Week 2 — Theories of Development

Why this matters

A preschool teacher answering a toddler's "Me do it" and a pediatric nurse explaining a child's behavior to a worried family both lean on theories. Knowing what each theory explains and misses helps you see a child fairly.

In plain language

When you watch a child, you start guessing why the child acts that way. A theory (an organized explanation that can be tested) turns those guesses into something careful. This week you meet the major theories of child development, from Erikson's stages to the study of learning by watching. Each theory is a different lens, like a different pair of glasses that brings some things into focus and blurs others. By the end, you will read one toddler's moment through three lenses and say what each one adds.

• Already covered: Week 1, Introduction: What Child Development Is, gave you the three domains (physical, cognitive, and social-emotional), the periods of childhood, the core questions of nature and nurture and of continuity and discontinuity, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems, and the running case.
• This week: the major theories of development, what each one explains well, and what each one leaves out.
• How they connect: Week 1 asked how children change; this week offers several answers to why, and each answer is a theory.
• Where we're going next: Week 3, Studying Children: Research, Observation, and Ethics, shows how researchers and educators test these theories by watching children carefully and fairly.

Focus

Why do children change, and what does each major theory explain and leave out?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] name Erikson's five childhood and adolescent stages in order
• [ ] tell reinforcement from punishment, and both from learning by watching
• [ ] tell a critical period from a sensitive period
• [ ] read one record through three theories, keeping ages as ranges

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 2 (~35–45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Do the practice exercises (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Child Observation Workshop (about 90 minutes), discussion, and assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: read one child's moment through two theories and say what each adds.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if stuck.

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