1.0.

MATURATION THEORY: ARNOLD GESSEL

In the early twentieth century, a Clinical Psychologist and Pediatrician, Arnold Gessel
developed a theory of child development, based on the observations of children who
followed both normal and exceptional patterns of behavior. He made observations from
birth to adulthood.

Gesell’s theory focused on the physical and mental development of children. He

suggested that children will go through the same stages of development, in the same
sequence, but each child will go through the stages at their own rate. He suggested that
patterns of development are determined by the individual’s heredity.

1.1. Key Principles of Gesell’s Theory

a. Children develop through similar and predictable sequences. However, Gessel
noticed that they did so at their own pace and suggested that this development
starts to occur before the child’s birth.
b. The pace at which the individual develops through the sequence is influenced by
internal factors, such as the physical and mental development and genetics.
c. He disagreed with the theorists who suggested that development was solely due
to environmental factors.
d. According to Gessel, if a child experienced delayed development, it would be due
to heredity.
e. A child should only be taught to complete tasks only when they are physically
and mentally ready to do so. Teaching a child to do something that is in advance
of their developmental age would do them more harm.

According to Gessel, children display a range of behaviors in cycles.

i. 18 months -4 years 6 months

- The child experiences temper tantrums
- They become more calm, but end the stage still experiencing
emotional outbursts.
ii. 5-8 years
- The child becomes more confident in who they are and can
make friends
- According to the theory, at the age of 7 years, the child
becomes fearful, but they end the stage as outgoing children.
iii. 9-17 years
- The child displays many worries and anxieties during the odd
numbered years.

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 - However, during the even-numbered years of 12, 14 and 16,
they are more positive and energetic.

1.2. Criticisms of Gesell’s Maturation Theory

1.2.1. Psychologists such as Piaget argue that the child is influenced
more by the environment they live in.
1.2.2. More recent research has suggested that Gesell’s milestones are
incorrect. It is now known, for example, that babies can follow
moving objects at an earlier age than Gessel thought.
1.2.3. Gessel only used White Middle Class parents and their children in
his sample.

However, despite its limitations, Gesell’s maturation theory has been helpful in explaining
the physical and mental development of children.

5.0. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY: JEAN PIAGET

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that intelligence changes as

children grow. A child's cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge; the
child has to develop or construct a mental model of the world.

Cognitive development occurs through the interaction of innate capacities and

environmental events, and children pass through a series of stages.

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four
different stages of intellectual development which reflect the increasing sophistication of
children's thoughts. These stages include the sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years;
preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years; concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years; and formal
operational stage: 12 years and above.

Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and child development is
determined by biological maturation and interaction with the environment. At each stage
of development, the child’s thinking is qualitatively different from the other stages, that
is, each stage involves a different type of intelligence.

Stage Age Goal

1 Sensorimotor Birth -24 months Object Permanence
2 Pre-Operational 2 -7 years Symbolic thought
3 Concrete Operational 8-11 years Logical thought
4 Formal Operational Adolescence –adulthood Scientific reasoning

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Although no stage can be missed out, there are individual differences in the rate at which
children progress through stages, and some individuals may never attain the later stages.

5.1. The Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 Years)

This is the first stage. During this stage, the infant focuses on physical sensations and on
learning to co-ordinate the body.

5.1.1. Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

▪ The infant learns about the world through their senses and through their actions
(moving around and exploring its environment).
▪ During the sensorimotor stage a range of cognitive abilities develop. These
include: object permanence; self-recognition (the child realizes that other people
are separate from them); deferred imitation; and representational play.
▪ They relate to the emergence of the general symbolic function, which is the
capacity to represent the world mentally
▪ At about 8 months the infant will understand the permanence of objects and that
they will still exist even if they cannot see them and the infant will search for them
when they disappear.

During this stage the infant lives in the present. It does not yet have a mental picture of
the world stored in its memory therefore it does not have a sense of object permanence.

If it cannot see something, then it does not exist. This is why you can hide a toy from an
infant, while it watches, but it will not search for the object once it has gone out of sight.

The main achievement during this stage is object permanence - knowing that an object
still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation, that
is, a schema of the object.

Towards the end of this stage the general symbolic function begins to appear where
children show in their play that they can use one object to stand for another. Language
starts to appear because they realize that words can be used to represent objects and
feelings.

The child begins to be able to store information that it knows about the world, recall it
and label it.

5.2. The Preoperational Stage (2 - 7 Years)

At the beginning of this stage, the child does not use operations, so the thinking is
influenced by the way things appear rather than logical reasoning. A child cannot
conserve which means that the child does not understand that quantity remains the same

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even if the appearance changes. Furthermore, the child is egocentric; he assumes that
other people see the world as he does.

5.2.1. Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

▪ Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world
through language and mental imagery.
▪ During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the
ability to make one thing, such as a word or an object, stand for something other
than itself.
▪ A child’s thinking is dominated by how the world looks, not how the world is. It is
not yet capable of logical (problem solving) type of thought.
▪ Moreover, the child has difficulties with class inclusion; he can classify objects but
cannot include objects in sub-sets, which involves classify objects as belonging to
two or more categories simultaneously
▪ Infants at this stage also demonstrate animism. This is the tendency for the child
to think that non-living objects (such as toys) have life and feelings like a person’s.

By 2 years, children have made some progress towards detaching their thought from
physical world. However, have not yet developed logical (or 'operational') thought
characteristic of later stages. Thinking is still intuitive (based on subjective judgements
about situations) and egocentric (centered on the child's own view of the world).

5.3. The Concrete Operational Stage (7 - 11 Years)

By the beginning of the concrete operational stage, the child can use operations (a set of
logical rules) so he can conserve quantities, he/she realizes that people see the world in
a different way than he does (decentring) and he/she has improved in inclusion tasks.
Children still have difficulties with abstract thinking.

5.3.1. Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

▪ During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events.
▪ Children begin to understand the concept of conservation; understanding that,
although things may change in appearance, certain properties remain the same.
▪ During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (for example picture a ball
of plasticine returning to its original shape).
▪ During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about
how other people might think and feel.

The stage is called concrete because children can think logically much more successfully
if they can manipulate real (concrete) materials or pictures of them. Piaget considered
the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development because it

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marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. This means the child can work
things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world).

Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation
is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its
appearance changes. But operational thought only effective here if child asked to reason
about materials that are physically present. Children at this stage will tend to make
mistakes or be overwhelmed when asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical
problems.

5.4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years and above)

The formal operational period actually begins at about age 11. As adolescents enter this
stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the ability to combine and
classify items in a more sophisticated way, and the capacity for higher-order reasoning.

Adolescents can think systematically and reason about what might be as well as what is
(not everyone achieves this stage). This allows them to understand politics, ethics, and
science fiction, as well as to engage in scientific reasoning.

Adolescents can deal with abstract ideas: for example, they can understand division and
fractions without having to actually divide things up. Solve hypothetical (imaginary)
problems.

5.4.1. Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

▪ Concrete operations are carried out on things whereas formal operations are
carried out on ideas. Formal operational thought is entirely freed from physical and
perceptual constraints.
▪ During this stage, adolescents can deal with abstract ideas (e.g. no longer needing
to think about slicing up cakes or sharing sweets to understand division and
fractions).
▪ They can follow the form of an argument without having to think in terms of
specific examples.
▪ Adolescents can deal with hypothetical problems with many possible solutions. For
example, if asked ‘What would happen if money were abolished in one hour’s time?
they could speculate about many possible consequences.

From about 12 years, children can follow the form of a logical argument without reference
to its content. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract
concepts, and logically test hypotheses.

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This stage sees emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and
hypotheses when faced with a problem.

5.5. Important Concepts in Piaget’s Theory

Piaget suggested several factors that influence how children learn and grow.

5.5.1. Schemas

A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and
knowing. Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand
the world.

In Piaget's view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of
obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify,
add to, or change previously existing schemas.

For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the
child's sole experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are
small, furry, and have four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an enormous
dog. The child will take in this new information, modifying the previously existing schema
to include these new observations.

5.5.2. Assimilation

The process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is known as
assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences
and information slightly to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing
a dog and labeling it "dog" is a case of assimilating the animal into the child's dog schema.

5.5.3. Accommodation

Another part of adaptation is the ability to change existing schemas in light of new
information; this process is known as accommodation. New schemas may also be
developed during this process.

5.5.4. Equilibration

As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to

maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing
behavior to account for new knowledge (accommodation).

Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and
accommodation using a mechanism he called equilibration. Equilibration helps explain
how children can move from one stage of thought to the next.