EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education

Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

Lesson title: Child Development Theories Materials:

Lesson Objectives: Activity Sheets
At the end of this module, I should be able to:
1. Familiarize the concepts of Psychosocial and Cognitive References:
Theory Aligada-Hala, et.al (2020)
2. Differentiate psychosocial from cognitive theory Foundations of Special and
Inclusive Education (1st Edition)
Rex Bookstore, Manila, Philippines

Productivity Tip:
Use concept maps. For you to easily understand the theories use concept map and identify there
similarities and differences.

A. LESSON PREVIEW

1) Introduction (2 mins)

Have you ever wondered how children develop? Maybe at one time you have compared your
development with that of a sibling or cousin of yours. If this is the case, you are interested in child
development which is the pattern of growth, change, and stability that occurs from conception until
adolescents. Children do not grow at the same rate at the same time. This also goes for the students in
an inclusive classroom. Knowing their capabilities can help you better as their teacher.

2) Activity 1: What I Know Chart, part 1 (3 mins)

Let us determine if what do you know about our topic. Write your ideas in the first column.

What I Know Questions: What I Learned (Activity 4)

1 What is Psychosocial Theory?

2 What is Cognitive Theory?

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

B.MAIN LESSON

1) Activity 2: Content Notes (13 mins)

Read carefully the content notes and try to highlight or underline the key terms for greater level
of understanding.

Child Development Theories

To ensure that a child meets their developmental milestones, it is crucial to observe and monitor their
development. The milestones or developmental skills that need to be mastered usually at the same rate
acts as a guide for ideal development. It is done by checking the progress of the child based on their age
to see if the child id developing within expectations. For others, checking the milestones can detect any
difficulties at the particular stage. Interventions ca the be given which can help in the development of the
child. Usually, it is the parents

Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist who developed one of the most popular and influential theories
of development. While his theory was impacted by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's work, Erikson's theory
centered on psychosocial development rather than psychosexual development.

The stages that make up his theory are as follows:

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt
Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority
Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion
Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair

Let's take a closer look at the background and different stages that make up Erikson's psychosocial
theory.

So, what exactly did Erikson's theory of psychosocial development entail? Much like Sigmund Freud,
Erikson believed that personality developed in a series of stages. Unlike Freud's theory of psychosexual
stages, however, Erikson's theory described the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan.
Erikson was interested in how social interaction and relationships played a role in the development and
growth of human beings. Each stage in Erikson's theory builds on the preceding stages and paves the
way for following periods of development. In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict
that serves as a turning point in development.

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

In Erikson's view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing
to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high but so is the potential
for failure. If people successfully deal with the conflict, they emerge from the stage with psychological
strengths that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. If they fail to deal effectively with these
conflicts, they may not develop the essential skills needed for a strong sense of self. Erikson also believed
that a sense of competence motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in Erikson's theory is concerned
with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of
mastery, which is sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly,
the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy in that aspect of development.

Cognitive Development Theory of Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different
stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.

Piaget's stages are:

Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up

Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists
as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the
world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt
previously held ideas to accommodate new information.

How Piaget Developed the Theory

Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious student, publishing his first
scientific paper when he was just 11 years old. His early exposure to the intellectual development of
children came when he worked as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they worked to

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

standardize their famous IQ test.

Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was inspired by his observations
of his own nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced his budding hypothesis that children's
minds were not merely smaller versions of adult minds.

Up until this point in history, children were largely treated simply as smaller versions of adults. Piaget
was one of the first to identify that the way that children think is different from the way adults think. Instead,
he proposed, intelligence is something that grows and develops through a series of stages. Older children
do not just think more quickly than younger children, he suggested. Instead, there are both qualitative
and quantitative differences between the thinking of young children versus older children. Based on his
observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think differently.
Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."

Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive development
involves changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves
processes based upon actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

2) Activity 3: Skill-building Activities

Let’s check what you have learned. On your own, answer the following questions by using the concepts
you have learned. In the illustration below write the unique factor of each theory. In between, write the
similarities of both theories.

Psychosocial Cognitive

3) Activity 4: What I Know Chart, part 2 (2 mins)

Now let us assess if you have learned something new, let’s go back to the What I Know Chart from
Activity 1 and write your answers to the questions based on what you know now in the third column of
the chart.

4) Activity 5: Check for Understanding (5 mins)

Read the statements below. Write the letter of the best answer on the space provided before the number.

_____1. In Cognitive development theory, the process of incorporating new information into existing
knowledge is known as _____, whereas the process of adjusting our schemas to fit new
information and events is known as _____.
a. organization; assimilation
b. schema, accommodation
c. accommodation; assimilation
d. assimilation; accommodation

_____2. According to Piaget, _____ is a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
a. memory

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

b. organizer
c. schema
d. image

______3. According to Erikson's Psychosocial Stages of Development, the stage in which a child needs
to learn important academic skills and compare favorably with peers in school to achieve
competence is the ____ stage.
a. Trust vs. Mistrust
b. Identity vs. Role Confusion
c. Initiative vs. Guilt
d. Industry vs. Inferiority

_______ 4. Mary and Fred have one child and want to adopt a second. Since their first child's infancy
had been extremely difficult on Mary, she was excited at the possibility of adopting an older child,
perhaps a well-behaved, toilet-trained 3 year-old, and skipping the infancy period entirely. Fred,
on the other hand, had serious misgivings not knowing about the quality of care giving and
relationships in this child's early life. In a 3 year-old's case, he felt that inadequate care and
improper resolution of what Ericksonian stage could lead to irreparable damage in later
development?
a. Intimacy vs. Isolation
b. Identity vs. Role Confusion
c. Trust vs. Mistrust
d. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

_______5. What psychosocial crisis results in either a feeling of confidence or inadequacy?

a. Trust vs. mistrust
b. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
c. Intimacy vs. isolation
d. Industry vs. inferiority

C. LESSON WRAP-UP

1) Activity 6: Thinking about Learning (5 mins)

Congratulations for finishing this module! Shade the number of the module that you finished.

Great Job! Did you finish all parts of the module? Do you have any questions you may want to ask to
clarify the topic? You may write any question to further help you learn and your teacher will get to you
on the answers.

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 EDU 537: Foundations of Special and Inclusive Education
Student’s Module #11

Name:______________________________________________________ Class number: _______

Section: _______________ Schedule:____________________________ Date: _______________

FAQs

Food for Thought!

If you have questions that you cannot ask to your teacher, this may help you clarify things out.

1. What is Psychosocial Development Theory?

→ Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development are based on (and expand upon) Freud’s psychosexual
theory. Erikson proposed that we are motivated by the need to achieve competence in certain areas of
our lives. According to psychosocial theory, we experience eight stages of development over our lifespan,
from infancy through late adulthood. At each stage there is a crisis or task that we need to resolve.

2. What is Cognitive Development Theory?

→ Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term
changes in these processes. One of the most widely known perspectives about cognitive development
is the cognitive stage theory of a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget. Piaget created and studied an
account of how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically. Because
his theory is especially popular among educators.

KEY TO CORRECTIONS

Answers on Skill-building Activity (Act.3)

(Answers may vary)

Answer on Check for Understanding Activity (Act. 5)

1. C
2. A
3. D
4. D
5. A

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