Child_Development

K3D210) current theories of play can inform my practice in many ways. By having a more in depth knowledge I can then begin to assess why certain circumstances come about and also how to detail with certain aspects such as conflict positively. By understanding the ages and stages of development taking sharing for example, you may be lead to believe that children should always share, however up unit a certain stage of development children do not play with other children, they simply lay along side them. Their concept then is that the toys are their own and are not for sharing. Understanding about getting children of certain age play together and then they can inform and develop each others skills without adult intervention means that adult participation is not always necessarily. How ever adult participation is good aid for younger children to help stimulate the play and provide new and more exciting opportunities. (K3D211) if I have any concerns over the development of a child I will in the first instance Discuss this with the career or parents of that child. Through this discussion I would then begin to plan possible outcome. Whether that is concentrating on a particular set of skills within my setting to help that child develop those skills further or is necessary advice the parent to seek external help through a GP or health visitor who would then refer them to the appropriate therapist such as speech or hearing. (K3D212) Every area of Childs development does not work independently from the next. A child’s development must be considered holistically, which means that at any time in a child’s development more than one area of development is involved. At any one time the child’s personal social and emotional development is evolving, their cognitive development is developing, and also their actual physical, communication and language developments are constantly engaged and also developing. This means that whilst you may be observing for a particular aspect of development or behaviors you always need to be fully aware of the wider picture. L (K3D213) currently, learning theories can be grouped into three bands; 1) Behaviorist approaches 2) Constructivist approaches 3) Information processing The behaviorist approach suggests that learning is influenced by reward, punishments and environmental factor. The term ‘condition’ is often used by behaviorists. It means that you learn to act in a certain way because past experience have taught you to do or not to something. There are two types of conditioning are well documented; classical conditioning and operant. Classical condition is basic learn learning through experience and was explores by Pavlov in the famous salivating dog experiments, whereby dogs were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell in anticipation of receiving their dinner. Operant Conditioning is often used to encourage children to show wanted behavior. Skinner suggested that most humans and animals learn through exploring the environment and then drawing conclusion based upon the consequences of the behaviors. This is means that people are more active in the learning process. He also divided the consequences of actions into three groups as follows, 1) Positive re-enforcers are likely to make people repeat behavior when they receive something that they desire. This approach is widely used as a Behaviour Management tool, and Skinner suggested that most effective way of encouraging new learning .Positive reinforces for children include gaining adults attention, praise, stickers and treats. This is when the reinforcement is most effective. If the wanted behavior is reward continually for a period of time, this will eventually develop into an automatic good behavior. 2) Negative rein forcers are likely to make people repeat behavior as well, but the difference being is that that behavior is repeated to stop something happening. An example may be a child using their hands whilst going down a slide to regulate their speed if it’s too fats. 3) Punishers are likely to stop people from repeating behavior. For example, they may learn to stay away from an electric fence receiving a shock. Social Learning Theory is another behaviorist approach, and the key figure is Albert Bandura. Social theorists accept the principle op conditioning but also accept that other types of learning are also taking place .Observational learning , that is learning through watching and coping others , can take place without any reinforcement, which is the main difference from conditioning . The constructivist approach is to see the child as an active rather than a passive learner .The behaviorist model believes that children learn as a result of what they see and what happens to them , the constructivist model suggests that children explore and come to a conscious conclusion about the word around them .Piaget also believes that when children play they can make discoveries for themselves without being specifically taught. Children generally share the same sequential pattern of learning, and children of the same age often makes the same mistakes .Children‘s cognitive development developed through a series of stages and children should not be expected to hurry through these stages; they should be allowed to pass through them naturally. The role of adult is to provide the environment where children can make these discoveries .The adult’s intervention should only be done sensitively, particular during role-play. The adult should only join in if invited by 6th child, when play is flagging or if there is about to be an instance of inappropriate .Piaget’s theory identifies four development stages and the processes by which children progress through them. These are the four stages; 1. Sensory -motor stage from birth to two years the child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concept about reality and it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence). 2. Preoperational stage ages two to seven the child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. 3. Concrete operations from ages seven to eleven as the experience accumulates, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her physical experiences. Abstract problem also is possible solving at this stage. For example, arithmetic equations can also be solved with numbers, not just with objects. 4. Formal operations age from eleven to fifteen, by this point the child’s cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reasoning. Vygotsky another Social Constructivist had Theory whereby children should learn through social interactions and relationships, and through the social tool of language. All play contains an imaginative element. Children should always be challenged by some activities that are just beyond them, this will slightly stretch the child’s capabilities. He used the term the term Zone of proximal development which we would define as a child potential, and how an adult working with children must help to develop this as much as possible. He also established that you could group different skill levels together for an activity and then encourage the children to help each other .This is the concept of the ‘Vygotstky Tutorial’. He believed that all children would benefit by learning a new skill and also that the other child that is acting as the teacher would also develop a deeper understanding of their existing skill. Moreover both Piaget and Vygotsky influenced Jerome Bruner. In his research on the development of children in 1966, Bruner proposed three modes of representation; Enactive representation is from zero to one, through repeating physical movement people of all ages can learn certain type of skills, for example trying our shoelace or learning to drive a car. This first type of cognitive skill that Bruner suggests babies are able to use .This fits in with Piaget‘s sensori-motor stage, where children repeat movements and learn about their world through their Physical movements. Iconic start from one to seven years, an iconic is something that is visual, and Bruner suggested that the iconic mode involves people building up a picture of things they have experienced in their minds. They may, for example, be able to shut their eyes and imagine the room they are in. The iconic stage relates to Piaget’s pre-operational stage. Symbolic start from seven years plus, Like Piaget, Bruner felt that, at seven years, children’s thinking drastically changed. Bruner linked this change to the child’s ability to use symbols but particularly to the use of language. In symbolic mode, thinking can take place without people having direct experience, for example, they may listen to the news on the radio and retain this information, even though they have not directly witnessed the events mentioned. Bruner is well known for the Theory of the Spiral Curriculum. Children learn through discovery with direct assistance of adults who should provide opportunities for children to return to the same activities with the same materials and ideas. He believed that this world then extend and deepen a Childs understanding and learning. He also believed that A person could look up a particular subject at several times in their lives at different complexities. Through this children should be allowed them to revisit previous activities, experience and ideas. Children should be providing with opportunities and activities that consolidate the existing learning and new opportunities to challenge and motivate them. Moral Development is an important social skill and concerns itself with being able to behave in a way that is socially acceptable. Paiget believed that cognitive development followed a four stage approach. Pre-moral starts from zero to four years this is where children learn about what is wrong and right through when they are won action s and consider the response of the adult around them .Moral realism aged starts from age four to seven where the Childs morals development is greatly influenced by the adults in their lives . Their judgments are very much based upon their adult’s expectations. And from eight to eleven years children are pre-occupied with justice and following rules, as they have developed a concept of fairness. Moral relativism age start from eleven years plus is where children understand that treating people in exactly the same way may not result in fairness. Children also consider the motive for people’s actions. Kolberg continued Piaget’s descriptions of moral development. Kohlberg’s six stages we