INFANT AND TODDLER DEVELOPMENTPART I: THEORIES & PRINCIPLES

OKLAHOMA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICECORE IN-SERVICE

NOVEMBER 3, 2008 10:00-11:30 A.M.

Debbie Richardson, M.S.Parenting Assistant Extension SpecialistHuman Development & Family Science

Oklahoma State University

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Centra Instructions

Overview of In-service

Resource Materials

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IN-SERVICE OBJECTIVE

Extension Educators will be able to identify major developmental theories, key principles, and

domains as applied to infants and toddlers

birth to age 3.

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Infant-Toddler Dev 1, D. Richardson 4

DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT

Physical Emotional

Cognitive Social

All areas are developing at the same time.

They are related and influence each other.

Development may not be even in all

domains.

Important to respect each child as

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PHYSICAL DOMAIN Changes in body size

Proportions

Appearance

Functioning of body systems

Brain development

Perceptual & motor capacities

Physical health

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COGNITIVE DOMAIN Thought processes Intellectual abilities

AttentionMemoryAcademic and everyday knowledgeProblem solvingImaginationCreativity

Language

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EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DOMAINS

Emotional communication

Self-understanding

Ability to manage one’s own feelings

Knowledge about other people

Interpersonal skills

Friendships and intimate relationships

Moral reasoning

Behavior

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THEORIES AND FRAMEWORKS

OF DEVELOPMENT A theory of child development is a belief

system about how and why children grow, learn, and behave as they do.

Theories or frameworks grow out of efforts to make sense of scientific observations and research is used to test and support hypotheses.

Schools of thought, paradigms, perspectives Different theoretical frameworks are useful

for understanding different areas of behavior.

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PREDOMINANT DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

BIRTH TO 3

Psychodynamic Freud 1900-30’s

Behaviorist Watson, Skinner 1910-80’s

Maturationist Gesell 1940-50’s

Psychosocial Erikson 1950-80’s

Cognitive Piaget 1950-70’s

Attachment Bowlby, Ainsworth 1960-80’s

Social Learning Bandura 1960-90’s

SocioCultural Vygotsky 1930,60-90’s

Ecological Systems Bronfenbrenner 1980-90’s

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PSYCHODYNAMIC FREUD

Concerned mainly with personality formation 3 aspects: Id, ego, superego Unconscious forces act to determine personality

and behavior - infantile wishes, desires, demands and needs that are hidden from awareness.

Psychological growth is a process of resolving emotional conflicts between instinctual desires and demands of the real world.

Early childhood experiences affect later development. An individual’s personality is “set” in childhood.

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FREUD’S STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

5 stages - a particular body region is the focus of sensual satisfactions.Oral – birth to age 1: mouth,

tongue, gums; emotional attachment to person providing satisfactions (i.e. feeding)

Anal – 1 to 3 years: control and self-control (i.e. elimination, tolieting)

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PSYCHOSOCIAL ERIKSON Focus on emotional development.

Developmental change occurs in 8 stages over the lifespan. Stages emerge in a fixed pattern, similarly for all people.

Each stage presents a crisis or conflict of emotional states that the individual must resolve to feel competent and self-fulfilled.

Although no crisis is ever fully resolved, each stage must be sufficiently addressed to deal with demands of the next stage.

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ERIKSON’S STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Basic Trust Vs. Mistrust (Hope)Infancy through 1 to 2 yearsTo learn that others can be trusted to satisfy basic needs.

Autonomy Vs. Shame/Doubt (Will) About 18 mo./2 yrs. to 3½ yrs To develop a sense of self-sufficiency in satisfying one’s needs.

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BEHAVIORIST WATSON, SKINNER

Reject notion that individuals pass through series of stages

Child is a blank slate at birth and is simply filled in over time by experiences in environment.

Based on stimulus-response relationships; if we know the stimuli, we can predict behavior

Classical & operant conditioning Shape child’s development and control their

behavior in a desired direction with rewards, praise, modeling, reinforcement, etc.

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MATURATIONIST GESELL

Most of what children become is inherited at birth.

Behaviors simply unfold as children mature with age.

Some characteristics of children are genetically determined at birth (i.e. interpersonal styles, temperament).

Environment plays a minor role.

Typical growth and development patterns –developmental milestones when certain characteristics could be expected to emerge.

Universal sequential steps.

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COGNITIVE PIAGET

Focuses on processes of knowing, understanding, and thinking about the world. Intellectual development.

Children learn because they are motivated to make sense of the world. They actively construct their own knowledge.

Growth can be explained by:

Assimilation: process of understanding an experience in terms of current state of cognitive development.

Accommodation: changes in existing ways of thinking in response to encounters with new stimuli or events (relating new information to prior knowledge).

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PIAGET’S GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Social interaction is essential for cognitive development.

Children often think in qualitatively different ways at different age levels.

Children’s knowledge and cognitive processes become increasingly better organized, integrated.

A child’s readiness affects the extent to which a specific task can promote cognitive development.

Cognition and language are closely intertwined. Children pass in a fixed sequence through a series of

universal stages; master the ability to use symbols and to reason.

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PIAGET’S STAGESOF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Sensorimotor Stage Birth to 18 mos/2 yearsRelies on movement and senses to “know” things. Can’t represent objects beyond immediate viewNonverbalMilestones: object permanence and mental representation

Preoperational Stage 2-7 yearsUse symbols and internal thought to solve problems.Represent objects beyond immediate view.Thinking still tied to concrete objects and “here & now”.Fooled by appearance of things.IrreversibilityEgocentrism in language and perceptions.

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ATTACHMENT BOWLBY, AINSWORTH

Emotional bond that develops between an infant and a caregiver; mutual, reciprocal relationship (child and parent are partners).

Gradually develops during early months and years of child’s life; usually formed by 7 mos.

Develops in context of an infant’s signals for attention and comfort.

Biological predisposition to use caregiver as a haven of safety or a secure base for exploring.

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ATTACHMENT PRINCIPLES

Attachments are formed to only a few persons.

These “selective attachments” appear to derive from social interactions with the attachment figures.

They lead to organizational changes in infant’s behavior and brain function.

Explains connection between relationships that occur early in life and those that happen later.

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HOW ATTACHMENT DEVELOPS

Early experiences influence sense of control, security, self-worth.

Repeated daily transactions between the infant and the parent lead the infant to develop expectations about caregiving. Sense whether caregiver is predictable, responsive, and available to meet needs.

Gradually organized into a “road map” of the relationship-an internal working model

Internal working models are not immutable. Such factors as traumas, losses and new attachments may alter internal models.

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ATTACHMENT PRINCIPLES

Secure attachment leads to positive developmental outcomes.

Most infants develop attachments but quality differs.

Problems may result if you miss the window of opportunity.

Quality of attachment may be influenced by:Characteristics and history of child and/or parentEnvironmental influences that get in the way of

sensitive and responsive parenting - AODA, psychopathology, anxiety, depression, chaotic lives, lack of social support, family conflict and violence

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ATTACHMENT CLASSIFICATIONSAINSWORTH

Secure –

InsecureAnxious-resistant or ambivalentAnxious-avoidantDisorganized/Disoriented

(Main & Solomon, 1990)

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Child Caregiver

Secure Protests caregiver's departure; comforted on return, returning to exploration.

Responds appropriately, promptly and consistently to needs.

Anxious-Avoidant

Little or no distress on departure; little or no visible response to return. Quality of play often low.

Little or no response to distressed child. Discourages crying and encourages independence.

Anxious-resistant or Ambivalent

Sadness on departure but warms to stranger. On return, ambivalence, anger, reluctance to warm to caregiver and return to play. Preoccupied with caregiver's availability.

Inconsistent between appropriate and neglectful responses.

Disorganized On return such as freezing or rocking. Lack of coherent coping strategy (such as approaching but with the back turned).

Frightened/frightening behavior, intrusiveness, withdrawal, negativity, role confusion, affective communication errors and maltreatment

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SOCIAL-COGNITIVE LEARNING BANDURA

Behavior is learned through observation & imitation.

Behavioral change is largely a social process. Likely to imitate the behavior of a model seen as

being rewarded. Importance of cognition, thinking – children’s

ability to listen, remember, and abstract general rules from complex sets of observed behavior affects their imitation and learning.

Also strong emphasis on how children think about themselves and other people.

Children gradually become more selective in what they imitate.

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SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (BANDURA 1986)

Person/Internal Forces

EnvironmentBehavior

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SOCIOCULTURAL VYGOTSKY

Learning leads to development; active, internal construction of knowledge through action.

Must take into account cultural influences.

Learning is a social process in which teachers, adults, and other children form supportive “scaffolding” on which a child can gradually master new skills (e.g. asking questions, prompting).

Children’s understanding of world is acquired through problem-solving, interactions, play.

Zone of proximal development – when a solution to a problem is just beyond the child’s ability level.

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LANGUAGE AND THINKING VYGOTSKY

Children engage in 2 distinct and independent mental activities in the early infancy: Nonverbal thought – observe objects or events,

perform actions without using language

Nonconceptual speech – utters words or phrases without thinking about what they mean.

At first, language & thinking are separate processes.

A toddler gradually associates them and starts thinking in more complex ways.

Language is not merely a mode of expression, but a fundamental tool for constructing knowledge.

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ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS BRONFENBRENNER

Developmental processes do not occur in a vacuum but are influenced by factors in the immediate environment, society and culture as a whole.

Individuals are significantly affected by interactions among a number of overlapping systems in which they live.

Family, community, and societal factors must be optimal for children to learn and be healthy.

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SOCIAL CONTEXT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

BRONFENBRENNER 11

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IMPORTANT USES OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

AND PRINCIPLES

Make program objectives, educational activities, parenting recommendations, service providers more powerful and effective.

Check assumptions and theories used within various child development & parenting programs .

Identify concepts and actions that may indicate your own, parents’ or other caregivers’ orientation and personal frameworks.

Find practices consistent with values and philosophies.

Understand how different frameworks may be used to address different issues.

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CORE CONCEPTS CHILD DEVELOPMENT

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. National Research Council, Institute of Medicine (2000).

1. Shaped by dynamic and continuous interaction of biology and experience (nature & nurture).

2. Culture influences every aspect and is reflected in childrearing beliefs and practices.

3. Growth of self-regulation is a cornerstone of early development and cuts across all domains of behavior.

4. Children are active participants in their own development; intrinsic human drive to explore and master one’s environment.

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CORE CONCEPTSCHILD DEVELOPMENT

(CONT’D)

5. Relationships are the building blocks of healthy development.

6. Large differences among young children often makes it difficult to distinguish normal variations and maturational delays from transient disorders and persistent impairments.

7. Unfolds along individual pathways whose trajectories are characterized by continuities and discontinuities, as well as by a series of significant transitions.

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CORE CONCEPTSCHILD DEVELOPMENT (CONT’D)

8. Shaped by the ongoing interplay among sources of vulnerability and sources of resilience.

9. Timing of early experiences matter, but child remains vulnerable to risks and open to protective influences into adulthood.

10.Development can be altered in early childhood by effective interventions that change the balance between risk and protection in favor of more adaptive outcomes.

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WRAP-UP

Questions

Discussion

In-service evaluation

Follow-up

Next Session: Tomorrow, November 4

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REFERENCES Appleyard, K., & Berlin, L. (2007). Supporting healthy relationships between

young children and their parents: Lessons from attachment theory and research. www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/eca/Attachment/index.htm

Debord, K., Goddard, H. W., & Myers-Walls, J. A., Bower, D., Mulroy, M., Kirby, J., Ozretich, R. A., & Kobbe, A. M. (2002). National Extension Parenting Educators’ Framework. Cooperative Extension System. www.umext.maine.edu/parentcenter/parenteducators/frame.htm

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development (p. 19-32). J. P. Shonkoff and D. A. Phillips (Eds). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9824#toc Child Development

http://encarta.msn.com/text_761557692_1/Development_Child.html Stages of Intellectual Development

http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/piaget.shtml Stages of Social-Emotional Development

http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/erickson.shtml Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory

http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/302/302bron.PDF Various textbooks and other reference materials used for this presentation are

available upon request.

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