Child development
From Encyclopædia
The study of child development encompasses all the aspects of human
growth from birth to
adolescence. These include the progressive elaboration of the child's intellectual skills;
personality development, involving the complex interaction between psychosocial factors and the
stage-by-
stage development of the body; and
socialization, the process by which children adjust to society and its demands.
growth of the DisciplineChild development is a relatively new discipline. Toward the end of the 19th century a few scientists were keeping random diaries about the behavior of their children, and the pioneering American psychologist G. Stanley HALL was in the process of founding the field of
developmental psychology. With these developments there arose almost immediately the nature-nurture debate (see BEHAVIORAL GENETICS) as to whether inherited or environmental factors predominate in developmental processes. Some psychologists, such as John B. WATSON, held that environment was the dominant factor and that any child could be made into almost anything. Other, more biologically oriented investigators such as Arnold GESELL insisted that there must always be an interaction between heredity and environment, but that "though environmental factors modulate and inflect, they do not determine the progressions of development."The field of child development has taken many turns over the years. For a long while the followers of Sigmund FREUD's theories and other such "environmentalists" insisted that most aberrant child behavior was caused by mishandling on the part of the parents. It has since come to be generally admitted, however, that while a good environment is essential for a child, behavior does develop in patterned, largely predictable ways and is to a large extent determined by genetic factors. The Swiss psychologist Jean PIAGET, for example, supported the concept that regardless of environmental factors, a child's thinking develops through patterned
stages.The earliest studies in child behavior were academic and aimed at the scientific understanding of human behavior in general. Only in the 1930s and 1940s did specialists begin
conducting studies to provide information that would be helpful to the
average parent. Detailed information is now available on developmental
stages in eating, sleeping, elimination, and motor functions and on
language, social, and intellectual behavior from infancy through
adolescence. This information is supplemented by advice to parents, teachers, pediatricians, and others as to what to expect of children of all different ages and how to deal with behaviors as the child matures.Theories about different
personality types of children also developed over the years. An attempt to formulate such information in a systematic way was first provided by American psychologist
William Sheldon. The "constitutional
psychology" he proposed, known also as somatotyping, describes kinds of behavior to be expected of individuals falling into three main physical types: endomorph (rotund), mesomorph (strongly built), and ectomorph (spindly). His approach, however, met with many objections. American psychologist Stella
chess's more informal system, which rates children on nine different "temperamental traits" such as activity level, distractibility, adaptability, and so on, was better accepted.Modern DevelopmentsIn the 1960s, Gesell introduced a new concept concerning child development: not only is each child an individual, each age in childhood also has its own individuality. That is, a two-and-a-half year old is not simply an older, smarter, and more capable two-year-old but is in many ways also a quite different kind of person entirely.Studies of how infants, while lying prone, go through periods of muscle flexion and then of muscle extension in the development of coordinated movements, came to be applied to childhood behavior as a whole. That is, it was observed that ages of equilibrium (balanced, comfortable behavior) tend to alternate with ages of disequilibrium. The
average two-year-old, for in?tance, tends to be in a
stage of more or less good equilibrium, whereas the
average two-and-a-half year old tends to be in a
stage of disequilibrium (and so on, right through the teens). Widely used expressions such as "the terrible twos" and "the wild fours" arose from this concept of interweaving cycles of behavior. It was also observed that withdrawn, quiet ages tend to alternate with expansive ages. This fitted in to some extent with American neurologist Herman Epstein's determination that different periods of rapid and of slow brain
growth occur in childhood. Quiet, withdrawn ages tend to correspond with periods of slow brain
growth.For the specialist, norms developed by Gesell at the Yale Clinic of Child Development provided tests for four fields of behavior: motor, adaptive,
language, and personal-social. Psychologists and pediatricians have used the tests to determine whether a child's behavior is or is not appropriate for his or her age.
intelligence tests, whose results demonstrate that some people are brighter than others, have in past decades fallen into relative disrepute in many school systems in recent decades. A more popular approach to characterizing
intelligence in children and others is that expressed by American psychologist Howard Gardner in the 1980s. He suggested that instead of thinking of a person's intellectual level in terms of some one specific
number,
intelligence should be considered as taking many different forms: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Many psychologists now accept this approach.Behavioral StudiesOver the years, increasing
attention has been paid to children with behavioral problems and abnormalities. During the Freudian era much troubling behavior was blamed on poor parental handling. Currently more emphasis is placed on the child's own basic individuality.A series of labels has been given to children with problems, and especially those with academic problems. At first such children were termed "brain damaged," but this was later modified to "brain dysfunctional." Following that, many (potentially normal) boys and girls were called "learning disabled." Currently the most popular term for poor school performance is "
attention deficit disorder." These labels are helpful to persons who feel more secure if they have a name for whatever may be wrong. Some insurance companies actually reimburse for professional services if the "right" label is used.In recent decades child specialists have tried more and more to help parents with their children's school behavior. Schools of
education once tended to emphasize subject matter over the children being taught, but
attention increasingly is being paid to the children themselves. One area now emphasized is the matter of a child's developmental, or "maturity," level--that is, the child's degree of readiness for starting school. Research in the 1960s demonstrated that a major percentage of children who fail in school fail primarily because of their immaturity and their unreadiness for the work of the grade that law designates: age five for kindergarten, age six for first grade. Common sense decrees that in spite of law and custom not all five-year-olds have reached the
average level of performance expected at age five. Thus many five-year-olds fail in kindergarten and six-year-olds fail in first grade not because of a "learning disability" or "
attention deficit disorder" but simply because they are in a too-advanced grade.Experience has shown that the
number of problem learners can be substantially reduced by a policy of evaluating every child's readiness--that is, developmental level--before beginning school. This notion has spread widely. Many school systems now routinely provide not only readiness testing but also extra grade levels: pre-kindergarten or "developmental" kindergarten for a year preceding full kindergarten; and pre-first grade for six-year-olds not fully ready for first grade.A further behavioral problem that has been addressed by spe?ialists in child development is addressed separately in the article on
hyperactivity.Social ActionThe rapid evolution of the field of child development is even more significant for the new directions being taken than for the new information being provided. Instead of focusing on modest academic investigations of
interest chiefly to the specialist, child developmentalists are now focusing efforts on solving real problems of children in society.One notable and effective social effort came in the form of the establishment of the program named HEAD START. Begun in 1965 and spearheaded by American psychologist and educator Edward Zigler of Yale
university's Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Head Start was conceived as a way to give children from low-income families a head start on their
education. The program was planned to aid in all aspects of behavior: physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive. It has been extremely successful in providing important help for underprivileged boys and girls, and for the parents of these children as well.Zigler and other socially minded child specialists have subsequently reached out even further. Recognizing that as many as 70 percent of the mothers of school-age children work outside the home, and that provisions for day care of children are quite inadequate (see
DAY-CARE CENTER), they have promoted serious efforts to induce the government to take more responsibility for the welfare of these children. Zigler has proposed "moving both child care and family support into the schools.
