Theory of Child Development

Theory of Human Development

• A theory is an attempt to discover order, showing lawful relations between events.

Biological Theory

• Bowlby suggests that children are biologically programmed to form attachments with others for survival.
• Types of attachment:
  • Secure attachment: forgive and forget
  • Anxious-resistant attachment: forgive but with punishment
  • Avoidant attachment: don't forgive and don't accept

Psychodynamic Theories

• Sigmund Freud: behavior can be understood through the unconscious mind, and early childhood experiences shape adulthood.
• Erikson: human personalities develop past the age of five, with birth to 5 years focusing on biological, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development.

Learning Theories

• Behaviourism:
  • Skinner's theory: environment is dominant, and behavior is shaped by situational factors.
  • Types of behavior:
    • Respondent behavior: automatic responses
    • Operant behavior: controlled actions
• Nativism:
  • Chomsky's theory: children have an innate faculty for language acquisition, and language can't be learned solely through reinforcement and imitation.

Cognitive Theories

• Constructivism:
  • Piaget's theory: children actively interact with the environment to construct knowledge through mental structures or schemas.
  • Development progresses in stages.
• Social Constructivism:
  • Vygotsky's theory: humans develop through social interactions, and infants learn new skills through interactions with older individuals.
  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding are central concepts.

Ecological Theory

• Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory: the environment influences human development, with social interactions affecting every facet of life.

Child Development

• Newborn babies:
  • Average weight: 3.4 kg
  • Average length: 40-50 cm
  • Large head in proportion to body
  • Boys tend to be longer and heavier than girls
  • Lose up to 10% of birth weight in the first few days, regained by day 14
  • Respond to sounds and voice
  • Sleep up to 18 hours a day
• Senses:
  • Sensitive to pain
  • Prefer sweet tastes
  • Hearing well developed
  • Vision less well developed
• Motor skills:
  • Gross motor skills: whole-body movement, large muscles
  • Fine motor skills: small muscles, eye coordination
• Language development:
  • Stages:
    • Crying (day 1) as an indication of language ability
    • Cooing (0-2 months) and babbling (3-6 months)
    • One-word utterances (beginning of 2nd year)
    • Vocabulary explosion (18 months) and overgeneralizations
    • Two-word utterances (just before the end of 2nd year and beginning of 3rd year)
    • Complete utterances (third year to the beginning of 4th year)
    • Conversational skills and metalinguistic awareness (4-6 years)
    • Mastery and fluency of L1 knowledge (7-13 years)

Theory of Human Development

• A theory is an attempt to discover order, showing lawful relations between events.

Biological Theory

• Bowlby suggests that children are biologically programmed to form attachments with others for survival.
• Types of attachment:
  • Secure attachment: forgive and forget
  • Anxious-resistant attachment: forgive but with punishment
  • Avoidant attachment: don't forgive and don't accept

Psychodynamic Theories

• Sigmund Freud: behavior can be understood through the unconscious mind, and early childhood experiences shape adulthood.
• Erikson: human personalities develop past the age of five, with birth to 5 years focusing on biological, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development.

Learning Theories

• Behaviourism:
  • Skinner's theory: environment is dominant, and behavior is shaped by situational factors.
  • Types of behavior:
    • Respondent behavior: automatic responses
    • Operant behavior: controlled actions
• Nativism:
  • Chomsky's theory: children have an innate faculty for language acquisition, and language can't be learned solely through reinforcement and imitation.

Cognitive Theories

• Constructivism:
  • Piaget's theory: children actively interact with the environment to construct knowledge through mental structures or schemas.
  • Development progresses in stages.
• Social Constructivism:
  • Vygotsky's theory: humans develop through social interactions, and infants learn new skills through interactions with older individuals.
  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding are central concepts.

Ecological Theory

• Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory: the environment influences human development, with social interactions affecting every facet of life.

Child Development

• Newborn babies:
  • Average weight: 3.4 kg
  • Average length: 40-50 cm
  • Large head in proportion to body
  • Boys tend to be longer and heavier than girls
  • Lose up to 10% of birth weight in the first few days, regained by day 14
  • Respond to sounds and voice
  • Sleep up to 18 hours a day
• Senses:
  • Sensitive to pain
  • Prefer sweet tastes
  • Hearing well developed
  • Vision less well developed
• Motor skills:
  • Gross motor skills: whole-body movement, large muscles
  • Fine motor skills: small muscles, eye coordination
• Language development:
  • Stages:
    • Crying (day 1) as an indication of language ability
    • Cooing (0-2 months) and babbling (3-6 months)
    • One-word utterances (beginning of 2nd year)
    • Vocabulary explosion (18 months) and overgeneralizations
    • Two-word utterances (just before the end of 2nd year and beginning of 3rd year)
    • Complete utterances (third year to the beginning of 4th year)
    • Conversational skills and metalinguistic awareness (4-6 years)
    • Mastery and fluency of L1 knowledge (7-13 years)

Understand the concept of a theory and its principles in the context of child development. Learn how theories connect concepts, explain behavior, and predict learning outcomes.