Early Childhood Services 120, Unit One
INTRODUCTION
Child Development includes the a) physical, b)intellectual, c)
social, and d) emotional changes that occur from birth to
adolescence.
Although people change throughout their lives,
developmental changes are especially dramatic in childhood.
During this period, a dependent, vulnerable newborn grows
into a capable young person who has mastered language, is
self-aware, can think and reason with sophistication, has a
distinctive personality, and socializes (effortlessly) with others.
Many abilities and characteristics developed in childhood last
a lifetime.
A variety of factors influence child development:
Heredity guides every aspect of physical, cognitive,
social, emotional, and personality development.
Family members, Peer groups, the School
environment, and the Community influence how
children think, socialize, and become self-aware.
Biological factors such as nutrition, medical care,
and Environmental hazards in the air and water
affect the growth of the body and mind.
Economic and Political institutions, the Media,
and Cultural values all guide how children live their
lives.
Critical life events, such as a family crisis or a
national emergency, can alter the growth of
personality and identity.
Most important of all, CHILDREN contribute
significantly to their own development. This occurs as
they strive to understand their experiences, respond
in individual ways to the people around them, and
choose activities, friends, and interests.
Thus, the factors that guide development arise from
both outside and within the person.
Does
this
Make
Sense?
On your own, put this list in order (most important to
least important), in terms of which factors YOU think
most affect kids’ development): Heredity, Family, Peers,
Media, School, Community, Biological Factors,
Environmental Factors, Economic Factors, Political
Factors, Cultural Factors, Critical Life Events
Now, join two or three others and share your lists,
discussing your opinion, and see if you can revise your
lists to come to an agreement.
Quick Activity: Go back to the list, privately; can you pick
the five influences that most affected you, as a child?
You might consider writing about this, as part of next
week’s journal (share only what you are comfortable
sharing).
For each of the following scenarios, decide which category to put it in.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Loving grandmother
Effects of a hurricane
Gov’t changes to child benefit funding
Father loses job
BPA (chemical) widely reported in plastic products, including toys and
bottles
Mother and brother have ADHD
Common parenting practice to let babies “cry it out”
TV campaign educating public about the benefits of breast milk
Extended family – parents, 3 siblings, an aunt and grandmother all live in
the home with child
Gov’t increases funding to daycares
Kindergarten readiness program designed and implemented
Neighborhood kids all involved in 4H club
Parent dies
Why is the study of child development
important?
1.
One reason is that it provides practical guidance
for parents, teachers, child-care providers, and
others who care for children.
Why is the study of child
development important?
2. A second reason is that it helps society to support
healthy growth.
Understanding early brain development, for
example, means that parents can provide better
opportunities for intellectual stimulation, and
society can reduce or eliminate obstacles to
healthy brain growth.
Why is the study of child
development important?
3.
Third, the study of child development
helps therapists and educators better assist
children with special needs, such as those with
emotional or
learning difficulties.
Why is the study of child development
important?
4.Finally, understanding child development
contributes to self-understanding. We know
ourselves better by recognizing the influences
that have made us into the people we are today.
Building Professional Skills Activity
Refer to the list. These are 30 personal qualities that are
important to have when working with children, as a parent, or as
a childcare worker.
1. Highlight the ones you feel you already have.
2. In a different color, highlight the ones you know you need to
work on.
3. Make a list of the 10 that you feel are most important.
4. Put a question mark beside those that you are unsure of – you
are not sure what they really mean and / or what they have to
do with working with children.
A Look Back---Children Through
Time
 The concept of childhood and treatment of children
through history has always been tied to economic,
religious, and social factors.
 During the 20th century, the view of early childhood
as an important part of human development was
valued.
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670)
 Was a bishop in Czechoslovakia
 Supported the idea of universal education.
 He understood and stressed the importance of the early years.
 Emphasized the value of active learning, hands-on experiences, and
the involvement of parents in their children’s education
 His 1658 publication“The World of Pictures” is viewed as the first
picture book for children
 TEACHERS SHOULD WORK WITH THE NATURAL ORDER OF A
CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT.
 1997 Life magazine “The Invention of Childhood”
 #55 http://www.tostepharmd.net/hissoc/top100events.html
Influential People in the History of Early
Childhood Education
John Locke (1632-1704)
 English doctor and philosopher.
 Children were born tabla rasa (blank slate).
 Experience would determine what a child would become.
 Education should be pleasant; get rid of harsh discipline and
restrictive practices (like swaddling).
 Children are gradually filled with ideas, concepts, and knowledge
from experiences in the world.
 He concluded that the quality of early experiences, particularly how
children are raised and educated, shapes the direction of a child’s
life.
French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau
(1712 – 1778)
• Claimed that children at birth are innately good,
not evil (which some people were suggesting)
• Their natural tendencies should be protected
against the corrupting influences of society.
• Recognized that children’s way of thinking and
learning is different than that of adults
Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
 All people, even the poorest, had the right to an education
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as a way of helping them develop their moral and
intellectual potential.
Stressed education according to nature, tied to
experience and observation.
Stressed the importance of the mother in children’s
earliest experiences
He actually worked with children (unlike Rousseau),
developing educational methods that we still use today.
The first to actually teach young children, so the first
kindergarten.
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)
• Stressed that nature and the child’s
developing mind were connected
• Children are at different stages at different
times.
• Stressed the importance of play in young
children’s development – play was a pure
and natural mode of learning.
•Note: This has become the new focus of
NB’s Early Childhood Education.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
 Developed the theory and techniques of
psychoanalysis. In the psychoanalytic view,
early experiences shape one’s personality for
an entire lifetime, and psychological
problems in adulthood may have their
origins in difficult or traumatic childhood
experiences.
 Handout: Exhibit 2-2
John Dewey (1859-1952)
 The father of progressive education
 American attack on traditional forms of public schools.
 In the late 1800’s, schools were very teacher-centered and
subject-centered, not child-centered
 There were harsh punishments and rote learning was the
norm (memorization through repetition (how you
learned your alphabet).
 He developed a child-centered approach
 Lots of his principles are still having an influence:
nursery school, emphasis on play and parent education
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
 Believed that all human behaviors could
be explained as learned responses to
stimuli in the environment, an approach
known as behaviorism.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
 True feminist of her time; first female doctor in Italy
 Worked with children with cognitive disabilities
 Thought their problems were more educational than medical
 Government asked her to take charge of a children’s day nursery
 Very impressed with the great capacity of children to learn so much
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during the first years of life: absorbent mind (sponge)
If you expose their minds to appropriate learning experiences at
appropriate developmental times, their minds will grow.
Used the term prepared environment to describe the match of the
right materials to the child’s stages of development
Some of these are related to sensory discrimination (sorting by size,
sound, shape, smell, etc) and some children learn through practical
skills (polishing shoes, setting a table, etc)
More advanced materials for teaching reading, math, etc.
Sandpaper letters, for example.
http://www.monctonmontessori.com/
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
 Claimed that children construct new knowledge by applying their
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current knowledge structures to new experiences and modifying
them accordingly. His perspective was called constructivism.
He thought children were like other organisms in that they adapted
to the environment around them (he was a biologist)
Ex: if the temp becomes too warm or too cold, we shiver or sweat in
attempt to adapt. In the same way, we adapt mentally to challenges
in the environment.
When something new presents itself, it doesn’t fit the old structure,
so in order to return to equilibrium, adaptation takes place.
He called cognitive structures schemata. Babies are only born with a
few (think index cards), but with experience, they create new cards
and dividers to store their information.
 “A Closer Look” handout and Exhibit 2-4
Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
 His psychological theory, which spans childhood
and adulthood, focuses on specific social tasks
that need to emerge for healthy development in
each of the eight stages.
 Like Freud, he saw each stage defined by
conflict, but he thought conflict was healthy and
resulted in opportunity for personal growth.
 See handout that was used with Freud for
Erikson’s eight stages
B.F Skinner
 The most famous of Watson’s followers
 Has had an enormous effect on all aspects of
education
 Behavioral modification: behavior can be changed
or modified by manipulating the environment
(socially and physically)
 Emphasized that almost all behaviors are learned
through experience and can be increased or
decreased based on what “happens next”
 Ex: if something pleasant consistently happens
after a child engages in a specific behavior, he is
likely to repeat the behavior.
videos
 http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkin1FhojCo&feature=related
 Freud’s Id, Ego and SuperEgo
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLLVYx0IPPU
 Piaget
 http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/09/15/piagets-stages-of
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cognitive-development-experiments-with-kids/
Gardner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEFpaY3GI-I&feature=related
Skinner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepqpTtKbwo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHcw2vz9H0&feature=related
Influential Events in Early Childhood Education
 Little change from the 1920s – 1940s.
 Dewey’s emphasis on child-centered programs became
popular.
 Froebel and Montessori were out-of-favor for a while
because they were attacked by William Kilpatrick, who was
a lecturer at the Teacher’s College in NYC where he was
known as “the million dollar professor”.
 He was more a great supporter of Dewey, so Dewey’s ideas
replaced Froebel and Montessori.
 Kilpatrick’s work influenced teachers and parents until the
1960’s, when the Montessori program made a come back.
 “A Focus on Maturation” seemed to take over until
the 1960s: there was little to do with young
children other than to wait for them to mature.
 You could influence social growth, though, so the
focus for years was on social growth (and they
didn’t worry about cognitive (learning) growth.
 Day care centers were available, but not used a lot,
and had a bit of a “welfare orientation.”
1940s -1950s
 Strong pressure on families to have the mother stay at
home with the children, until they were at least 3.
 Lots of research had been done on orphans who had
had little human contact and stimulation, so big push
on moms at home to help with development.
 “Maternal Care & Mental Health” became a classic
(1951) and was about the mental problems that many
orphans had when they became teenagers.
 The best place for children was with their mothers.
This idea was debunked somewhat in the 1960s.
Sputnik & Educational Upheaval
 In 1957, the Russians launched the first space missile,
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Sputnik.
The failure of the Americans became a big social and
political focus.
School systems were attacked (why weren’t Americans and
Canadians as advanced as the Russians?).
Outmoded teaching methods, dull curriculum, too little
emphasis on science.
Poor kids did worse than rich kids; black kids did worse
than white kids (politically this was the time of the Civil
Rights Movement and everything was being challenged
with respect to equal rights for girls, ethic minorities, the
poor.
Early Childhood Becomes a Focus
 A number of advances in psychological knowledge
took place around this same time.
 In tune with political and educational pressures of the
time.
 The biggest change was the replacement of the
“Maturation View” of development with the
“Interactional View” of development.
Interactional View
 Development is determined by both environment and
genetic factors.
 Lots of studies showed the relationship between
experience & development in humans and animals.
 “The assumption that intelligence is fixed and its
development is predetermined by the genes in no
longer tenable.”
 The early childhood years were a focus again:
intelligence was most affected by experience.
Rediscovery of Piaget
 Piaget’s work had been ignored, now it was a focus.
 “If we pay little attention to the events occurring in the
first years of life, much of the story may be over by the
time we begin to educate the child, even if we start as
early as age 3, let alone 6.”
 Social class also became a focus in these years: social
class had a great effect on the kind of language a child
developed and on the learning style a child developed.
 So, get kids out of the home and focus on the early
years.
Howard Gardner (1943 -- )
 His parents fled Nazi Germany with their first son who
died in an accident before Howard was born.
 He was not allowed to play sports
 He was an excellent pianist
 Attended Harvard University
 Influenced by Erikson
 Continued to work at Harvard
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
 Each person has various levels of different intelligences
 Unique “cognitive profile”
 7 Intelligences:
 Verbal linguistic
 Logical Mathematics
 Musical
 Visual Spatial
 Bodily Kinesthetic
 Interpersonal
 Intrapersonal
NB Education Video
-- Favorites
Activity / Summary
 With a partner, write one sentence for each individual
that you feel captures the essence of that person and
his / her philosophy.
 Ex: Froebel, who is credited with organizing
kindergarten, put great emphasis on the importance of
play.
Written Assignment
 Now that you have had a general overview of some of the main
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influential theorists, it’s time to reflect on which ones make
sense to you.
Write a reflection paper (2-3 pages double spaced).
Choose two theorists: one that you MOST agree with and one
that you MOST DISAGREE with.
In your introduction, tell me of your two choices.
Then, in the first half of the paper, write about the one you most
like. A) briefly summarize what he or she believed in B) What
do you like about the theory and why? C) What do you not like
about the theory and why?
Now, in the second half of the paper, write about the one you
most disagree with and repeat the steps (above – a, b and c).