CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING

Running Head: CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING1
TASK 1
Importance of studying child development for teachers
Child development is an important domain for teachers. It is the process a child goes through
before entering into adulthood. It includes the process of cognitive, social and emotional, speech
and language, development of fine and gross motor skills.
Difference between growth and development
There is a significant difference between the two terms growth and development. Growth is the
process of developing the physical organisms of a child. It is a cellular process while
development is the organizational process1. Development refers to the all-round change within
the physical organisms. It is functional in nature.
Different stages of child development
According to Piaget, there are four stages of childhood development2. They are
 Sensorimotor – From birth to 18-24 months
 Preoperational – toddlers 18-24 months to early childhood (7years).
 Concrete operational – 7 years to 12 years
1 Britto, P.R., Lye, S.J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A.K., Matthews, S.G., Vaivada, T., Perez-Escamilla, R., Rao, N., Ip,
P., Fernald, L.C. and MacMillan, H., 2017. Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. The
Lancet, 389(10064), pp.91-102.
2 Rao, N., Sun, J., Wong, J.M., Weekes, B., Ip, P., Shaeffer, S., Young, M., Bray, M., Chen, E. and Lee, D., 2014.
Early childhood development and cognitive development in developing countries. London, United Kingdom:
Department for International Development.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING2
 Formal operational – From adolescence to Adulthood
Comparing the theories of childhood
There are various childhood development theories existing in the domain of child psychology.
For example the two universally acceptable childhood development theories are namely Freud’s
Psychosexual Development theory and Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental theory. In the
former theory Freud demonstrated that the experience of childhood both conscious and
unconscious influence the behavior of an individual3. On the other hand, the late one Erikson
demonstrated the entire procedure of childhood development through eight stages of life.
Impact of Children’s development on their learning
Early childhood is the crucial time for an individual being. According to the studies, students
with positive childhood tend to become a better human being in future. Students with unhealthy
or disturbed childhood tend become a grown up with negative perception. Hence, there should be
a high quality of instruction for development for every children.
Task 2
Evaluation of learning styles
Learning styles refers to the way a person learns. There are different styles for every individual
child. According to the studies, every individual being exhibit a mixed style of learning. It is
important for the teachers to understand the different styles of learning for an effective classroom
environment. It will help the teachers to measure the teaching technique implemented within the
classroom4.
Different models of learning
3 Keenan, T., Evans, S. and Crowley, K., 2016. An introduction to child development. Sage.