Child Development Theories

Child development theories are all about how children growand change during the course of childhood. Child developmenttheories focus on different aspects of development of a childincluding emotional, social and cognitive growth. Child facesconflicts during each stage which plays an important role in thecourse of development. Subsequently and successfully each stagehelps to grow a healthy adult personality.
Consider if a childfails to resolve the conflicts of a particular age it may have aninfluence on adult behaviour. Children were viewed simply asmall versions of adult where little attention was paid to manyadvances in their intellectual abilities and physical growth. Atheory of development deals with three things. First, it shouldexplain changes among different aspects of development. Second, it should explain changes over time within individual orseveral areas of child development.
Third, it should explainthese changes. No one theory has proved enough to explainlearning or development. There are number of theories whichplay a major role in child development. This kind of theoriescan be useful to consider. Many parents take help of thesetheories to understand about the child development. Byunderstanding each theoretical approach, different parts of thetheory can be used and it is also an useful way to furtheryour understanding.
These kinds of development theories mayhelp you to interpret your observation. Different developmenttheories are associated with different specialist people. Forexample, psychological and emotional developments areconnected with Erik Erikson, Mary Ainswoth and john Bowlby. Cognitive development is associated with theorist Piaget, Vygootsky and Skinner. They developed theories based oncognitive development and a variety of approaches of teachinghave since grown from that work and the work of othertheorist.
Other approach concerned with cognitive developmentincludes 'behaviourism' 'information processing' and'constructivism'. After that by understanding language theorycan build a foundation for your own thoughts and beliefs onhow you think children develop their communication skills andlanguage. The theorist who discussed here are those LevVygotsky, BF Skinner, John Watson, Albert Bandura and NoamChomsky.
There are number of theorists who are clearly linkedwith social development. In addition to Erik Erikson, JohnBowlby and Mary Ainsworth whose ideas where discussedunder 'emotional and psychological development'. The Americantheorist and researcher arnoid Gesell was an early proponent ofmaturation theory. He found the nature's role in children'sdevelopment. There is also a long running debate which isabout whether our biological heritage.
This was just a briefintroduction to the child development theories. Want to knowmore about it? You have got to read out the entire book then.