TYPICAL STAGES OF EARLY

CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 2

THE FIELD OF CHILD

DEVELOPMENT

CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Is a field of study dedicated to understanding all aspects of human growth and changes from conception through adolescence.

•Berk, 1994

DEVELOPMENTALISTS

Professionals whose interests focus on human development.

Tasks include describing, explaining, and predicting how individuals at different stages typically think, feel and behave.

Often summarize sequences and rates of development in charts called developmental charts or universal norms.

NORMATIVE APPROACH

Universal norms provide an estimate for when a certain level of development will be reached.

Most children begin sitting, standing, walking and talking at about the same time while growing emotionally, cognitively and socially.

Milestones at an earlier age set the foundation for more complex skill later in life.

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Often do not develop at the rate indicated by universal norms in one or more of the major areas of development.

Concerns about children’s rates of development occur when skills are significantly delayed in one or more areas.

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

ORGANISMIC OR

MECHANISTIC

ORGANISMIC

There are certain structures within children that underlie development and that development is affected by experiences.

Children are believed to determine their own learning, but environments must be designed that support their development.

MECHANISTIC

Children are passive recipients of environmental experiences.

Suggests that the environment determines growth and development.

CONTINUOUS OR

DISCONTINUOUS

CONTINUOUS Young children respond to the

world in basically the same was as adults although generally in a less complex way.

Over time, children gradually acquire an increasing amount of information and number of abilities through experiences.

DISCONTINUOUS

Development is presented as occurring in distinctly different stages.

Suggests that new ways of understanding, behaving and thinking emerge at different stages.

It is necessary to accomplish the milestones of prior stages before moving on to more complex stages of development.

Stages of development are in the same sequence for all children.