Child Development

Introduction

The principles of child development and learning through the various literature has interesting educational implications on academic achievement augmented by responsibility for growth in mental health and physical well-being. My practice informs me that the goal of an educator is to stimulate a child’s development and nurture their talent through instructions and tests that are scientifically, ethically, and morally justifiable through a principle of best practices (Kohlberg & Mayer, 1972, p. 449)

I will analyze two principles and expound on the importance of child development and education in my milieu. I have chosen two psychologist views, namely Lawrence Kohlberg and Jean Piaget to support my opinion for nurturing a child’s development (Spielman, et al., n.d.)

Importance of development based on Kohlberg’s view

In understanding my students’ diversity in their long-term growth, knowledge, and behavior, my expectation of pre-schoolers to adulthood would be one social, moral, emotional, and physiological wellness. In this view, I will be monitoring their moral reasoning based on punishment avoidance and self-interest, social or peer norms, authority figures, and universal principles of their progress from preschool to adolescence, through adult life (Seifert & Sutton, 2009, p. 61).

Educating a child from preschool about moral reasoning is of fundamental importance to promote sound judgment in nurturing principles of good conduct and ethics. Moral sensitivity in recognizing, framing, and contextualizing an ethical situation in a diverse classroom is crucial. Moral judgment in analyzing ethical issues, identifying options, consideration of interests of others, weighing consequences, balancing competing values and duties, determining right and wrong courses of action, and developing a sound rationale for action is another significant reason. Moral motivation and identity formation in prioritizing ethical values and committing to ethical action is another good reason. As the child develops into adulthood, creating a professional identity grounded in ethics and professional values is vital to character building. Finally, moral courage or character in applying ethical action, having the courage of one’s convictions, persevering against barriers and obstacles, demonstrating courage in the face of opposition creates resilience (Spielman, et al., n.d.).

Importance of development based on Piaget’s view

The significance of Piaget’s cognitive development is the adaptation of my lesson plans for learner’s growth and discovery learning (Zhou & Brown, 2017, p. 16). As an educator, I can use a variety of stages for my learner’s development that involves the use of sensorimotor activity through trial and error. I can also use a preoperational activity like understanding and expressing relationships between the past and the future lessons. There is a concrete operation activity like simulating my learner’s thinking to be less egocentric with better awareness of external events and tangible experiences. And finally, the formal operational training like instructing my learners to think about multiple variables systematically critically. My learners can formulate hypotheses and think about abstract relationships and concepts. The use of visual aids and models, opportunities to discuss social, cultural, and political issues, and broad concepts rather than only facts for meaningful and relevant engagement with my learners (Spielman, et al., n.d.).

A strong reason and contrary argument for adopting Piaget’s view is that learning is a gradual, incremental development rather than through sudden jumps for learning and experiencing growth both mentally, emotionally, and physically. Building children’s confidence in the language, sounds, arithmetic, symbols, and visualization skills would form a common core foundation for more abstract conceptualization and deep learning. As the child develops into adulthood, the pre-frontal cortex would be fully developed for mastery of verbal, linguistic, visual, spatial, logical, and mathematical skills. The child would also create a personality for interpersonal, intrapersonal, and socio-cultural relationships skills (Siegler, 2013)

Nature and Nurture

The child development and learning principles suggest that social and personality development continues through adolescence and the adult years. This development is very much affected by the changes in social relationships, roles, and biological growth a child experiences from early childhood to adulthood (Thompson, 2013). There is a reasonable degree of interplay between a child’s biological developmental and environmental influences that shape future growth. All physical development, cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and linguistic development like bilingual and multilingual supports a caring and nurturing accommodation. We will also need to consider other progressions of growth and learning like variations due to cultural contexts, experiences, and individual perspectives and differences. From birth, we have seen that children are active learners, and they create meanings through relationships, interactions with their caregivers, parents, and environment. When the environment encourages a sense of belonging, purpose, and agency, motivation to learn increases, and the child relates to the school, home, and community settings. I have also seen that the current mastery of my student can be significantly developed when they are challenged with opportunities to reflect and practice newly taught skills. Technology and interactive media have provided valuable assistive tools to support learning and development (NAEYC, n.d.)

While environment plays a significant role, genetics have shared further insights on how a child’s hereditary assumes a deeper level of behavioral psychology. Polygenic scores are a conclusive psychological test to ascertain genetic destiny. Even though genetic scores measure genetic propensities and not environmental influences, researchers found that DNA differences are the vital systematic cause of who we are. DNA differences account for half the variance of psychological traits. The rest of the variations are environmental (Plomin, 2018, p. 161)

Conclusion

The above discussion on two essential principles for child development and learning has given me a good analysis of the stages of development and the relevance to education. I have also evaluated two principles of child development and their relationship to developmental theories in my educational milieu. I have given reference to two psychologists on my beliefs that contributed to the different stages of child development (Seifert & Sutton, 2009)