Sigmund Piaget's Theory Of Child Development

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Intro:
Although no one group of theories can explain all child behaviour, each theory can in its own way assist the registered children’s nurse to care for a pre-school child in hospital.
Theories provide a framework for the children’s nurse.

Sigmund Freud developed theories to explain psychosexual development. His theories provided the basis for other child developmental theories. Freud maintained that there are five psychosexual development stages; oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. In each stage certain parts of the body have psychological significance as foci of sexual energy. These areas move from one part of the body to another as the child passes through different stages of development.
For example, during pre-school years, interest …show more content…

Piaget brought new insight into the area of cognitive development. He described intellectual development as a sequence of four principal stages, each made up of several sub-stages. All children move through these stages in the same order, but each moves at his or her own pace. The Preoperational Phase is associated with the child of approximately two to seven years. The child’s thought process in this phase is characterized by egocentrism; that is, the child cannot look at something from another’s point of view.
Piaget’s theory is especially significant to children’s nurses as they care for and develop education plans for the hospitalized child. Piaget believed that learning should be geared to the children’s level of understanding. For education on surgical procedures or treatment to be effective, nurses must understand the different cognitive abilities of children at various ages. For example, a hospitalized child between the ages of 15 months and 5 years is incapable of understanding their internal anatomy. Therefore it would be useless to attempt any realistic explanation of an internal procedure. With an understanding of Piaget’s theory, the children’s nurse knows that in the care of a pre-school child (aged 15 months to 5 years) it is important to use short sentences, positive explanations, familiar and non-threatening terms and simple yet concrete …show more content…

A child the between the age of 15 months and 5 years is at a pre-conceptual level of moral development and will pass through two stages during this level. For example, a toddler is at the first stage of this level and learns whether an action is right or wrong depending on whether the action is punished or rewarded. A slightly older preschool child, however, may be at the second stage and views a particular action as right if it satisfies his or her

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