CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Child Development

Child Development

Introduction

Several ideas of child development and discovering have leveraged considerations of intelligence in child development, and the role of environmental factors and forces in shaping one's behavior and development. These theories have not only had a deep impact on the subject matter of child development but also on the parenting approaches and the kindergarten readiness practices (Ford, 2004, pp.78). The two most popular concepts in this regard are the Maturationist and the Environmentalist perspectives of child development.

While covering the subject of child development, one faces the question whether it is the nature or the nurture that defines a child as a person and an individual. This argument has been going on for years. No one has been adept to prove which edge does. One does not understand what side of an individual his DNA determines, and what side his environment or experiences shape.

Whilst the Maturationist approach proposes that “Nature” is the fundamental determinant in the development of a child's behavior, the Environmentalist view accepts “Nurture” as the most important influence in child development and the differences that occur in physical and behavioral characteristics (Salkind, 2008, pp.45).

Discussion

The debate about the relative impact of genes (nature) and environment (nurture) on child development has existed for a very long time. The early theoretical works suggested genetics as the most significant determining factor of a child's development and behavior. Most of the studies agree on the dominant role that genetics play in the identification of individual and personal differences in physiology. However, the influence of a child's genes and heredity on the development of his psychological and social behavior does not meet the same agreement.

According to the Maturationist school of thought, child development is a biological procedure that happens mechanically in predictable, sequential phases over time (Mooney, 2000, pp.42). This viewpoint directs numerous educators and families to presume that children will arrive by data routinely and mechanically as they augment whole body and become older, provided that they are wholesome.

On the other hand, the Environmentalists emphasize that the child's natural environment forms finding out and demeanor; in detail, human demeanor, development, and finding out form the responses to the environment. This viewpoint directs numerous families, schools, and educators to suppose that children develop and come by new data by answering to their surroundings.

Nature is said to be in the genes, the traits that one exhibits. An individual is the way they ...