Language and communication is made up of many different forms; sign language, hand gestures, spoken and written, reading, vocal noises, eye contact and body language are all considered forms of communicating. Language is considered a major factor is all of the other areas:
“Language and the ability to communicate can radically affect nearly all areas of a child’s development…” (Tassoni.P et al (1999)
Aspects of language development are evident from the very beginning of life Babies especially use language in many forms to acquire what they need and would like. This comes in the form of crying, cooing and making eye contact. Noam Chomsky believed in what is called a LAD or Language Acquisition Device. He suggested that humans are born with the ability to acquire language.
Albert Bandura focuses on the acquisition of behaviours. He believes that people acquire behaviours through the observation of others. He beloved that people then imitate what they’ve observed. One of the main theorists in regard to social development is Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky believed that the life long process of development was dependent on social interaction. Another major theorist is Erik Erikson. He believed there are 8 stages of social development. He called these “The 8 stages of man”
“Each stage is regarded by Erikson as a "psychosocial crisis," which arises and demands resolution before the next stage can be satisfactorily negotiated” (http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com 22/10/2006)
This means each stage has to be seen to and developed before the child can move on to acquire the next stage.
This is very much linked into social development. From a very early age it is important for children to feel socially accepted and emotionally stable. Young children, especially babies need a bond with a person in order to effectively develop. John Bowlby devised the theory of Attachment. Theorists also believe young children go through stages of anxiety and separation especially seen in very young children when separated from carers and loved ones
Theories to explain Child Development
There are many theoretical approaches to children’s development.
Social Constructivists Approach
The first approach to child development is the social constructivist’s view. Social constructivists view learning as a social process. Examples of social constructivists are Bruner, Vygotsky and Bandura.
Vygotsky developed the concept of the ZPD or Zone of Proximal Learning. The ZPD is the difference between what a child can do with help and what he or she can do without guidance. (Vygotsky, L. S. 1978) “He observed that when children were tested on tasks on their own, they rarely did as well as when they were working in collaboration with an adult” (http://www.ncrel.org). Full development of the ZPD depends upon full social interaction and the range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone. Vygotsky’s theory is very similar to that of Bandura.
Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and copy the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. By doing so, the children can learn from others and are using others as a learning tool in order to gain experiences and skills that otherwise, without interaction from others, may not be developed. This is similar to Vygotsky’s idea of Scaffolding where the child is provided with the basic information and the “base” in which to build on.
Vygotsky and Bandura’s view to learning is slightly contrasting to the view of theorist’s Piaget and Bruner. Piaget’s view was that children go through 4 stages of development and, as similar to Bruner; knowledge is developed over time with the use of past knowledge and building on past experiences. Piaget believed there to be four primary developmental stages - sensorimotor, pre-operations, concrete operations, and formal operations - which all children pass through over from birth to adolescence.
- Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) - intelligence takes the form of motor actions
- Pre-operation period (3-7 years) is intuitive in nature
- Concrete operational stage (8-11 years) intelligence is logical but depends upon concrete referents.
- Formal operations (12-15 years), thinking involves abstractions”
(Flavell, J. H. 1963).
In Piaget's theory of development, children adopt a series of schemas to understand the world. Finally Bruner’s view was that learning is an active process where learners build new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, makes hypotheses, and makes decisions from past knowledge to create a new understanding.
Behaviorism
The next approach to child development is that of behaviorism. This was a concept developed by J. Watson
Watson's work was based on the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, who had studied animals' responses to conditioning. In Pavlov's best-known experiment, he rang a bell as he fed dogs several meals. Each time the dogs heard the bell they knew that a meal was coming. This caused them to salivate. Pavlov then rang the bell without bringing food, but the dogs still salivated. They had been "conditioned" to salivate at the sound of a bell. Pavlov believed that humans react to stimuli in the same way. Skinner developed the theory of "operant conditioning," the idea that we behave the way we do because this kind of behaviour has had certain consequences in the past. There are two types of conditioning:
Classic conditioning - This occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. The most popular example is Pavlov's observation as mentioned above.
Operant conditioning – This occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future. B.F. Skinner used reinforcement techniques to get rats in a cage to press a lever, which in turn, then released food pellets.
“A behaviour followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future” (B.F. Skinner www.bfskinner.org)
