Early childhood development theories
What are the 4 main theories of development?.
© iStockphoto | warrengoldswain
By Steven Schlozman, MD
Posted in: Infants & Toddlers, Pre-School, Young Adults
Topics: Child + Adolescent Development
When child development experts talk about the study of development, they have in mind some fundamental theories of development that were codified by brilliant clinicians and scientists well before we had the technology to correlate them to brain development.
In this post, we’ll pay homage to these theorists.
Theories of child development and learning
After all, every clinician who works with kids routinely and almost reflexively thinks of these scholars. The irony is that the theories are so pervasive and useful, that often the beginnings of these theories are lost in the story.
Understanding how these theories came into being can therefore help to direct therapists and parents when they’re deciding how best to understand their children.
Roughly speaking, these theories can be categorized as emotional, cognitive and moral.
Erik Erikson developed the most common