Four Contributions Of Erickson's Theory Of Early Childhood Education

In the area of early childhood education there are many theorist who have contributed their ideas and philosophical view point to the field. Our text however chooses to focus on four of which it has declared some of the most influential.
The first of the four theorist discussed in both the text and one of the videos is Erik Erikson. Erickson followed Sigmund Freud and it was Freud whom influenced Erickson to develop Erickson’s “psychological theory”. Erikson, like Freud, felt that personality develops in a series of stages, eight stages to be precise. He believed that each one of these stages included at least one unique psychological crisis. Each of these stages has different needs that parents and caregivers must be aware of beginning with

Erickson’s theory can explain some of my own personal issues and insecurities, and therefore I can see the significance of the theory on the individual. With Piaget’s theory it is, to me, all too obvious that children see things differently at different stages of their life. However as we usually take for granted the changes in stages I found it interesting to see it laid out in each of the particular stages as seen in the video. It shows the importance of helping children to view things differently. Skinner’s theory is one I use every day in my two year old classroom. We focus on the positives and try to ignore the negatives or allow some natural consequences to occur. It is really helping with our potty training efforts. Vygotsky’s theory is another one that I can relate to both from experience as a student and as an early childhood educator. I quite frequently became bored with trivial task as a student, and I can tell when some of my own students are either bored or find a task to difficult and the negative consequences associated with