CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Child development



Child development

Introduction

The development of child refers to psychological, biological and emotional changes. These changes occur in human beings between the birth and at the end of adolescence. The child development progresses from dependency stage to independency stage. A number of factors play an integral part in developing a child that includes; genetics and prenatal development (Laura, 1994, pp 50). The term development psychology refers to development of child throughout his/her lifespan; it includes all the development stages which help the child to develop his lifestyle. The development pattern changes due to genetic process, environmental factors and different learning phases. Environmental factor is regarded as one of the integral ingredient in the development of child personality. It includes interaction with different people, family environment, peer circle and many other elements. The child development is also dependent on the human nature and his/her ability of learning from its environment. The most common element of human nature is the adaptation of environmental occurring, and this adaptation is strongly associated with child development. Social, cultural, genetic, environmental, cognitive, learning and education helps in developing the personality of the child. Cognitive development assists a child to learn and solve problems. The process of cognitive development includes learning and mastering the skills of walking, sitting, skipping and talking. Development milestones refer to all the learning which takes place during the child development stage from new born baby to adolescence.

Discussion

Behaviorist theory (Skinner)

Language learning art is always a complex duty. Child learning of language takes place from the lap of the mother. It is believed, that child learns language through external environment. In the eyes of Skinner, child initial language takes place from operant learning (Smith, 1999, pp 519-532). By operant learning it means that child learns language voluntarily without any external factors intervention. It means, the language is developed in child from his own will without any external pressure. The entire process is based on four steps according to Skinner. These steps includes stimulus, response, reinforcement and repetition

I will reflect the basic theme of this Skinner theory with a general life experience. Here we are taking about child language development, where stimulus plays a vital role in beginning the operant learning. For example, here I take the example of toffee which is a stimulus for a child. The children will response back on the toffee if he likes it. The response is associated with stimulus. The children try to memorize the word toffee in order to get reinforced. The parents of the child will give toffee to the child as a reward whenever he will use the word toffee. The repetition of the whole procedure will assist the children to develop language skill (Smith, 1999, pp 519-532). The whole procedure is used which helps the child in developing language skill. Skinner behavioral theory is the best theory which reflects the learning child language development. According to Skinner, the development of children language is enhanced by the inclination of ...