| A child development theorist is a professional who | | | | Piaget was a child development theorist who |
| attempts to explain and interpret a child's | | | | described a series of orderly changes that take |
| behavior. A developmental theorist tries to make | | | | place in the way children think and solve problems. |
| sense of facts that are accumulated about | | | | Piaget felt that children develop ways to think and |
| children through various forms of research, and | | | | solve problems as they mature, because their |
| organize this knowledge in a systematic way. | | | | brains become better able to process and retain |
| Developmental theories are used to explain past | | | | information. |
| events and predict future events, and help us | | | | Piaget's theory of cognitive development is |
| speculate about the probable behavior of a child | | | | organized into four stages. The sensorimotor |
| who is in a certain circumstance. | | | | stage covers infancy. The preoperational stage |
| A development theorist may follow one of the | | | | focuses on children 2 to 7 years old. Concrete |
| four general categories of theories of child | | | | operations focus on children 7 to 11 years old, and |
| development. Environmental theories try and | | | | Formal Operations focuses on the cognitive |
| explain behavior based on a child's learning, their | | | | abilities of adolescents. |
| past behavior and their external environment. | | | | Sigmund Freud was an environmental child |
| Epigenetic theories focus on the interactions | | | | development theorist who concentrated on early |
| between a child's outside environment and their | | | | childhood conflict. Freud was one of the first to |
| inherited characteristics. Both learning theories and | | | | suspect that many emotional problems lay in the |
| cognitive theories emphasize the development of | | | | mind and not in the body. He emphasized how our |
| a child's ability to learn or think. | | | | unconscious motives influenced our behavior. |
| Each child development theorist who follows their | | | | Through psychoanalysis Freud attempted to |
| own theory of development provides a different | | | | identify a person's unconscious desires so that |
| set of explanations for behavior, so there is not a | | | | they could resolve conflicts from bad childhood |
| single theory that is best or most useful. It is | | | | experiences. |
| generally most productive to examine child | | | | John B. Watson was a child development theorist |
| development from both the environmental and | | | | who developed a Learning Theory of child growth |
| epigenetic perspectives. | | | | and development. This theory states that |
| Gesell was a development theorist who developed | | | | behavior is not inborn but is learned. |
| a sequence of behavior, in which he concluded | | | | A development theorist of a child who specializes |
| that a child's maturation and change in behavior | | | | in a social learning theory believes that children |
| was cause by the development of their nervous | | | | learn new responses by watching and imitating |
| system. Gsell felt that in order for a child to learn | | | | others, especially if they are rewarded. |
| something new they had to be biologically ready | | | | Although the beliefs of various child development |
| to learn it, and that practice or training had little | | | | theorists differ, there are many aspects of each |
| effect if a child was not ready to learn a particular | | | | theory that can help explain a child's behavior and |
| skill. | | | | can add to our knowledge child development. |