A basic introduction to child development theories

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Developmental perspectives
The NSW Office of Child Care (Department of Community Services, DoCS)
published a document in 2002 called the NSW Curriculum Framework for
Children's Services: A practice of relationships (.pdf 1.4 MB). This
document has some interesting perspectives of the role of child
development and developmental norms. It is important to consider multiple
A basic introduction to child
development theories

A basic introduction to child development theories
2/16 Centre for Learning Innovation
© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2006
Contents
Child development theorists .......................................................3
Use of theories............................................................................3
Emotional and psychological development ................................4
Erik Erikson ..........................................................................................................4
John Bowlby .........................................................................................................4
Mary Ainsworth.....................................................................................................4
Cognitive development ...............................................................4
Jean Piaget...........................................................................................................4
Lev Vygotsky........................................................................................................5
Other theories of cognitive development..............................................................7
Physical development.................................................................7
Language development ..............................................................7
Lev Vygotsky........................................................................................................8
BF Skinner, John Watson and Albert Bandura ....................................................8
Noam Chomsky....................................................................................................8
Other language theories.......................................................................................8
Social development ....................................................................9
Uri Bronfenbrenner...............................................................................................9
Lev Vygotsky........................................................................................................9
Social play ................................................................................10
Jean Piaget and Sara Smilansky .......................................................................10
Sara Smilansky ..................................................................................................10
Mildred Parten ....................................................................................................12
Kenneth H. Rubin ...............................................................................................13
Jerome Singer ....................................................................................................14
Development of autonomy and independence.........................14
References ...............................................................................16

Centre for Learning Innovation 3/16
Child development theorists
There are a number of different theorists associated with child development. The
table below lists those most well known.
Table 1: Major theorists
Theoretical
approach
Principles of the theory Theorist
Maturation Growth and development occur in orderly
stages and sequence. The individual genetic
timetable affects rate of maturation.
Arnold Gesell (1880
1961)
Psychodynamic Behaviour is controlled by unconscious
urges. Three components of the mind are id,
ego and super ego.
Sigmund Freud
(1856 1939)
Psychosocial Personality develops in eight stages
throughout a lifetime. Development is
influenced through interactions with family,
friends and culture.
Jean Piaget (1896
1980)
Lev Vygotsky (1896
1934)
Cognitive Qualitative changes in the way children
think. The child is considered an active
learner going through stages.
Erik Erikson (1902
1994)
Behaviourist Learning is gradual and continuous.
Development is a sequence of specific
conditional behaviours. Main emphasis is on
the environment, not heredity. Observable
behaviours are considered most important.
John Watson (1878
1958)
BF Skinner (1904
1990)
Albert Bandura (1925)
Ecological Balance between nature and nurture. Child
is placed in the middle of concentric factors
which all influence the child. Emphasis is
placed both on environment and heredity.
Uri Bronfenbrenner
(1917 2005)
Information processing
theory
We all have an innate learning ability.
Children are born with specialised
information processing abilities that enable
them to figure out structure of development.
Noam Chomsky
(1928
Use of theories
All of the above theorists have valid views that can be useful to consider. Many
children's services professionals believe in taking an eclectic approach to theory. By
understanding each theoretical approach, you can use parts of the theory, if the
context the child and the situation seem appropriate, and if it is a useful way to
further your understanding.

Theories can help you interpret your observations, but are of little or no use without
your
Emotional and psychological development
Three theorists specifically associated with emotional and psychological development
are Erik Erikson, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson built upon Sigmund
across the lifespan. He believed that in each stage we face a crisis that needs to be
resolved in order for us to develop socially and emotionally. Each stage has a positive
or negative outcome, though we tend not to be at either end of the spectrum. The
outcome of the stage is determined by our environment, and the care giving
strategies or experiences to which we are exposed.
John Bowlby
John Bowlby examined the attachment relationship between parents and their
children. He identified four phases in which attachment develops. He believed that
children are born with a variety of behaviours that encourage parents and others to be
near to them. These proximity-seeking behaviours include laughing, gurgling and
crying. Attachment of the child and parent develops over a period of time and is
mainly achieved by the routine care giving tasks that parents and children are
involved in (Berk, 1996).
Mary Ainsworth
Mary A
to test the quality of the attachment relationship between mothers and their children.
The Strange Situation will determine whether the infant is securely attached,
insecurely attached or avoidant of the parent (Berk, 1996).
Cognitive development
Theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Skinner developed theories based on
research around cognitive development, and a variety of approaches to teaching have
since grown from that work and the work of other theorists. Other approaches
concerned with cognitive development include ehaviourism , nformation
processing , and onstructivism .
Jean Piaget
passed through four separate stages and changed qualitatively in each of these
stages. He emphasised the importance of maturation and the provision of a
stimulating environment for children to explore. He believed children were active
es are:

 Sensory-motor stage Birth to 2 years. This stage consists of six sub-stages
infancy. Children are using their physical or motor skills and their senses to
explore their world and develop their cognitive understandings.
 Pre-operational stage 2 to 7 years. In this stage children are less reliant upon
senses and physical exploration and, according to Piaget,
During this stage, for example, children can be shown that two balls of dough are
exactly the same size, and they will agree that the balls are the same size, but
when one is flattened, they will usually tell you that one of them is now bigger.
This inability to conserve is a feature of the preoperational stage.
 Concrete operations 7 to 12 years. In this stage, which aligns with middle
childhood, children are beginning to be able to demonstrate much more logical
thinking, although they need concrete materials to help them reach the correct
conclusions. Thus in this stage you will see children working on mathematical
problems but using blocks, counters or even their fingers to help them work out
the answer.
 Formal operation 12 years and over. This final stage encompasses the rest of
our lives. Piaget believed that once we reached the age of 12 we were capable
can deal with much more complex issues.
Piaget has been, and continues to be, an important influence on how we think about
s thinking skills. He was important because he saw children as active
participants in their own learning. s thinking
developing in stages, but he emphasised the social and cultural influences on a
s learning.
Lev Vygotsky
While this Russian theorist died in 1934, his work only found a broader audience in
the 1990s. Vygotsky developed his theories around the same time as Jean Piaget yet
he emphasised the importance of relationships and interactions between children and
more knowledgeable
teachers or peers (Berk, 1996).
Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky did not see the child as a solitary discoverer of knowledge,
but as learning within social interactions that involve communicating. Vygotsky
therefore also emphasised the role of language in the development of thinking
processes.
Like Piaget, he saw children as active partners in their own learning, and increasingly
so as their ability to interact with others develops. He therefore emphasised the
importance of language development, learni s cognitive
development.

It was Vygotsky that thinking in concepts was not possible without verbal
thinking. While thought and language initially develop independently, they are merged
once language is developed to create verbal thought. Speech and thought change
over time and become more internalised.
Vygotsky saw the ad s behaviour.
When you scaffold a building, you support it structurally while internal developments
occur. It is a common sight on building sites. We scaffold chil s development
almost without thinking. Consider this example:
Bonnie is completing a three-piece puzzle with knobs on top. She has the last piece over the
space, but it is upside down. She pushes harder. Her caregiver says, 'Try turning it, Bonnie',
but Bonnie looks confused. The caregiver puts her hand over Bonnie's, and turns the piece
slightly, saying, 'See, Bonnie? Turn it'.
Vygotsky also saw the child s ability to think logically as developing in stages. He
outlined four different stages of conceptual development, as in Table 2 below.
Table 2: , adapted from
Nixon and Aldwinckle (2003)
Stage Characteristics
1. Thinking in
unordered
heaps
 Preschool stage of development
 Beginnings of conceptual thought·
 Children use trial and error
 Children use problem-solving techniques
 Three sub-phases
2. Thinking in
complex
stage
 Children begin to make connections between
objects, but not in a consistent manner
 Five sub-phases
3. Thinking in
concepts
stage
 Children are able to think in more abstract
concepts and make associations
 Cannot see two associations simultaneously
4. Thinking in
true concepts
stage
 Mature thinking
 Children can manipulate a number of abstract
concepts
While Piaget felt there was no use in presenting materials and problems to children
beyond their developmental capacity, Vygotsky saw an important role for adults in
extending children s learning beyond areas in which they are independently capable.
Vygotsky used the term Zone of Proximal Development to describe the extension of
skills a child is capable of with adult help. Consider this example:

A toddler has a large knob puzzle with a simple bear shape. The toddler tries to put the teddy
in the hole, but has it upside down. He tries to get it in, cannot and moves away. This child,
operating independently, is unable to complete the puzzle. A caregiver might then help the
toddler with the puzzle and say ook, here are his ears, see, here is the space for the ears .
The caregiver then puts the teddy bear the right way up and just to the side of the hole. The
toddler slips the puzzle into place. Now the toddler is capable of doing the puzzle. By careful
evelopment has been expanded.
Other theories of cognitive development
Jerome Bruner (b 1915) also emphasised the connection between language and
thought. He saw children as active participants in making sense of their world. Like
Vygotsky, he saw cognitive development to be a social process and he promoted the
idea of discovery learning, where the environment provides the answers but the child
makes the connections. He also used the term scaffolding to describe the role of
Information processing theory
This theory
in through the senses, being processed, and memory skills being used to decide if the
material is retained or lost.
Learning theories
Behaviourists, or learning theorists Bandura, Skinner and others emphasise the
importance of reward or punishment in , as well as the
importance of role models and caregiver input (Nixon and Aldwinckle, 2003).
Physical development
The American theorist and researcher Arnold Gesell (1880 1961) was an early
proponent of maturational theory. He identified the role of nature or heredity in
-running debate about whether our biological
heritage ( nature ) is more important than the environment we are brought up in
( nurture ). In this context, environment is seen to be everything external
that contributes to our development, such as care giving strategies, parenting styles
and other influences. Nature is considered to be our biological inheritance. The
genes in our bodies determine what colour eyes we have, for instance, and also at
what age we start walking.
Gesell gathered normative data on a range of children and made this information
accessible to the general public. He
unfolded according to a genetic timetable. He developed a timetable of developmental
events which we still use today.
Language development
Understanding theories of language can form a foundation for your own views and
beliefs on how you think children develop their language and communication skills.
The theories discussed here are those by Lev Vygotsky, BF Skinner, John Watson,
Albert Bandura and Noam Chomsky.

Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky identified four different stages of speech development.
 Primitive speech stage Birth to 2 years. During this stage, the child is
beginning to learn to speak, mainly imitating words and naming objects, or
responding emotionally (crying) or socially (laughing).
 Naïve psychological stage 2 to 4 years. The child in this stage is beginning to
realise that words are symbols for objects. They have a great curiosity as to what
objects are called.
 Egocentric or private speech stage 4 to 7 years. Children often talk aloud to
themselves as they perform tasks or solve problems in this stage of
ration of their thinking.
 Ingrowth or inner speech stage 8 years on.
private speech declines and becomes much more internalised. They solve
using private speech when faced with unusual or complex problems (Nixon and
Aldwinckle, 2003).
BF Skinner, John Watson and Albert Bandura
Skinner, Watson and Bandura belong to a group of theorists called the behaviourists,
. The behaviourists have played an important role in our
understanding of language development. One main premise of behaviourism is that if
behaviours are rewarded, they will be repeated, but behaviours that are ignored or
punished will decrease. For example, when a
promptly get very excited and repeat the sounds to the child, reinforcing the behaviour
so the child is more likely to try to reproduce it. Behaviourists focus on the process of
how language is acquired. The emphasis is on environmental factors of imitation,
learning and conditioning.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky developed the nativist approach. Proponents of this approach believe
that children have innate abilities to learn language an in-
them learn language. Once they begin to hear
language around them, nativists suggest that children
, 1999). Nativist theory focuses on
biological dispositions, brain development and cognitive readiness. It emphasises the
Other language theories
Interactionists see language development as a result of the interaction between both
nature and nurture (the environment and experiences of the child).

Social development
There are a number of theorists who are clearly linked with social development. In
addition to Erik Erikson, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth whose ideas were
the following
theorists contributed greatly to this field of theory.
Uri Bronfenbrenner
Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory. He emphasised a balance
between nature (heredity) and nurture (environment). To illustrate his theory, he
depicts the child as surrounded by four concentric circles, each representing a
different set of factors that influence the child. The four sections, from the innermost
to the outermost, are:
 Microsystem
 Mesosystem
and other influences on the life of the child and their family.
 Exosystem This is a broader circle of people who indirectly influence the
available to the family and the support networks they are involved in.
 Macrosystem This is an even broader system that includes the values,
customs and attitudes of the cultural group the child belongs to (Berk, 1996).
Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky is not only an important theorist in cognitive development theory, but in
social development theory as well particularly through his sociocultural theory.
Vygotsky emphasised the
importance of relationships and interactions between children and more
knowledgeable peers and adults. He
peers (Berk 1996).He believed that the environment plays an important role in a
in the social aspects of development. He focused on
the notion that children internalise feelings, emotions and ideas and language is a
key factor in the development of concepts .
Albert Bandura, like Skinner and Watson before him, was a behaviourist.
Behaviourists believed that learning is gradual and continuous; that development is a
sequence of specific conditional behaviours. The main emphasis is on the
behaviours by children, imitating caregivers and peers, thus learning much about
society and how it operates.

Social play
Play promotes both mental and social abilities in the child, and Piaget, Vygotsky and
other theorists have all made contributions in this area.
Jean Piaget and Sara Smilansky
Both Piaget and Sara Smilansky developed categories of play, as follows:
 Sensory motor play Here an infant up to two years of age will use various
senses and motor skills to explore objects and their environment.
 Symbolic play In this type of play, symbols are much more evident. Children
can pretend that one object is another, the cubby house becomes a rocket. This
 Games with rules In this stage, children are able to follow rules of games,
changing their understanding of the purpose of rules as they get older. Children
in the concrete operations stage are usually also in this play stage (Nixon and
Gould 1999).
Note that Piaget did not tend to see play as learning through the accommodation of
new information, but rather the assimilation of new materials into existing cognitive
structures. In his view it is relaxed practice time rather than the challenging learning
time for taking in completely new information.
Sara Smilansky
expanded to include:
 Functional play which occurs in the first two years of life. Infants explore
objects using their body (sucking and touching) and progress to other physical
activities such as throwing.
 Constructive play which occurs when children begin to manipulate materials
to create objects and patterns. They may not be representational at first but are
n effect.
 Dramatic play Here children imitate the world around them through their role
play. This leads to cooperative dramatic play around agreed-upon themes (Nixon
and Gould 1999).
Further developments of social play behaviour are outlined in Table 3.

Table 3:
Play
behaviour
Characteristics Examples Levels/ages
Imitative role
play
Child assumes a
make-believe role of
a person or object
and expresses it in
imitation and/or
verbalisation.
Child places doll
over shoulder and
pats the back
(burping),
Beginning: Role relates to the
familiar world (such as
mummy, daddy, bubba)
Advanced: Role relates to
world outside the family (such
as doctor, teacher)
Make-
believe with
regard to
objects
Child substitutes
movements, verbal
declarations, and/or
materials or toys
that are not replicas
of the object itself
or real objects.
Uses spoon as a
phone. Places
plastic plates and
cups in swing and
pushes it back
and forth.
Beginning: Real objects or
replicas used (eg. real toy car)
Advanced: Uses prop as part
of play scenario (eg. uses tea
towel as wrap for the doll)
Verbal make
believe with
regard to
actions and
situations
Child substitutes
descriptions or
declarations for
actions and
situations.
Uses blocks to
build a house and
says this is where
Mummy and
Bubba live
Beginning: Imitates simple
actions of adult (eg. takes a
kitchen sponge to wipe things)
Advanced: Actions are integral
to the play episode (eg.
cleaning so sissy can play
Persistence
in role play
Child stays within a
role of play theme
for at least 10
minutes.
Plays role of
mother, father
and daughter
within a family
play theme for 10
minutes.
Beginning: Short, sporadic
involvement (eg. child enters
area, picks up doll and leaves)
Advanced: Child stays
involved in area and the theme
for more than 10 minutes.
Interaction At least two players
interact within the
context of a play
episode .
Preschoolers
building a castle
from blocks and
wooden people.
Sharing the
equipment and
discussing where
specific people
should be placed.
Beginning: Plays alone with
no obvious awareness of
others nearby.
Advanced: Cooperative effort
to work together around a
common theme.
Verbal
Communicat
-ion
There is some
verbal interaction
related to the play
episode.
Older
preschoolers
discussing how to
redesign a bed
and dolls cot for
arrival of Nanny
and Poppy .
Beginning: Simple dialogue
around the use of toys (e.g.
there, there sissy )
Advanced: Dialogue about the
roles, props, plot of play
scenario.
This table is adapted from Smilansky (1968) and Dodge and Colker (1992), citied in Isenberg
and Jalongo (2001, p.75)

These categories are generally viewed as age-related, with functional play appearing
first in infancy and games with rules appearing last around age six or seven.
(particularly the inspirational work of Jean Piaget) when we look at the levels of play.
Piaget, along with socio-emotional theorists such as Erikson, believed that children
could use play to act out unpleasant experiences or experiences where they had very
little power.
This explains why children entering school play teachers over and over again with
younger children, acting out teachers who are ferocious in their ability to order and
command. The child can imagine themselves in the position of power and this helps
them to deal with being powerless. This is also common with children witnessing or
involved in violent households.
Vygotsky saw play as much more significant than Piaget. He saw it as crucial to
learning in the preschool period, particularly imaginative play. Vygotsky saw play as a
major contributor to the development of the zone of proximal development if children
can imagine themselves doing something, they are closer to doing it. Play also fosters
the separation of thoughts from actions and objects (symbolic function).
Mildred Parten
Mildred Parten focused on social play and its development.
The ability to join groups of other children, and the desire to do so begins, at an early
age and progresses through a developmental sequence. Parten focussed on the
different types of social play. In her research she discovered that children of different
ages actually played together differently. They were capable of different levels or
categories of social play. Her categories of social play are still a useful tool to help
focus us on how social play changes and develops at different stages of our lives.
Remember that the stages identified by Parten are not always followed in a linear
fashion by all children in other words, a child may not progress directly from one
stage to another. You might also find that a child will often engage in different stages
familiarity with either the
Unoccupied play
Generally the very young infant will engage in this type of play. They tend to be
looking at their hands or other body parts or cooing to themselves. They do not seek
contact with others or appear to have a purpose.
Solitary play
Usually seen during infancy. Infants tend to play by themselves totally unaware of
others around them. They will move quite quickly from one activity to another.

Onlooker play
This can occur across many stages of development. Evidence of onlooker play is
seen when children are near a group of other children and are often following the
actions or copying what is happening in the play. The children, however, do not
usually want to participate or are waiting for someone to aid their participation.
Parallel play
This is usually seen during toddlerhood. During parallel play toddlers will play
Associative play
This is first seen usually in the early preschool years. Children will begin to play and
talk with each other in dramatic play situations where roles may be taken on.
However, these roles are usually not sustained for any length of time. There doe
seem to be a common purpose to the play.
Cooperative play
Cooperative play occurs in the later preschool years. Children are able to take on
roles and sustain them for the duration of the play. The group of children have agreed
upon goals and roles for the play.
Kenneth H. Rubin
Kenneth H. Rubin and his associates have been working since the mid-
studies have been successful in combining both the Parten and Smilansky categories
in observing the relationship between social and cognitive play.
also have
Social Play. The stages of the theory are briefly outlined in Table 4.
Table 4:
Solitary Play Parallel Play Group Play
Functional
Play
Child plays by self
with or without
objects.
Child plays parallel to
others with or without
objects.
Child plays with a
group with or without
objects.
Constructive
Play
Child plays by self
constructing or
creating something.
others constructing or
creating something.
Child plays with a
group constructing or
creating something.
Dramatic Play Child plays by self in
pretending-type
activity.
others in pretending-
type activity.
Child plays with a
group in pretending-
type activity.

Jerome Singer
developed through dramatic and socio dramatic play.
-believe play as essential to
c
experimenting with alternative responses to different situations. This capacity,
new situations.
imagination can also be influenced by a range of environmental facets. These include:

 the yo
 exposure to stressful situations
 opportunity to role play and immerse themselves in make believe and dramatic
play

 the development of the physical skills
 the development of the social, emotional and moral skills
 the play environment
 opportunities for different types of play and play experiences
 the human environment such as the adults.
Development of autonomy and independence
Children need autonomy and independence in order to function in the world, make
appropriate decisions and solve daily problems and challenges. Four of Erik Erikson
eight stages across the lifespan (mentioned above under Emotional and
psychological development) are usefully summarised here:
 trust versus mistrust: 0 18 months
 autonomy versus shame and doubt: 18 months 3 years
 initiative versus guilt: 3 5 years
 industry versus inferiority: 5 12 years.

Trust versus mistrust
In this first stage the infant is beginning to interact and engage with the people they
come into contact with, to deal with the first crisis identified by Erikson. This crisis is
to determine whether the infant should trust the world and the people in it or mistrust
the world and its people. Trust or mistrust in the world will be determined by the type
of care the infant is receiving from the adults. Trust, like attachment, is built through
our basic care giving strategies. Feeding a hungry baby, cuddling and soothing a
fearful baby and allowing the tired child to sleep helps build trust.
Autonomy versus shame and doubt
In toddlerhood, the child is now moving to a new stage in their development. Erikson
describes a new crisis that must be dealt with. Again, the real usefulness of this
theory is in what it tells us about the appropriate care giving strategies to help each
child reach their full potential.
Erikson describes this crisis as being one of autonomy versus shame and doubt.
During this stage the toddler will learn that they are an autonomous, independent
person who has control in their world, or they will learn that making independent
decisions is something to be ashamed of. This is often a challenging stage for many
parents and guardians No
feelings of shame and doubt. We need to ensure that we give toddlers the opportunity
to make limited decisions.
Initiative versus guilt
The preschool child, Erikson tells us, is moving into the initiative-versus-guilt stage. In
this stage the child will either gain a sense of initiative by being able to make
decisions, plan activities and events and see them carried through, or a feeling of guilt
ensure they allow the children in their care the opportunities to make plans and see
them carried through to fruition.
experiences with significant people. Much of this interaction occurs around all the
different skills that are developing during the preschool years.
During the preschool stage we find that children are ready and eager to learn and
achieve goals. They learn to plan and to carry out these plans. They are also
developing a sense of right and wrong. They see themselves as being able to do
more things but realise there are limits if they go beyond these limits, they will feel
guilty. By four years of age the preschooler should be able to formulate a plan of
action and carry it out. The positive outcome is a sense of initiative the sense that

Industry versus inferiority
School-aged children between six and 12 years of age are beginning to settle down to
the serious business of learning to read and write, as well as the many other skills
that are being developed at this stage. They are often in a routine involving school
demonstrated at this time.
Erikson saw this stage as the time when children will begin to be industrious and work
towards their future careers and lives. They will learn the skills associated with their
society. Children who are reared in a positive, appropriate way will navigate through
this stage with positive outcomes. They will feel good about themselves and their
abilities. Children who are receiving negative messages from the people around them
will feel inferior to those around them and thus will come through this stage with
negative thoughts.
References
 Stonehouse A (2002) : The
, NSW
Department of Community Services, Office of Child Care. (153 pp .pdf 1.4 MB)
 Isenberg Joan Packer, Jalongo Mary Renck (2001) Creative Expression and
Play in Early Childhood, 3rd edition. Merrill Prentice Hall, Ohio.
 Nixon D, Aldwinckle M (2003) Exploring: Child Development from three to six
years 2nd edition. Social Science Press, Katoomba.
 Nixon D, Gould K (1999) Emerging: Child development in the first three years.
2nd edition. Social Science Press, Katoomba.

A basic introduction to child development theories

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