ECD101 Parent Handout template: Define theory in terms families could understand Explain two developmental theories that will drive your work with young children.

Throughout this course, you will be creating a series of parent handouts focused on the various ages and stages of development. Since the first week of class discusses developmental theories, this will also be the focus of your Week 1 parent handout. For this assignment, you will use the attached PowerPoint template. You will only need to complete the slides for Week 1.

To prepare,

· Review Chapter 1: History, Theory, and Research Strategies

· Read  Needing to KnowLinks to an external site.

· Read  On Listening to What the Children SayLinks to an external site.

· You are required to use the  Parent Handout  Download Parent Handout template for this assignment.

 

Using the template, complete the following:

Handout:

· Define theory in terms families could understand.

· Explain two developmental theories that will drive your work with young children.

· Discuss the connection between your chosen theories and using developmentally appropriate practice to support your work with young children.

· Explain three resources for families to help them understand your chosen theories.Be sure to include a link to each resource.

· One resource should be a quick read for families on the go.

· One resource should be more detailed for families who want to learn more.

· One resource should be user-friendly for diverse families (e.g., ELL, single parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, etc.).

Reflection:

· Discuss why it is important for you to help families understand developmental theory.

· Explain why it is important to research and theorize about childhood.

· Describe how your stance on theory will evolve over the next five years.

 

The Theory Parent Handout paper

· Must be three pages in length and formatted according to template.

· Must utilize academic voice. See the  Academic Voice  Links to an external site. resource for additional guidance.

· Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text. These scholarly resources should be different than the resources provided for families. Must follow  APA Style  Links to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center.

· The  Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources  Links to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

· To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view the  Quick and Easy Library Research  Links to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.

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CHAPTER 1 HISTORY, THEORY, AND RESEARCH STRATEGIES

WHAT’S AHEAD IN CHAPTER 1

1.1 The Field of Child Development

Domains of Development • Periods of Development

1.2 Basic Issues

Continuous or Discontinuous Development? • One Course of Development or Many? • Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture? • A Balanced Point of View

■ BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT: Resilient Children

1.3 Historical Foundations

Medieval Times • The Reformation • Philosophies of the Enlightenment • Scientific Beginnings

1.4 Mid-Twentieth-Century Theories

The Psychoanalytic Perspective • Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory • Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

1.5 Recent Theoretical Perspectives

Information Processing • Developmental Neuroscience • Ethology and Evolutionary Developmental Psychology • Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory • Ecological Systems Theory • Development as a Dynamic System

■ SOCIAL ISSUES: HEALTH: Family Chaos Undermines Children’s Well-Being

1.6 Comparing Child Development Theories

1.7 Studying the Child

Common Research Methods • General Research Designs • Designs for Studying Development • Improving Developmental Designs

■ CULTURAL INFLUENCES: Immigrant Youths: Adapting to a New Land

1.8 Ethics in Research on Children

The youngest of six children, Reiko Nagumo was born in Los Angeles in 1934 to Japanese-immigrant parents who had become naturalized U.S. citizens. On December 7, 1941, when Reiko was in second grade, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, an event that caused the United States to declare war on Japan and enter World War II. In the days that followed, Reiko’s best friend, Mary Frances, approached her at school and said, “Reiko, my mama told me to tell you that I’m not allowed to play with you anymore because you’re Japanese, and we’re at war with Japan.”

The only Japanese student in her class, Reiko became the target of her classmates’ harassment, including name-calling, hitting, and spitting. Still, Mary Frances remained Reiko’s friend at school, becoming her protective, side-by-side partner as the children transitioned between their homeroom and the school library—a kindness encouraged by the girls’ classroom teacher. After returning from winter break in January of 1942, Mary Frances approached Reiko excitedly and invited her over to see the gifts she had received at Christmastime.

“But you’re not allowed to play with me,” Reiko reminded Mary Frances.

“Oh, my mama won’t know,” Mary Frances replied. “She works at the hospital, and I have a key.”

After school, the two friends ran to Mary Frances’s home, but as they entered, they heard her Uncle Bill approaching through another door. Quickly, Mary Frances directed Reiko to hide behind the sofa, but Uncle Bill, hearing the girls talking, found Reiko, dragged her out, and told her to go home and never come back. Then he threatened, “Mary Frances, I’m going to punish you.”

Soon after, the U.S. government issued an executive order requiring tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry to be relocated from their homes to internment camps. Reiko, her parents, and her siblings were rounded up with other Japanese Americans, herded onto busses, and transported to a holding center where, for three months, all eight family members slept in the same room on canvas bags they had stuffed with hay. Then, the incarcerated citizens boarded trains for Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where they were held for three years.

An active, curious child, Reiko was overcome with sadness at being separated from her home and daily routines. Her parents, despite the trauma of their desolate surroundings and denial of their Constitutional rights, managed to provide their children with affection and support, including encouragement to do well academically in the camp’s makeshift school using barracks as classrooms. Soon, Reiko’s buoyancy returned: She passed time playing “school” and “library” with other camp children and made playing cards, checkerboards, and other games out of cardboard. Charitable organizations sent in teachers with whom Reiko forged close relationships.

When the war ended in 1945, Reiko and her family moved back to their former neighborhood. Memories of peer mistreatment caused Reiko to fear returning to school, but as she set foot in the play yard, a teacher welcomed her and made her feel safe. Reiko soon found Mary Frances—the only child who reached out and took her hand in friendship.

In the years that followed, Reiko and Mary Frances lost contact. Reiko went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and pursued an adventurous international opportunity as a public health nurse before returning to California to work in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit. Now retired, she regularly gives talks to schoolchildren about her wartime experiences of internment and what we can learn from history. Reiko never forgot Mary Frances, who befriended her during a time of intense prejudice against anyone Japanese. As she grew old, Reiko began to search for her. Seventy years after the two friends had last seen each other, they were reunited (Elk Grove Unified School District, 2018; PBS, 2018).

• • •

Reiko’s story raises a wealth of fascinating issues about child development:

What determines the physical, mental, and behavioral attributes that Reiko and Mary Frances share with their agemates and those that make each child unique?

How did Reiko manage to sustain an active, curious disposition despite the trauma of internment? What enabled Mary Frances to remain Reiko’s steadfast friend in the face of adult and peer condemnation?

In what ways are children’s home, school, and neighborhood experiences the same today as they were in Reiko and Mary Frances’s generation, and in what ways are they different?

How do historical events—for Reiko, wartime persecution and dislocation—affect children’s development and well-being?

These are central questions addressed by child development, a field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change from conception through adolescence. Child development is part of a larger, interdisciplinary field known as developmental science, which includes all changes we experience throughout the lifespan (Lerner et al., 2014; Overton & Molenaar, 2015). The interests and concerns of the thousands of investigators who study child development are enormously diverse. But all have a common goal: to describe and identify those factors that influence the consistencies and changes in young people during the first two decades of life. ■

1.1 THE FIELD OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

1.1a Describe the field of child development, along with factors that stimulated its expansion.

1.1b Explain how child development is typically divided into domains and periods.

The questions just listed are not just of scientific interest. Each has applied, or practical, importance as well. In fact, scientific curiosity is just one factor that led child development to become the exciting field it is today. Research about development has also been stimulated by social pressures to improve the lives of children. For example, the beginning of public education in the early twentieth century led to a demand for knowledge about what and how to teach children of different ages. The interest of pediatricians and nurses in improving children’s health required an understanding of physical growth and nutrition. The social service profession’s desire to treat children’s emotional and behavior problems and to help them cope with challenging life circumstances, such as the birth of a sibling, parental divorce, poverty, bullying in school, or racial and ethnic prejudices, required information about personality and social development. And parents have continually sought advice about child-rearing practices and experiences that would promote their children’s development and well-being.

Our large storehouse of information about child development is interdisciplinary. It has grown through the combined efforts of people from many fields. Because of the need to solve everyday problems concerning children, researchers from psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, and neuroscience have joined forces with those from education, family studies, medicine, public health, and social service, to name just a few. Together, they have created the field of child development as it exists today—a body of knowledge that is not just scientifically important but also relevant and useful.

1.1.1 Domains of Development

To make the vast, interdisciplinary study of human constancy and change more orderly and convenient, development is often divided into three broad domains: physical, cognitive, and emotional and social. Refer to Figure 1.1 for a description and illustration of each. In this text, we will largely consider the three domains in the order just mentioned. Yet the domains are not really distinct. Rather, they combine in an integrated, holistic fashion to yield the living, growing child. Furthermore, each domain influences and is influenced by the others. For example, in Chapter 5 you will see that new motor capacities, such as reaching, sitting, crawling, and walking (physical), contribute greatly to infants’ understanding of their surroundings (cognitive). When babies think and act more competently, adults stimulate them more with games, language, and expressions of delight at their new achievements (emotional and social). These enriched experiences, in turn, promote all aspects of development.

You will encounter instances of the interwoven nature of all domains on nearly every page of this text. In its margins, you will find occasional Look and Listen activities—opportunities for you to see everyday illustrations of development by observing what real children say and do or by attending to everyday influences on children. Through these experiences, I hope to make your study of development more authentic and meaningful.

Also, at the end of major sections, look for Ask Yourself, a feature designed to help deepen your understanding. Within it, I have included Connect questions, which help you form a coherent, unified picture of child development; Apply questions, which encourage you to apply your knowledge to controversial issues and problems faced by parents, teachers, and children; and Reflect questions, which invite you to reflect on your own development and that of people you know well.

1.1.2 Periods of Development

Besides distinguishing and integrating the three domains, another dilemma arises in discussing development: how to divide the flow of time into sensible, manageable parts. Researchers usually use the following age periods, each of which brings new capacities and social expectations that serve as important transitions in major theories:

The prenatal period: from conception to birth. In this nine-month period, the most rapid time of change, a one-celled organism is transformed into a human baby with remarkable capacities for adjusting to life in the surrounding world.

Infancy and toddlerhood: from birth to 2 years. This period brings dramatic changes in the body and brain that support the emergence of a wide array of motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities; the beginnings of language; and the first intimate ties to others. Infancy spans the first year. Toddlerhood spans the second, during which children take their first independent steps, marking a shift to greater autonomy.

Early childhood: from 2 to 6 years. The body becomes longer and leaner, motor skills are refined, and children become more self-controlled and self-sufficient. Make-believe play blossoms, reflecting and supporting many aspects of psychological development. Thought and language expand at an astounding pace, a sense of morality becomes evident, and children establish ties with peers.

Middle childhood: from 6 to 11 years. Children learn about the wider world and master new responsibilities that increasingly resemble those they will perform as adults. Hallmarks of this period are improved athletic abilities; participation in organized games with rules; more logical thought processes; mastery of fundamental reading, writing, math, and other academic knowledge and skills; and advances in understanding the self, morality, and friendship.

Adolescence: from 11 to 18 years. This is the intervening period between childhood and adulthood. Puberty leads to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity. Thought becomes increasingly complex, abstract, and idealistic, and schooling is directed toward entry into higher education and the world of work. During this period, young people establish autonomy from the family and define personal values and goals.

For many contemporary youths in industrialized nations, the transition to adult roles has become increasingly prolonged—so much so that some researchers have proposed an additional period of development called emerging adulthood that extends from age 18 to the mid- to late-twenties. Although emerging adults have moved beyond adolescence, they have not yet fully assumed adult responsibilities. Rather, during the college years and sometimes beyond, these young people intensify their exploration of options in love, career, and personal values before making enduring commitments (Arnett, 2015). Perhaps emerging adulthood is your period of development.

With this introduction in mind, let’s turn to some basic issues that have captivated, puzzled, and sparked debate among child development theorists. Then our discussion will trace the emergence of the field and survey major theories.We will return to each contemporary theory in greater depth in later chapters.

1.2 BASIC ISSUES

1.2 Identify three basic issues on which theories of child development take a stand.

Research on child development did not begin until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But ideas about how children grow and change have a much longer history. As these speculations combined with research, they inspired the construction of theories of development. A theory is an orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior. For example, a good theory of infant–caregiver attachment would (1) describe the behaviors of babies around 6 to 8 months of age, when they start to actively seek the affection and comfort of a familiar adult, (2) explain how and why infants develop this strong desire to bond with a familiar caregiver, and (3) predict the consequences of this emotional bond for future relationships.

Theories are vital tools for two reasons. First, they provide organizing frameworks for our observations of children. In other words, they guide and give meaning to what we see. Second, theories that are verified by research often serve as a sound basis for practical action. Once a theory helps us understand development, we are in a much better position to know how to improve the welfare and treatment of children.

As we will see later, theories are influenced by the cultural values and belief systems of their times. But theories differ in one important way from mere opinion or belief: A theory’s continued existence depends on scientific verification. Every theory must be tested using a fair set of research procedures agreed on by the scientific community, and findings that verify the theory must endure, or be replicated over time.

Within the field of child development, many theories offer different ideas about what children are like and how they change. The study of child development provides no ultimate truth because investigators do not always agree on the meaning of what they see. Also, children are complex beings; they change physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially. No single theory has explained all these aspects. But the existence of many theories helps advance knowledge because researchers are continually trying to support, contradict, and integrate these different points of view.

Although there are many theories, we can easily organize them by looking at the stand they take on three basic issues: (1) Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous? (2) Does one course of development characterize all children, or are there many possible courses? (3) What are the roles of genetic and environmental factors in development? Let’s look closely at each of these issues.

1.2.1 Continuous or Discontinuous Development?

A mother reported with amazement that her 20-month-old son Angelo had pushed a toy car across the living room floor while making a motorlike sound, “Brmmmm, brmmmm,” for the first time. When he hit a nearby wall with a bang, Angelo let go of the car, exclaimed, “C’ash!” and laughed heartily.

“How come Angelo can pretend, but he couldn’t a few months ago?” his mother asked. “And I wonder what ‘Brmmmm, brmmmm’ and ‘Crash!’ mean to Angelo. Does he understand motorlike sounds and collision the same way I do?”

Angelo’s mother has raised a puzzling issue about development: How can we best describe the differences in capacities and behavior between small infants, young children, adolescents, and adults? As Figure 1.2 on page7 illustrates, most major theories recognize two possibilities.

One view holds that infants and preschoolers respond to the world in much the same way as adults do. The difference between the immature and the mature being is one of amount or complexity. For example, little Angelo’s thinking may be just as logical and well-organized as our own. Perhaps (as his mother reports) he can sort objects into simple categories, recognize whether he has more of one kind than of another, and remember where he left his favorite toy at child care the week before. Angelo’s only limitation may be that he cannot perform these skills with as much information and precision as we can. If this is so, then Angelo’s development is continuous—a process of gradually adding more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with.

Figure 1.2 Is development continuous or discontinuous? (a) Some theorists believe that development is a smooth, continuous process. Children gradually add more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with. (b) Other theorists think that development takes place in discontinuous stages. Children change rapidly as they step up to a new level and then change very little for a while. With each step, the child interprets and responds to the world in a qualitatively different way.

According to a second view, Angelo’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior differ considerably from those of adults. His development is discontinuous—a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times. From this perspective, Angelo is not yet able to organize objects or remember and interpret experiences as we do. Instead, he will move through a series of developmental steps, each with unique features, until he reaches the highest level of functioning.

Theories that accept the discontinuous perspective regard development as taking place in stages—qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development. In stage theories, development is much like climbing a staircase, with each step corresponding to a more mature, reorganized way of functioning. The stage concept also assumes that children undergo periods of rapid transformation as they step up from one stage to the next, alternating with plateaus during which they stand solidly within a stage. In other words, change is fairly sudden rather than gradual and ongoing.

Does development actually occur in a neat, orderly sequence of stages? This ambitious assumption has faced significant challenges (Collins & Hartup, 2013). Later in this chapter, we will review some influential stage theories.

1.2.2 One Course of Development or Many?

Stage theorists assume that people everywhere follow the same sequence of development. For example, in the domain of cognition, a stage theorist might try to identify the common influences that lead children to represent their world through language and make-believe play in early childhood, to think more logically and systematically in middle childhood, and to reason more systematically and abstractly in adolescence.

At the same time, the field of child development is becoming increasingly aware that children grow up in distinct contexts—unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change. For example, a shy child who fears social encounters develops in very different contexts from those of an outgoing agemate who readily seeks out other people. Children in non-Western village societies have experiences in their families and communities that differ sharply from those of children in large Western cities. These varying circumstances foster different intellectual capacities, social skills, and feelings about the self and others (Kagan, 2013a; Mistry & Dutta, 2015).

As you will see, contemporary theorists regard the contexts that shape development as many-layered and complex. On the personal side, these include heredity and biological makeup. On the environmental side, they include both immediate settings (home, child-care center, school, neighborhood) and circumstances that are more remote from children’s everyday lives (community resources, societal values, historical time period). Furthermore, new evidence is increasingly emphasizing mutually influential relations between individuals and their contexts: Children not only are affected by but also contribute to the contexts in which they develop (Elder, Shanahan, & Jennings, 2015). Finally, researchers today are more conscious than ever before of cultural diversity in development.

1.2.3 Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture?

In addition to describing the course of child development, each theory takes a stand on a major issue about its underlying causes: how to characterize the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors in development? This is the age-old nature–nurture controversy. By nature, we mean the hereditary information we receive from our parents at the moment of conception. By nurture, we mean the complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth.

Although all theories grant roles to both nature and nurture, they vary in emphasis. Consider the following questions: Is the older child’s ability to think in more complex ways largely the result of a built-in timetable of growth, or is it heavily influenced by stimulation from parents and teachers? Do children acquire language because they are genetically predisposed to do so or because parents intensively teach them from an early age? And what accounts for the vast individual differences among children in height, weight, physical coordination, cognitive abilities, personality traits, and social skills? Is nature or nurture more responsible?

A theory’s position on the roles of nature and nurture affects how it explains individual differences. Theorists who emphasize stability—that children who are high or low in a characteristic (such as verbal ability, anxiety, or sociability) will remain so at later ages—typically stress the importance of heredity. If they regard environment as important, they usually point to early experiences as establishing a lifelong pattern of behavior. Powerful negative events in the first few years, they argue, cannot be fully overcome by later, more positive ones (Bowlby, 1980; Sroufe, Coffino, & Carlson, 2010). Other theorists, taking a more optimistic view, see development as having substantial plasticity throughout life—as being open to change in response to influential experiences (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006; Overton & Molenaar, 2015).

Throughout this book, you will see that investigators disagree, often sharply, on the question of stability versus plasticity. Their answers have great applied significance. If you believe that development is largely due to nature, then providing experiences aimed at promoting change would seem to be of little value. If, on the other hand, you are convinced of the importance of early experience, then you would intervene as soon as possible, offering high-quality stimulation and support to ensure that children develop at their best. Finally, if you think that environment is profoundly influential throughout development, you would provide assistance any time children or adolescents face difficulties, in the belief that, with the help of favorable life circumstances, they can recover from negative events.

1.2.4 A Balanced Point of View

So far, we have discussed ba

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