Various Theories Of Development Influence The Way To Work With Children

Various theories of development will influence the way we approach working with children. Psychologists have differing ideas and views about how children learn and develop. Some feel that a child’s ability is innate, while others think it depends on the opportunities that they are given. This is often called the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate. There are a number of pioneers whose work has hugely contributed to how practitioners work with children and young people. Their theories vary enormously and cover cognitive development, speech, language and communication development, physical development and social and emotional development.

Sigmund Freud stated that our personalities are made up of three parts – the id, the ego and the superego.

His theories covered language and thinking and emphasised the role that this has on thought and understanding. Vygotsky believed that cognitive development relies on social interaction with other people. He developed the zone of proximal development theory. This theory identifies what the child can do independently and what they can do with assistance; it highlights their potential. Social interaction and language are key to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development theory. He believed that the gap between what the child could do independently (for example, put their shoes on) and what they could do with assistance from a more knowledgeable other (for example, tie up their laces) was the zone where learning occurred. The zone of proximal development is the distance between the child’s ability to solve a task with support and their ability to solve the problem independently. The more knowledgeable other could be a teacher or a peer, or anyone who has more understanding or ability than the

This theory was thought of by Paget and outlines that children learn that objects are permanent and have their own existence regardless of if we can see them or not. This is when a baby does not understand that an object still exists when it is out of sight and will stop looking for it, but will move objects later on in their development therefore now being able to realise that despite something not being visible, it is still in existence
• Pre-operational 2–7 years: at this stage children begin to use symbols and learn through ‘pretend’ play. Children are egocentric and cannot see things from another person’s point of view (the inability to “step into another’s shoes”). Piaget Worked with children and showed them a model of a mountain range before introducing a doll which moved around in this model. The children were shown a number of images and asked to identify which would be seen by the doll in different positions. The children were unable to identify the right images and therefore could not understand the viewpoint of another