[SOLVED] Explain the meaning of theories, why they are important, and our theoretical framework..
Theory Assignment Instructions
Please complete the reading and view the presentation for Chapter 3 then complete the assignment below.
Choose three of the theories in Chapter 3. Create a summary of each which describes the following:
Name the theory (and the theorist if applicable)
Explain the main ideas or premise of the theory
Describe two major characteristics or key terms of the theory
Give an example of how the theory can be applied to the development of an infant or toddler
Tell how the theory explains how infants/toddlers learn or can be used to shape development in one of the domains: Physical, Cognitive, Social, Emotional, or Language
Remember that for infants and toddlers we are looking at children from 0-36 months
3 Understanding and Using Theories
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
Explain the meaning of theories, why they are important, and our theoretical framework.
Describe the major points of emotional and social development theories.
Describe the major points of cognitive, language, and motor development theories.
Explain how theories would look applied in a program.
It is not unusual for the new teacher or parent to discover contradictory information on child development. One book instructs adults to let babies cry themselves back to sleep if they awaken in the night; another tells them to respond with a comforting pat on the tummy. Women who are told by their mothers to keep babies on a strict feeding schedule—regardless of their cries of hunger, even during growth spurts—may be told by their pediatricians to feed their babies on demand. Parents and teachers alternately are seen as too strict or too lenient in guiding children’s behavior. It is not surprising that people feel frustration in trying to sort out what, if anything, is really known about supporting development in children.
What Theories Are, Why They Are Important, and Our Theoretical Framework
From early in history, people have had a desire to understand how the world works. This is a desire we see reflected in even the youngest infants. In trying to make sense of human development, just as in trying to understand the changing seasons or the patterns of stars in the skies, people developed ideas about how and why things work. Some of those ideas may have been scoffed at and lost to history. Others were recognized, acknowledged, and adopted by thinking people of their day. These ideas were developed into theories.
What Are Theories?
Theories are explanations of information, observations, and life experiences. Bowlby’s (1, 2, 3) and Ainsworth’s attachment theory (4) explained how young children develop different qualities of attachment with their primary caregivers. These theorists made educated guesses (hypotheses) about the effects that the different qualities of attachment have on the children’s behavior now and in the future. Attachment theory is an example of how theories attempt to provide continuity and meaning between past and present events. Theories also provide a way of thinking about, or anticipating, future events.
Theories are based on the thoughts and studies of one person or one group of people. Sometimes the theorist has been primarily interested in one area of development and proposes ideas about that area without trying to encompass every aspect of development. Piaget (5) is an example of this type of theorist. He concentrated on the stages that children go through in cognitive development as well as how they learn. He did not address emotional or social development.
Often, researchers will test the ideas of a theory. For attachment theory, researchers tried to discover if the effects differed for boys and girls. These researchers take the idea, add new information, examine it from new perspectives, and test its application to reality.
Why Theories Are Important
The benefit of a theory is that it helps us understand the possible relationship between separate events, for example, the quality of care that infants receive and their later behavior. The limitation of a theory is that reality is so complex that a single theory is unlikely to explain anything entirely.
As you will see, your theory of how children develop influences how you teach infants and toddlers and how you interact with families and communities. Will you believe that infants who cry are communicating their needs and thus require a response (attachment theory) or will you believe that infants who cry must be ignored so that their crying will decrease (behavioral theory)? It is important for you to think about which theories are most supported by research and then apply those theories to your work.
Our Theoretical Framework
Theories of child development have been proposed throughout all of recorded history. This chapter does not provide a history of theories or even an overview of recent theories. Instead, we introduce the theories that inform the beliefs and values expressed throughout this book. This theoretical framework derives from many important developmental theorists. Each of these theories is described here, but a major common theme among them is that infants and toddlers achieve their development within relationships with responsive, caring adults. This book is based on these beliefs:
Optimal learning and development for children, families, and communities occurs within nurturing relationships.
Children influence the relationships within their families, and families influence the children’s relationships.
Experiences prenatally and in the early years affect the course of development across the life span—the brain becomes wired to expect stress or to thrive within relationships, to learn or to be challenged by learning.
Children are able to learn when they feel safe enough to explore, when they feel they can have a responsive effect on the people and objects in their environment, and when they have an adult partner who listens, talks, and reads to them.
Children are active learners—constantly processing information, drawing conclusions, and experimenting—and children need nurturing responsive support to maximize their learning.
Early developing attachment relationships may be disturbed by parental and other primary caregivers’ histories or relationships such as unresolved losses and traumatic life events or current events that change the adults’ circumstances.
The relationships that parents have with other adults affect their ability to build positive, secure relationships with their children.
A child is part of a family, which is part of a culture, which is part of a community, which is part of a country, and each of these elements affects the others.
Service delivery models, community programs, and public policy can and should support strong relationships and reduce the risk of relationship failure.
The clear emphasis in this book on the importance of quality relationships for the well-being of infants and toddlers and their families reflects relationship-based theory of child development (6, 7), transactional (8, 9), and unified (10) theories, and bioecological systems theory (11). The neuroscience-based ecobiodevelopmental theory of development (12) also describes how the environment influences development and the quality of relationships. Each of these theories acknowledges the power of the cultural lens through which people make decisions, as well as the family and individual differences that exist within that person’s particular culture (13).
Other theories of emotional, social, cognitive, language, and motor development also inform our thinking about the capabilities, competencies, and needs of infants and young children. Each of these complements and, to some extent, includes the others. Let’s begin with the five major theories that emphasize the importance of relationships—relationship-based theory, transactional and unified theories, bioecological systems theory, and ecobiodevelopmental theory. We will then focus on other theories that inform your work with infants and toddlers. We will provide many examples of how these theories work when put into practice.
Theories of Emotional and Social Development: A Sense of Self and Relationships with Others
Other theories that guide a relationship-based approach to infant and toddler development and learning include emotional and social development theories.
Emotional Development Theories
Theories of emotional development tell us important information about how very young children develop a sense of self in relation to others. They include Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory (28, 29), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (30), attachment theory (31), and Stern’s interpersonal development theory (32).
Emotional development includes our feelings, our loves, our motivations and desires, our fears and feelings of safety, and our ability to reflect on our experiences. These all develop within the context of our relationships. The theories of emotional development focus our attention on how we develop a sense of self and relationships with others. Although each of the following theories has a different focus, each has contributed to our understanding of how infants and toddlers discover and form an identity through a primary relationship with one or more adults.
Interpersonal Development Theory
At 6 months, Eli looks from his mother to his infant-toddler teacher, clearly knowing each of them. On some level, Eli has an ongoing sense of what it is to be Eli with these two people he knows so well.
Stern (40), a psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist, offers a theory of emotional development based on the past several decades of infancy research. Stern asserts that infants experience themselves as separate beings from birth. However, they are also always working toward greater connection with others. He believes the child experiences moments in which he is aware of an internal and/or external experience. These moments become linked as memories or mental images. This experience of being occurs with a sense of self-agency (an ability to make things happen), a sense of self-coherence (awareness of being a complete, contained entity), and a sense of continuity (sensation of going-on-being). At the same time, the infant is aware of being with other—managing a sense of being a separate self with another person. Stern suggests that these are layered experiences that support one another. Rather than having stages of emotional development, he calls this layered development.
The infant-toddler teacher utilizing the interpersonal development theory would understand the importance of each moment’s experience to the infant. She would be responsive to his cues and know that he is building his mental model of being with people, in part, from his moments with her (41).
Social Development Theory
Sociocultural theory, developed by Vygotsky (42, 43, 44) is useful when thinking about how children’s social experiences and relationships affect their learning. His theory is used extensively today to plan and implement programs for young children.
Sociocultural Theory
Morris, at 7 months, enjoyed playing with trucks. He still sometimes mouthed them and threw them—but he also watched the older toddlers “driving” their trucks on a carpet with roads marked on it. Sophie, his teacher, talked with him about his trucks. “Look at all your trucks, Morris! Let’s make sounds like trucks—rrrrr, rrrrr.” After Morris finished playing with the trucks, Sophie took him to the window, “Oh, look out the window—there are trucks on the street!”
While Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is sometimes thought of as a cognitive theory it is the social interactions that contribute to the child’s ability to learn. Culture and social interactions influence what children learn and how they learn. The addition of the adult partner, or even the other children to watch, adds an important element to how children construct their knowledge about the world. Morris may be using schemas (making sounds and moving the truck) to learn about trucks, but he is also using the language of his teacher. Vygotsky believed that adults and more knowledgeable peers teach culture, language, beliefs, customs, and highly valued activities to younger children. In fact, full cognitive development could not occur without social interaction. He describes how learning happens when children get just enough help and information from adults to allow them to figure out solutions to problems that are just beyond their reach independently, problems he describes as being in the zone of proximal development. For example, a 10-month-old infant who is playing with sounds becomes hungry and makes complaining noises to her teacher. Her teacher knows the baby is not ready to use words, but she is nearly ready. Word use is in her zone of proximal development. So the teacher supplies the word: “Bottle? You want a bottle?” The infant then makes a “Ba-ba” sound, demonstrating more skill in language with help (or scaffolding, to use Vygotsky’s term) than she could do alone.
A second important contribution from Vygotsky (45, 46) was attention to the role of language in learning. Young children use the language of others—parents, teachers, and peers—to help them develop new concepts. For example, by naming objects and using words such as dog the adult helps the child learn to classify and organize information.
A third, and perhaps most important, contribution from Vygotsky was his awareness of how knowledge is created. First, children experience their culture through interacting with their special adults and peers (interpsychological level). These social experiences then become a part of how the child thinks and acts (intrapsychological). A child’s culture influences his beliefs, use of language, social attitudes and skills, and priorities.
The infant-toddler teacher who utilizes a sociocultural approach will study the cultures of the children in his program and discuss cultural beliefs with the families. He will observe children to determine the children’s zone of proximal development and will scaffold children’s learning to guide them to learn the tools for how to solve problems. He will use rich, descriptive language to support children’s ability to communicate and to organize their world.
Theories of Cognitive, Language, and Motor Development
Certain cognitive language, and motor development theories also inform how we interact with infants, toddlers, parents, and communities that support young children.
Cognitive Development Theories
Many theories describe how children learn about the world. Many of these theories echo aspects of the theories of emotional development. They describe a developmental process of learning, some divide that process into stages, and most recognize the importance of interested, available adults in supporting learning. The learning theories most closely aligned with the theoretical basis of this book are constructivist theory, social learning theory, the new science theory of learning, and core knowledge theory, each of which is briefly described here.
Constructivist Theory of Learning
Over and over, 6-month-old Jeremiah would bang his little trucks together, suck on them, look at them, and toss them aside. He was always happy to see them on the play mat but didn’t appear to look for them when his tossing landed them behind a larger toy and out of sight. At 9 months, however, if one of Jeremiah’s trucks rolled out of his sight, he would crawl after it and retrieve it.
Infant-toddler teachers have many opportunities to observe how very young children keep making new discoveries about how the world works. In his constructivist theory, Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget depicted infants and children as actively constructing their understanding of the world through their play and exploration (47, 48, 49, 50). The child develops schemas, mental structures of his current understanding of the world.
Piaget suggested that children first try to use their existing schemas to understand new information and new experiences. He called this process assimilation. At 6 months, Jeremiah uses the schemas of sucking, shaking, and banging with almost every object. If the schemas are not adequate to explain the information, the child creates new schemas to use in a process called accommodation. For example, when a child who is using grasping and looking as a way of understanding the world is given a small drum and a rounded stick, he may decide to try banging as a new method of exploring the two items together. Piaget used the term equilibrium to describe the moments when the child’s schemas and the information presented are in balance. When the current schemas are not adequate for exploring or explaining new information, the child’s mental organization is thrown into disequilibrium. The child then modifies his mental structures to accommodate the new information (51, 52).
The impact of Piaget’s work on American early childhood education cannot be overstated. Piaget’s image of children busily constructing their knowledge of reality has been the driving force in early childhood programs creating learning environments to be explored. The assumption that children learn through exploration derives directly from his work. Interest in Piaget’s basic theory of cognitive development has led researchers to more closely observe how children begin to think about themselves, how they think about relationships, and how they use different strategies to complete their goals.
As impressive as Piaget’s contribution is to our understanding of children, his work is criticized on two points. First, research on learning and brain development in infancy suggests that Piaget greatly underestimated the young infant’s ability to think—even to hypothesize about the possible outcomes of her actions. Second, the children Piaget writes about seem to discover all of their knowledge through their own exploration and construction. The role of culture and the impact of the other people in the children’s lives are not identified within the learning process (53).
Despite these criticisms, constructivist theory continues to be a strong force in American education. Bruner (54, 55) extends Piaget’s idea that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge. Bruner’s work incorporates the infancy research showing that the child selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions by relying on a cognitive structure to do so. The cognitive structure, whether called a schema or a mental model, provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to go beyond the information given. For Bruner, the role of the teacher is to provide opportunities for children to discover basic principles by themselves, although social and cultural influences are also at play. The teacher structures the information in ways that allow children to grasp it, understanding that they will continuously revisit the same information in greater depth as their capacity to understand deepens.
The infant-toddler teacher who utilizes the constructivist theory of learning will provide a variety of interesting materials for infants and toddlers to manipulate and explore. She will understand that the child is motivated to learn, actively building an understanding of how people relate, and figuring out how the objects in the world work. She will support these discoveries through her relationship with the child.
Social Learning/Cognitive Theory
Social learning theory (56) is now often referred to as social cognitive theory (57, 58) to recognize the importance of children’s thinking abilities. Bandura (59) emphasizes self-efficacy, the ability of humans to set goals, problem solve, and reflect. He also emphasizes that what children believe about how effective they are influences how they act.
Imitation is a primary way that young children learn and cultures are transmitted from one generation to another. Bandura emphasized how children decide who and when to imitate, showing that imitation is not a rote action but rather a decision-making process. Children learn through imitation, with reasons for imitating some people over others or objects. For example, 18-month-olds will not imitate an adult’s actions if that adult says “Oh, no” after completing the task, as this indicates to the infant that the behavior is not one to imitate.
This ability to make decisions about who and what to imitate is referred to as “rational imitation (60).” Infants and toddlers tune into the cues of an adult; for example, by 15 months, they can imitate what an adult intended to do but failed (for some reason) to do (61, 62). By 14 months, children choose to imitate someone who speaks their primary language over someone who speaks a language that is foreign to them (63). In other words, infants and toddlers are selective and make choices concerning who they will imitate.
An infant-toddler teacher who knows social cognitive theory will observe how and what the children in the program observe and imitate. The teacher will recognize that infants and toddlers can imitate adults’ and peers’ goals and actions. They will understand that a child’s belief about his capabilities will influence how he behaves.
The New Science of Learning
A paper titled Foundations for a New Science of Learning (64) offers a theory of learning based on brain science.
Learning is computational. Infants attend events that occur regularly and frequently around them. They know that events that occur more often are probably more important. Infants use this ability to compute to learn about language and causal relationships. Long before they are able to talk, infants come to recognize the sounds and clusters of sounds of their own language(s) and the signals that separate words in a sentence. They also use the regularity of events to learn about cause and effect relationships in the world. They learn these things without adult instruction, but with adults’ responsive interactions with them. It happens before infants can speak or effectively handle objects.
Learning is social. Infants want to attend to people and copy their actions. They are more likely to attend to and copy an action when it is performed by a human rather than a machine. Human interactions are also full of a variety of information. Social learning happens through imitation, shared attention, and empathy and shared emotions.
Learning uses a network of mirror neurons. Perception and action are linked in the brain. When infants (or adults) see someone lift their hand, the part of the baby’s brain that sees (perceives) activates. And the part of the brain that would lift the baby’s arm also activates, although the arm does not go up. A network of mirror neurons in the brain responds to others in a way that says, “You’re like me! I can do that!” A newborn as young as 42 minutes reliably imitates a tongue thrust or mouth opening in an adult. The child has never seen a mirror. He has no idea what he looks like. But when an adult sticks out his tongue, the baby is able to imitate. The mechanism appears to be the mirror neuron network that links perception and action.
Core Knowledge Theory
Elizabeth Spelke, a cognitive psychologist, bases her core knowledge theory on the research on infant learning. This theory proposes that humans have evolved with inborn systems or brain structures ready to learn about those things necessary to survival. The four core knowledge systems address how infants learn about objects, agents, number, and geometry. The idea of separate knowledge systems refutes the belief that learning happens through one “general purpose device” (65, p. 91). Core knowledge also emphasizes the importance of social interactions that provide the content of what and how much children learn in the different systems.
The core system of object representation allows human infants to “perceive object boundaries, to represent the complete shapes of objects that move partly or fully out of view, and to predict when objects will move and where they will come to rest” (66, p. 89). For example, young babies (4 to 5 months old) will react as an object approaches, demonstrating an understanding that objects that move toward them may hit them (67). The core system of agents (persons and animals) allows infants to recognize goal-directed actions of living things. For example, at 10 to 11 months of age, an infant will follow an adult’s head turning if the adult has her eyes open, but not if the adult’s eyes are closed (68). The core system of number has its own limits and principles. An infant will look surprised if two objects move behind a curtain but only one object comes out the other side (69). 6- to 8-month-olds looked at a video with the number of adults that matched the number of voices they were hearing (70). The fourth system is geometry of the environment. It allows children and adults to orient themselves in relation to places in the environment. We’ve all seen infants who quickly learn how to crawl down a hallway, into the bedroom through one door and out the other, confidently orienting themselves in the environment.
The core knowledge theory suggests an inborn ability to learn about what is most important for survival. It suggests that different information is needed for different aspects of survival and that humans have developed structures in the brain to attend to that information.
Social Interaction Theory
Social interaction language researchers emphasize how the social environment interacts with biology to influence language development rather than emphasizing specific innate language structures (81). Social interaction theory of language development incorporates Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (82, 83, 84) and emphasizes that infants and toddlers need (1) responsive interactions with adults to learn a language and (2) opportunities to communicate. This theory argues that it is important not only for a child to hear language but also that the adults speaking the language are responsive and engage infants and toddlers in conversations. Adult respond to sounds, wiggles, and words as an infant’s contribution to a conversation. Adults imitate toddlers’ language and add a word or two to their responses. This helps infants and toddlers learn how to engage in a conversation—with turn taking, pauses, and listening.
Teachers who emphasize social interaction theory will recognize that infants and toddlers are active learners who co-construct language with adults, as they adjust their language in order to be understood. Teachers will constantly listen for children’s yawns, sounds, and words and respond in order to engage a young child in a conversation. They will give the child many opportunities to express herself, making mistakes but constantly learning how to engage in human communication.
Summary
Theories are explanations of information, observations, and life experiences. The theoretical foundation of this book encompasses relationship-based theory, transactional and unified theory, bioecological systems theory and ecobiodevelopmental theory.
In Relationship-based theory infants and toddlers do not exist as separate entities but as part of social networks. Infants and toddlers require meaningful, supportive, enduring relationships. Relationships differ on a number of dimensions, and intimacy, reciprocity, and commitment are important factors in determining the quality and usefulness of a relationship.
In Transactional and Unified Theory relationships are bi-directional: Adults affect children and vice versa. Transactions include the child’s behavior or appearance as a stimulus, the meaning given by the adult to the child’s behavior, and the adult’s response. Relationships that are troubled may be responsive to intervention at any of three points: the child by remediation, the meaning by redefinition, and the response by reeducation. Context, relationships, and time influence children’s personal development.
In Bioecological systems theory development can be affected by many levels of relationships, from close family all the way to national policies. All systems affect one another.
In Ecobiodevelopmental theory early experiences affect the architecture of the brain. Chronic stress is damaging to the developing brain. Relationship-based interventions can support the developing brain.
The theories of emotional and social development are constantly evolving. Some theories that are important today include the following:
Theory of psychosocial development: Erikson’s stages of emotional development characterized by crises that need to be resolved.
The hierarchy of human needs: Maslow’s description of human motivation.
Attachment theory: Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s descriptions of organizational systems that allow us to explore and learn while remaining safe and protected.
Interpersonal development theory: Stern’s description of how infants develop a sense of self and a sense of self with others.
Sociocultural theory: Vygotsky’s processes of learning through exploration, relationships, and culture.
Theories of cognitive, language, and motor development guide our thinking about how children learn:
Constructivism: Children actively construct their understanding of their world.
Social cognitive theory
The new science of learning
Core knowledge: Spelke’s theory of four innate systems of knowledge that form a foundation for learning
Perceptual mapping: Kuhl’s theory of language acquisition build on decoding the structure of language
Learning to move: Adolph’s theory of movement as a learning process
Teachers use different theories as they work with individual children, groups of children, and parents and families. It is important to think about the theories that you use in your practice.
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