004).
These contradictions between child developmental theories show how knowledge is necessary. Understanding child development is essential for implementing developmentally appropriate practices. We cannot make appropriate educational decisions for young children without this knowledge base.