Child development takes place in discrete phases and ranges from birth to adulthood. These stages of development comprise various interrelated aspects such as socialization, motor skills, language, cognitive ability, emotional aspects, and social interaction. Various theories emphasize on the issues of development such as Vygotsky and Jeane Piaget theories. Piaget's model discusses concerns about the acquisition of knowledge and mechanisms of intellectual development. On the other hand, Vygotsky tended to focus mostly on the influence of culture on social and material structure and language of society (Steinberg & Vandergrift, 2010). Infant development and growth requires a combination of theories to have a comprehensive understanding.
What is Child Development?
There is the various definition of the concept of child development by various scholars. According to Rowe (2008), the term refers to the process of growth from infancy to teenage years to adulthood. In simple language, it can be termed as the movement for total dependency to independence. On the other hand, it is also described as biological, emotional, and psychological changes that take place from birth to the end of adolescence. This signifies signs of progress and departure from dependency to autonomy (Steinberg & Vandergrift, 2010).
Child development as seen start from birth and culminate at the stage of adulthood, and all these aspects were ignored throughout history. Before the emergence of models, scholars often viewed children as young versions of adults and thus no or little attention was directed to the topic. Many stages of development such as language usage, cognitive abilities, and physical growth were not recognized. However, interest in the field began to develop and emerge during the early years of the 20th-century (Boyd & Bee, 2012).
Nevertheless, the focus was invested abnormal behavior of children and adults. Eventually, scholars became interested in related topics such as healthy child development as factors that influence the process of development (Boyd & Bee, 2012). The main reason for understanding child development is that it provides individuals with a space to appreciate their physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and educational growth. Some of the major models trying to elaborate the concept of child development are referred to as grand theories. This is because they attempt to demystify every aspect of child growth and development, mostly using a staged approach. Others also known as mini-theories focus on a limited aspect such of development like cognitive (Pinter, 2011).
Steinberg & Vandergrift, (2010) argues that the early years of infant’s life is important for social, cognitive, and emotional developments. Thus, it is imperative for parents to take necessary steps to expose them to environments, which meet various requirements such as social, educational, and emotional needs. Pinter, (2011) adds that the development of every child often occurs uniquely and through unpredictable stages because of the difference in their socialization, peers, and other aspects. Although every child develops in a unique way, all children get influenced by their current environment at various age level. For instance, children aged six and 12 establish and mature at different rates that are also considered standard. The differences are seen regarding weight, height, and health.
Theories and Stages of Child Development
The discussion highlights various methods and their views on child development and stages. These models focus on developmental milestones, cognitive stages, psychosocial stages, moral stages, and psychosexual stages. However, the approaches to the understanding of the whole process of child development only explain a few aspect of development. In reality, to fully understand the way children grow and change over time, there is a need to look into various factors. These are the reasons that influence psychological and physical growth. For example, the environment, genes, and social interactions with family and peers substantially determine child development (Bornstein & Bradley, 014).
Psychoanalytic Theories
The psychoanalytic models of infant growth and development focus on some things such as ego formation and unconscious part of an individual. The main psychoanalytic approaches to development include the psychosexual development of Sigmund Freud and psychosocial theory of Erik Erikson (Barone, Hersen, & Van Hasselt, 2012). According to Sigmund Freud theories, the essential components of child development are childhood experiences and events. However, they almost exclusively emphasized on aspects such as mental disorders and not normal functioning (Steinberg & Vandergrift, 2010).
According to Freud, the whole process of child development comprises a series of psychosexual stages. This phase includes oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Each of the phases involves the gratification of libidinal needs that later play a significant role in adult personality. For instance, if an individual fail to complete a particular stage, the child would develop a fixation that would in affect the adult stage his/her behavior and personality (Steinberg & Vandergrift, 2010).
Erik Erikson Model
Theorist Erik Erikson proposed different stages of development. Nevertheless, his model comprised individual growth throughout their entire lifespan. Erikson argues that each phase of development focused on resolving a conflict in the later stages of life. For example, the central conflict realized during adolescence revolves around establishing a personal identity. Thus, failure or success in solving the conflicts would lead to an overall of their functioning. For example, during adolescence, failure to form an individual identity would lead to role confusion (Berzoff, 2011).
Behavioral Child Development Theories
On the other hand, Berzoff, (2011) espouses, behavioral theories direct their focus on the effect of environmental interaction on behavior. An example of the theorist in this area includes Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. They deal only with observable aspects of actions and consider development a reaction to a system of stimuli, rewards, reinforcement, and punishments. The authors of the models, however, differ with others considerably regarding how they perceive child development because it takes no consideration to individual internal feelings and thoughts. The primary focus lies purely on the role of experience in shaping the unique personality.
Cognitive Child Development Theories
Theorist Piaget suggested also developed a theory explaining children development. One remarkable thing about his argument is that he views the concept very differently than others. Therefore, he proposed a phase theory of human cognitive development. He was among the first to elaborate that infants play a very active role in how they gain knowledge of the universe. According to his model, they can be perceived of as young scientists with experience to gather their information and to use the knowledge to understand the world (Bornstein & Bradley, 2014).
Social Child Development Theories
Besides, social theories tend to emphasize on the integral roles played by parents, guardian caregivers, peers among other social influences and their impact on child development. Some emphasize on the effect of early attachment on development. Others were centered the ways children acquire knowledge through observing people around them. For example, an example of these theories includes social learning, attachment, and sociocultural theories (Bornstein & Bradley, 2014).
Berzoff, (2011) espouses that, there is an in-depth research conducted to reveal the issues of children social development. John Bowbly, one of the earliest theorists of development psychology, proposes the theory. Bowlby believed that early relationships with caregivers play a significant role in child development and continue to influence social relationships throughout life. On the other hand, psychologist Albert Bandura also proposed social learning theory to explain the issue of child growth and development. According to his theory, infants learn behaviors simply by observing people around them.
Unlike behavioral theories, he totally believed that factors such as external reinforcement are not the only method individual learned new things in the environment. Instead, there are others such as intrinsic reinforcements. They include things like a sense of pride, accomplishment, and satisfaction that could lead to learning. This happens by observing events and the actions of others such as family members and peers. This makes it possible to acquire knowledge, develop new skills and information (Berzoff, 2011).
A psychologist by the name Lev Vygotsky also made a great contribution to the child development. He proposed a learning model that becomes influential in many fields and particularly especially in the field of education. Similar to Piaget, he also believed that children infants learn new activities and knowledge through experiences. His sociocultural approach suggested that caregivers, parents, peers, and others such as culture are primarily responsible for the development of individual functions (Barone et al. 2012).
In conclusion, the topic and theories of child development did not exist in the 19th century, it was not taken seriously, and little focus was directed at them. However as time went by, some psychologists came up with theories to demystify the phenomena. This has helped the theorist explain and understand various aspects of infant development and growth to childhood. No single theory can help us understand the topic, and therefore a combination of all the explained methods play a significant role in understanding various dimensions of the subject. Today, contemporary psychologists often refer on these perspectives to gain knowledge on the stages that passes in their growth, behavior and others.
References
Barone, D. F., Hersen, M., & Van Hasselt, V. B. (Eds.). (2012). Advanced personality. Springer Science & Business Media.
Berzoff, J. (2011). Psychosocial ego development: The theory of Erik Erikson. Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in contemporary multicultural contexts, 97-118.
Bornstein, M. H., & Bradley, R. H. (Eds.). (2014). Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development. Routledge.
Boyd, D. R., & Bee, H. L. (2012). The developing child. New Jersey: Pearson.
Pinter, A. (2011). Theories of Child Development. In Children Learning Second Languages (pp. 7-36). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Rowe, M. L. (2008). Child-directed speech: relation to socioeconomic status, knowledge of child development and child vocabulary skill. Journal of child language, 35(01), 185-205.
Steinberg, L., & Vandergrift, N. (2010). Do effects of early child care extend to age 15 years? Results from the NICHD study of early child care and youth development. Child development, 81(3), 737-756.
