Week 1 Theories of child Development

Key Child development theories

• social-emotional theories

• learning theories (behavioral theory, social learning theory/social)

• cognitive theory (piaget & vygotsky; information processing theories

• Motor development (Gesell, McGraw)

• Perceptual Development (Gibson)

• Dynamic Systems Theory

• Environmental/Cultural Ecological Theories of Development (Bronefenbrenner)

Theories of personality and social emotional development

• eriksons stages of human development

• attachment theory

• greenspans theory of emotional devlopment

• thomas and cheese temperament theory

• bandura social cognititive/self efficacy theory

Eriksons stages of development

1. trust vs mis trust 1-2

2. autonomy vs doubt 2-4

3. initiative vs guilt 4-5

4. industry vs inferiority 5-13

5. identity vs role confusion 13-20

6. intimacy vs isolation 20-40

7. generatively vs stagnation 40-65

8. ego integrity vs despair 65+

The goal of attachment theory

: protect the child and help them to feel safe enough to take risk and develop

• proximity allows for attachment

attachment bonds 

• child seeks security and comfort in the relationship 

• persistent and non transitory 

• involves specific person 

• emotionally significant 

• child feels distress at involuntary separation 

Attachment hierarchy

when a child doesn't treat all attachment figures in their life the same and they arent equivalent

Infant attachment is based on 

time, quality, caregivers emotional investment, social cues, consistent presence 

Attachment relationship are defined as

secure

OR

insecure 

• ambivalent - lack of emotion display

• anxious avoidant - extreme ends

• disorganized - lack of emotional consistently; ambivalent + anxious avoidant 

What happens when caregivers are sensitive and responsive to infant cues?

the infant learns that they can get their needs met and that they can have an effect on the world 

What happens when caregivers are unresponsive or erratically responsive to infants cues?

infants learn that they arent able to influence the world to get their needs met

Greenspan

capacity or organize experiences is present in early life, but initially that organization is emotiona based, rather than cognititve based 

emotion generating centers of brain mature eariler. Interpreting the meaning of emotions relies on the maturation of cortical areas.

When should Organization of Greenspan Emotional Development develop and how can it be acquired/promoted?

Primary in infancy: critical that childern devleop within their first yr

acquired through relationships w caregivers 

play w adults helps promote it 

What therapeutic approach did Greenspan and Wieder develop to help children with poor emotional organization? 

DIR/Floortime - functional play w adult and child to help with regulating emotions 

Thomas & Chess 9 areas of Temperament

• Activity level (socially)

• approach or withdrawal of social interactions

• distractibility

• intensity of response

• attention span and persistence

• quality of mood

• rhythmicity

• threshold of response

• adaptability

What was been a recent addition to the construct of temperament 

Effort control 

• develops in the 2nd yr of life, is motivationally related, 

Social cognititve/self efficacy theory

Bandura 

All persons possess self belief that affect their thinking, feelings and actions

these beliefs are derived from how individuals interpret their own performance

beliefs about self efficacy affect what choices people make about….

future actions, the amount of effort they expend on certain activities, their perseverance against obstacles 

Bandrua definition of self efficacy

a personal judgement of how well an individual can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations 

Origins of self efficacy

• infants gradually learn that they can make things happen 

• Caregivers being responsive to their child (helps kid exercise personal control) 

• can be connected to attachment  

Behaviorism

skinner

• visible behavior change as due to reinforcing conditions (operant conditioning) 

• development as a result of cumulative interaction history (not age) 

Piaget notes that knowledge construction (cognitive development) is built over time through….

• active engagement w the enviroment;

• exploration of objects through a Childs existing schema;

• through the interaction between biological maturation and environmental experience

Piaget notes that play is…

• assimilative (fitting into a culture) and valuable for understanding

To say that play is assimilative means that…

when a child encounters a new rule or idea, they must fit that rule into what they already know about the game/play

Adaption

a change in behavior or thought that shows organization has occurred

Equilibration

Drives adaption. Its the dynamic interplay between assimilation and accommodation

Piaget 4 stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor period

  • 0-2yr old, object permanence

• pre operations

  • Pretend play/use of symbols + ego-centric

• concrete operations

  • better understanding of number/math & conservation

• formal operations

  • reasoning is more abstract, moral reasoning increase problem solving

Why does Piaget’s stressed the importance of sensorimotor activity in infancy?

its supported by in depth study of cerebellum

• not only associated w balance, motor coordination, motor responses to visual stimuli, linkages have been found to higher centers of the brain responsible for speech production, working memory and motor planning.

What is Vygotsky’s overall perspective on development?

Psychological processes are primarily social, shaped by historical and cultural contexts. Cognition is culturally influenced. People become human through internalization of culture. Education is the main tool of enculturation.

According to Vygotsky, how can children organize their mental structures?

cultural symbols, objects, and language 

According to Vygotsky, how do children respond to events?

Its baed on their parents interpretation of said event.

• understanding whats worthy of attention and what emotional valence a child attaches to specific experiences 

• biological process are strong determinants of behav in infancy, but this influence becomes less as social experience comes to dominate

What is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

The gap between what a child can achieve independently and what they can achieve with assistance of another (typically older childern). Defines the area where adults can promote independence.

According to Vygotsky, what does pretend play and role-taking enable children to do?

Learn self-regulation and develop a range of spontaneous concepts.

How does Vygotsky describe the child’s progression in learning through instruction?

From following verbal instructions of adults to instructing themselves

What role does play have in Vygotsky’s theory?

A means of organizing thought through verbal mediation.

Jonathan Tudge 2008 reports that..

children in a welfare family would have 13 million fewer words of cumulative language experience than the average child in the working class family

Cognitive development consists of…

• increasing use of efficient strategies

• gains in working memory capacity 

• automatic process ability 

• increased speed of processing 

Cognitive development definition

the increase of representation of information in domains such as number, space, and social interaction

Based on information processing theories, a child’s stage of thinking depends upon..

the information processing capacity that a child has 

Gesell Maturation Theory

• focus on physical development 

• changes in the biological structures of the nervous system are expressed in behavioral and psychological changes 

• changes in structure leads to change in function 

• promoted the concept of readiness

General Principles of Physical/Motor Development (Gesell and Ames)

• Cephalo (brain) to caudal (tail) proximal-distal, ulnar-radial 

• reciprocal interweaving (changing emphases in development) 

• functional asymmetry 

• global before precise 

• self regulatory fluctuation

Gesell did not provide….

in depth theories about individual differences in development or how environmental factors might influence or promote the development of specific skills 

McGraw Theory of physical/motor development

• questioned gesell assumption about structure always preceding function

• studied how motor development is influenced by environmental opportunities 

• believed in structure- function interaction as a better explanation 

• aligned with Dewey who believed that development of problem solving and judgement abilities were grounded in motor development

Development of Perception according to Gibson

• the enviroment affords opportunities (affordances) to use evolved perception and action systems through spontaneous exploration 

• Control (ability to select appropriate behavior from ones repertoire of behaviors)

• prospectively (looking ahead, the ability to anticipate consequences of actions) 

• flexibility (the ability to choose segments of behavior appropriate to the task 

Perception contributes to higher order cognition by..

• providing increased flexibility and problem 

• discriminating roles for objects and self 

• perceiving others as causal agents 

Gibson’s view of perception as…

differentiating and filtering, not associating or matching, nor is it externally reinforced, its internally reinforced. 

optimizing attention 

Dynamic systems theory (esther thelen)

• a single causal model couldn’t account for the complex nature of motor development

Define dynamic system

one that creates changes over time among elements that are interrelated systematically

According to the dynamic systems theory, development is the result of

• integrated relationship among specific stimuli 

• the environmental context

• status of anatomical structures and functions

• the physiological conditions 

• the development history of the individual 

Ecolgocial Theory 

Bronfenbrenner

Contains: Microsystems, mesosystems, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystems

Ecological transitions

• each system is constantly changing and interacting with other systems, creating ecological transitions 

• all systemic interactions affect childern’s health and development progress