Child Development

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses important issues of child development with regard to health, nutrition, parenting/caretaking, education, resilience, gender, culture/ethnic identities in a comparison and contrast format discussing current research and controversies in addition to historical developments in the field. It looks at how many theorists fall into several categories, some dependent upon the nomenclature that was utilized by the particular theorist to develop his or her theories and also the areas of interest he or she utilizes to seek answers to different developmental concerns. For this reason some theories and theorists are mentioned in several of the basic developmental groupings and their theories are compared to others, both new and old throughout the paper.

Outline:
Introduction
History of Child Development Theory
Stage Theory
Social Development Theories
Infancy and Early Childhood
Brain and Neurological Development
Maturation Theory
Cultural/Moral Development
Educational Theories
Moral Development

From the Paper:

"Freud as the first stage theorist proposed that children developed through a series of five 'psychosexual stages, defined as oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital, each determining the development of the next stage or leaving the individual still working out, subconsciously some aspect of one or more stage that was underdeveloped at the crucial time in their life. Any development past the last stage, according the Freud was simply an internal return to whatever stage the individual did not complete as a child. (Mitchell & Black, 1995, p. 13) Erik Erikson, another stage theorist, in contrast sought to develop a theory of encompassing stages that included all the years of one's life, demonstrating that development does not and should not end at adulthood but continues through the lifespan. Nonetheless Erikson is also thought of as one of the first child psychologists and his stages are weighed more heavily toward the ages of childhood as he acknowledged that the younger one is the more developmental stages he or she must go through to achieve healthy development. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ainsworth, M. D., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Barnett, W. S. (1996). Lives in the balance: Age-27 benefit-cost analysis of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program (Monographs of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 11). Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Press.
• Biller, H. B. (1993). Fathers and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development. Westport, CT: Auburn House.
• Bowlby, J. (1988). A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. New York: Basic Books.
• Brazelton, T. B., & Greenspan, S. I. (2000). What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.

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