Early development Flashcards
What is Development?
The pattern of movement or change that begins at
conception and continues through the human life
span.
Child Development: Scientific study of processes of change and stability from conception through adolescence.
What are the periods of development?
Prenatal period: from conception to birth.
Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years.
Early childhood: 2-6 years old.
Middle childhood: 6-12 years old.
Adolescence: 12-19 years old.
Adulthood: 20/21+ years old
The Six Principles of Life-span Development (Baltes, 1999)
Development is lifelong
An all of life process.
It is not just focused on childhood, adulthood or old age.
Changes in development can occur later in life, without having
been established at birth.
The early events of one’s childhood can
be transformed by later events in one’s life.
Development is multidimensional.
A dynamic interaction of factors influence development:
biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes.
Development is multidirectional.
Development of a particular domain is not strictly linear.
Development involves growth and decline (gains & losses
What are the domains of development?
Physical Domain: Body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor development, physical health.
Cognitive Domain: thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention, memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic and everyday knowledge and language.
Social/Emotional Domain: Self-knowledge (self-esteem, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral reasoning, understanding and expression of emotions, self-regulation, temperament, understanding others, interpersonal skills, and friendships.
What are three fundamental issues in developments?
Nature Vs. Nurture
Continuity Vs. Discontinuity
Stability Vs. Change
What is Nature Vs Nurture?
Involves the debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture.
What is Continuity Vs. Discontinuity?
Development means change; change can be abrupt or gradual.
Two views of human development:
◦ Continuous process: each new event builds on earlier experiences in an
orderly way or gradual improvement.
◦ Change is Quantitative and Smooth
◦ Discontinuous process: development occurs in discrete steps or stages;
each stage is a qualitatively new set of behaviors
◦ Change is Qualitative and Step-Like
What is Development as a continuous methods?
Theorists who believe children grow continuously believe that kids constantly add new lessons and skills on top of old lessons and skills as they get older.
They believe that children grow at a steady, uniform speed- NOT IN STAGES.
The various stage theories share three assumptions:
- People pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage
building on capacities developed in the previous stage. - Stages are related to age.
- Development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different
capacities emerging in each stage.
What is stability Vs change?
This issue involves the degree to which we become older renditions of our early experience or whether we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development.
What are the theorietical of development?
*Psychodynamic
*Psychosocial
*Behaviourism
*Social Learning Theory
*Ethological
