Candice Newman
AM Preschool
January 27, 2011
CHAPTER 4: CHILDREN’S LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
There are many different theories on how children learn and develop. Erikson
believed that there are eight stages in the children’s development. He believed that
they must go through and overcome each stage before they can move onto the next
stage. In each stage, there are two choices you have. These stages are Trust vs.
mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority,
Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Self-Absorbed and
Stagnate, and Integrity vs. Despair. He believed that this is a choice that each child
must go through from birth to death.
Maslow believed that there are five needs of each child. These needs are
biological and physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self
actualization. Biological and physiological needs are things such as air, food, water,
shelter, and sleep. Safety needs are things like protection from elements, security,
order, law and limits. Belongingness and love needs are things such as family,
affection, work group, and relationships. Some esteem needs are self-esteem,
achievement, independence, and dominance. Self-Actualization needs are realizing
personal potential and self-fulfillment. Maslow believed that every human being has
these five needs, not just children.
Skinner strongly believed in positive and negative reinforces. He believed that
children were much more likely to repeat behaviors that they are rewarded for, and
avoid those behaviors that have a negative consequence. Skinner believed in
encouraging good behavior as a positive reinforcement and only using negative
reinforcement techniques and a last result for bad behavior after trying positive
reinforcement.
Bandura believed that children learn by the examples of others. He thinks that
everything that we, as adults, do children are watching and observing. He believed
that it would be very difficult to learn everything by only the consequences of your
actions. It is much easier to learn by modeling other people’s examples.
Piaget’s theory is that there are four stages of development: Sensori-motor, Preoperational, Concrete, and Fomal Operational. In the Sensori-motor stage (birth to 2
years) children begin to realize that they can control things. At this stage you will see
children intentionally pulling a string, or moving an object. They also start to develop
object permanence (the realization that objects still exist even thought they are out
of site). Pre-operational (2 to 7 years) is the stage where children start to learn a
language. They can use their imaginations very well, but still are egocentric. Concrete
(7 to 11 years0 is when children start to understand time and space, but this limits
their abstract thinking. Formal Operational (11 years and up) is the stage where
children start to think hypothetically. They are also able to solve problems. Piaget
believed that each child goes through these stages as he or she grows.
Vygotsky believed that children learn though their interaction with their
surrounding culture. He also believed that children can do and learn more with the
help and support of teachers, parents, and adults, as they can do by themselves. He
thought that if children can learn to do things with help such as walking across a
balance beam holding their mother’s hand them, soon they will be able to walk across
by themselves.
The theorist that helped me understand children better is Skinner. I would
always praise children, but I thought that they would learn better by doing things
wrong, because then they wouldn’t do it again. And although in some cases that may
work, a much better was to teach children is by using positive reinforcement. Children
want to repeat actions that will give them praise more than they want to goof off.
The theorist that I have the hardest time completely buying into is Erikson. I
think that his theory is great, and I believe that most children go through his eight
stages, but I really think it depends on the child’s personality, some children will trust
others easily, and some will mistrust others easily. I often relate this back to home
life though. If a child is brought up in a home where they are loved and taken care of,
it would be easy for that child to trust others. Whereas if a child was brought up in a
home where they were neglected and not cared for, they would most likely mistrust
others.
All of these six theorists really held me, and many other people really
understand children and how they think and grow, physically and cognitively.