Child Development: A Journey From Infancy to Adulthood - Essay Sample

Introduction

Child development refers to physical, emotional, and psychological developments. They occur in a child in the period from birth to the end of childhood or adolescence. Child development can also be defined as the process through which human being grows and mature from infancy through adulthood. During construction, the child progresses from a more significant self-sufficiency human being (Child Development). Every stage is dependent on the preceding one, which is a predictable pattern. Both prenatal and genetics form an essential part of child development because changes in a child occur as a result of controlled processes such as mutation and environmental factors. The ability to learn from the environment also aids in the growth of a child. Optimal development in a child is a vital thing at any level of growth.

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New strategies and theories have been developed by several researchers which aims at promoting development, whereas others explain states of development. Many processes are studied. In response to this, some theories have flourished. The five most prominent child development theories include Erikson's psychological theory, a psychological theory of Freud, Bandura's soil learning theory, Bowlby's attachment theory, and Piaget's theory. The mentioned five child development theories are the ones that are mostly used today. A child increases in gross and fine motor skills and can climb and balance on objects. Due to proper motor development, a child can create a detailed drawing. There is an increase in cognitive processing speed, which promotes advanced reasoning, problem-solving skills, and thinking about various things.

Theories of child development offer a ground for learning and thinking about human growth. Learning and understanding these theories provides critical insight into individual nature and society. Other latest theories describe the development of a kid and distinguish lower ages at which significant changes are seen. Although researchers find interest in studying developments in kids, some aspects change are continuous and sometimes are hard to notice, for instance, the growth in height. Therefore researchers use stages to identify changes in particular periods.

Psychological Development Theory of Freud

The model comes along borrows some concepts from Freud's model. Freud came to believe that childhood unconscious and experiences aspirations affected behaviors through a clinical on a patient suffering from psychological illness. According to Sigmund, effects on the human being at this stage can cause long term effects on the behaviors and personality of an individual when they mature up. This theory of Freud is among the grand theories of child development that are in existence.

According to this psychological theory, changes in a kid occur a sequence of phases concerning the desire areas of the human body. At every stage, a child goes through a challenge that plays a crucial role in their development. A healthy adult personality comes with successful completion of each childhood development stage. Failures at some stages of child development can harm adult behaviors. Freud's theory suggests that childhood moments and experiences play a significant role in the character. In contrast, other child development theories suggest that the growth of personality is a lifetime process that never stops changing. Freud believes that the nature of a grown-up is a collective of what they learned at a child period.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

The psychological theory of Erikson was most dominant in the half of the 20th century. Erikson's ideas were a result of the influence of Freud's ideas, which went ahead and advanced it and became more popular. In this theory, Erik describes the development as a lifetime process with continuous changes. Every changes result from social activities and interactions that occur daily in different stages of development (Abnormal Child Psychology). Though Erikson seems to share a lot with Freud, there are a lot of uncommon ideas. Erikson focusses on social experiences and interactions than only sexual desires as a motivating factor in the development of children.

Psychological development theory defines growth as a lifetime process that occurs from infancy to death. Further growth and functioning at each stage have various experiences that impact differently on the character of an individual. Erikson's psychological theory focusses on lifespan development, unlike other approaches that describe development as a change due to current circumstances. Both children and adults face challenges at each stage which serves as a changing factor on the character and physical nature of an individual

Behavioral Child Development Theory

In the first half of the 20th century, a new school of beliefs was developed. Which was referred to as behaviorism, and it became popular in the psychological sector. The theory suggests that the only observable and quantifiable features are necessary to be more discipline scientifically. Under this theory, every individual is described regarding their current ecological factors. For example, behaviorist B.F. Skinner proposed that developments happen entirely through reinforcement and sometimes through interpersonal relationships. The difference between this child development theory and the rest of the arguments is that it does not consider internal feelings or thoughts. Instead, it relies purely on the physical features surrounding an individual.

Essential aspects that come from this theory are operant training and classical conditioning. In conventional practice, changes occur when a naturally stirring inducement combines by a formerly impartial inducement. In contrast, operant practice punishment and strengthening are utilized in modifying characters of a growing child. There need to be determinations of how effective it may be.

Paget’s Cognitive Development Theory

This theory involves the development of someone's thoughts through a series of processes. Interaction with other people is determined by how the thought changes and also defines how an individual understands other people. The idea of Piaget was obvious though it helped change our perception about child development. Children's have entirely different thoughts compared to adults. Theorist Piaget was the only one who suggested one of the utmost persuasive perceptive change theory, which tries to define developments of mental states and thinking manners (Child Clinical Psychology). The theory explains how our thought pattern influences human understanding and interaction with others. Paget's theory of child development accounts for the sequence and steps of a child's logical change. There exist several stages under this theory. Some of them include sensorimotor stage, physical, operational phase, and formal active period.

The sensorimotor phase refers to the stage amid birth and age two, whereby the understanding of the infant is restricted to their physical activities and sensual acuity. Manners of a child are proportional to a sensory stimulus, which is controlled by simple physical reactions. At the preoperational phase, a child learns to use language, and it occurs between the age of 2 and 6. At this period, a kid cannot comprehend the reasoning and manipulate ideas and make a point.

Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

John Bowlby's theory is the earliest of social changes in children. He believed caregivers play a significant role in the social behaviors of a child and a lifetime relationship. According to Bowlby, a child is born with an inner need to form an attachment with other people, which ensures the child receives protection and care. Both the caregiver and the child participate in behavioral activities that bring closeness.

These attachments entail motivational patterns in a child. Children always like being around the people they know who can offer a secure base for exploration by the child. Analysis of Bowlby's theory indicates that there are various attachment styles. Children with secure attachment are the ones who receive consistent care and support from their immediate caregivers, while those who earn less attention tend to develop avoidant and ambivalent.

Social and Emotional Development

In their first five years, children develop rapidly in aspects such as physical, communication, cognitive, and emotional and social relationships. Social-emotional developments refer to how infants start to understand themselves. The main elements that a young child should experience after these changes form and sustain positive relationships, experience, and manage emotions and also explore and engage with their surroundings. Social-emotional development refers to the child's expressions, experiences, and ability to create a beneficial relationship with other people. The aspect involves both interpersonal and intrapersonal processes that aim at changing their characters as they grow.

The main characteristic of responsive progress is the capability of understanding someone's feelings and interpreting the psychological conditions of other people and deal with intense feelings to maintain a healthy relationship. Most infants perceive and show emotions without necessarily understanding them, but with time they learn to recognize and communicate their feelings effectively to others. Children build skills that bring their family and peers close to them. Developing abilities enables young children to be effective in expressing themselves and participate in group relationships hence reaping the benefits of social support and functioning.

It is in interpersonal relationships that infants develop a healthy emotional relation. Young children specifically attune to psychological and social motivation. Infants prefer their mother's voice to over other women's views. The various ways professionals in child caregiving can support the socio-emotional changes in young children include direct interaction with them, effective communication, and arranging a physical space in the child care setting for the infants.

Emotions and cognition response are interconnected processes. Neural mechanisms underlying control are similar to fundamental intellectual developments. Both perception plus emotions work in conjunction to give an infant impression of a situation and impacting their behaviors. Psychic scripts of any child are proportional to the interpenetration of emotions. Cognitive processes are directly affected by emotions through decision making-the ability of the child to persist in goal-oriented activities determined by individual social and personal behaviors. Young children with a healthy relationship with others show good academic results.

For a child to have proper development of social and emotional characters, it is necessary to involve qualitative contact daily, depending on the age of the child. Show affection and nurturing: comfort, hold sing, and talk with the child. Help the child experience happiness in the give and take relationship by playing friendly games. Support your child in developing skills by not doing everything for them. Teach emotional and social skills such as listening and taking turns. Provide the child with responsive care.

Infants frequently interact with adults in their daily lives, and they can discriminate between faces of unfamiliar adults even as young as four months. Both interactions and relationships with adults describe the emotional and social skills of a kid. Young kids can use predictable interactions to respond and engage adults. Children's usually indicates functional socio-emotional changes basing in a supportive environment. Kids participate in a variety of social exchanges when interacting with both familiar and unfamiliar adults. Forms of interactions with kids at a young age play a vital role i...