Child Development Theories and Concept

Child Development Theories and Concept

Children’s development is an essential process in the physical and psychological growth of a person. The mental and physical capacity of humans is molded during early childhood. The process is facilitated by several factors such as nutrition, physical activities, and array psychological aspects. The study of children’s growth and development is viewed in terms of theories and concepts which help in monitoring and quantify children’s growth into distinctive stages. About the videos provided, there are two main theories of childhood development, which are the gender schema and cognitive approaches. The approaches are characterized by mathematical, creativity, and problem-solving concepts. Therefore, the essay intends to summarize playground activities in the video of stacking tires.

Theories.

Gender schematic theory refers to the subconscious separation of roles according to the sex of a child. During children’s development, parents, teachers, and growth psychologists can attest that boys are typically masculine, while girl children develop more feminine qualities (McCoy et al., 2018). As a result, people often expect different stages of a child to be distinct at each stage based on gender.   In the video, the gender schematic theory is depicted when the girl plays an organized game of stacking tires, while the boys run around and climb up and down the metal structures without a sense of organization. Girls are generally expected to experience faster psychological development, allowing girls to develop speech and understanding for basic concepts like eating without making a mess earlier than boys of the same age(Shaul & Nevo, 2015).  The video reflects the typical universality of the theory and acceptance of gender-defined roles of females and males from a tender age, as shown in patterns of play unique to each gender.

Secondly is the cognitive theory, which refers to the scientific examination of processes in the brain. The processes include the ability to concentrate, perceive, remember, reason, and creativity (Shaul & Nevo, 2015). In the video, the child’s tire stacking activity depicts elaborate mental processes that facilitate the achievement of the intended tasks. The task begins with assessing the paly area of scattered tires and other playing equipment. She chooses to play with the tires by taking them from one point and arranging them on top of each other in two piles. The series of activities are a translation of sequential mental processes such as thinking, concentration on the task, and creativity to solve challenges and choosing what to do with scattered tires.

Child Development Concepts

A concept is an abstract or a general idea that takes place in the brain. Child development psychologists affirm that a child’s brain assumes its shape between for `ages of 1-5years for optimal capacity (Shaul & Nevo, 2015). In the video, the girl exhibits the concentration and analytical concept, which enables her to formulate an organized sequence of actions. She picks one tire at a time and moves them to a clear location, and then she arranges them on top of each other. She counts the stacked tires to asses her performance. However, the task becomes harder since she is unable to lift to the third tire, and therefore decides to solve the problem by stepping another, bigger tire, which enables her to stack 2 more tires on top.

Conclusion

Child development is considered to be a crucial element of humankind since it is the initial molding period. There are numerous childhood theories seen in the video, such as the gender schematic as well as the cognitive theory. The essay focuses on the general concepts as depicted in the video that enable children to conduct essential tasks. Overall, it is vital to offer crucial support to children’s development to facilitate their understanding of complex processes as they advance in age.

References

McCoy, D., Waldman, M., & Fink, G. (2018). Measuring early childhood development at a global scale: Evidence from the Caregiver-Reported Early Development Instruments. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 45, 58-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.05.002

Shaul, S., & Nevo, E. (2015). Different speed of processing levels in childhood and their contribution to early literacy and reading abilities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32, 193-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.03.006