Child Development

• Development is the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues
through the human life span (Santrock, 2021).

• Child development is the field of study that tries to understand the processes that govern
the appearance and growth of children’s:

• Biological structures

• Psychological traits

• Behavior

• Understanding

• Ways of adapting to demands of life (Rathus, 2017).

Why study child development?

• To understand how and why children change or remain the same over time.

• To fulfil children’s potential

• To understand why some children have difficulties and delays, and how to help them
overcome challenges and what needs to be done.

• Understand environmental factors that influence how a child grows physically, emotionally
and psychologically. 

• A solid understanding of milestones and developmental pathways across each domain of

Historical views on children

Original Sin view

• In Europe during the Middle Ages, children were often seen as innately evil, which justified
harsh discipline.

• At the age of 7, considered the “age of reason,” children were treated as miniature adults
(Rathus, 2017).

Tabula rasa view

• During the 17th and 18th centuries, views on children shifted.

• Philosopher John Locke believed children came into world as tabula rasa, or “blank slates,”
meaning they were neither innately good nor evil, but shaped by their environment and
experience.

Innate goodness view

J. Chivasa
 • Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that children are inherently good and moral.

• They should be permitted to grow naturally, with little parental monitoring or constraint.

• In the 20th century, childhood became recognized as a special period in life and child rights in
labor, education, parental neglect, and the justice system were established.

• Childhood is a highly eventful and unique period of life that lays an important foundation for
the adult years and is markedly different from them (Rathus, 2017).

• Childhood is a special time of growth and change, and resources are invested in caring for
and educating children (Santrock, 2014).

Pioneers in the study of child development

• Charles Darwin, one of the first individuals to keep a baby biography to describe his son’s
development.

• Stanley Hall established child development as an academic discipline and used questionnaire
methodology with children.

• Alfred Binet developed the first standardized intelligence test for children (Rathus, 2017).

Improving the lives of children

Discussion

How can we improve the lives of children? Which particular areas should we focus on.

Developmental processes

• Human development is an interplay of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes

• Biological processes produce changes in the individual’s body.

• Cognitive processes are changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.

• Socioemotional processes involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other

• The processes are inextricably intertwined, as demonstrated in these two rapidly emerging
fields:

• Developmental cognitive neuroscience, which explores links between

• Developmental social neuroscience, which examines connections between

Periods of development

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 • Children’s growth is described in terms of developmental periods that correspond to specific
age ranges.

• The prenatal period is the time from conception to birth.

• Infancy is the developmental period extending from birth to 18 or 24 months.

• Early childhood extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years.

• Middle and late childhood extends from about 6 to 11 years.

Cohorts

• A cohort is a group of people who are born at a similar point in history and share similar
experiences as a result, such as growing up in the same city around the same time.

• Cohort effects are due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.

• Millennials refers to the generation born after 1980, the first to come of age and enter
emerging adulthood in the new millennium.

• Millennial characteristics include their connection to technology and their ethnic diversity.

Concepts

Context

• Refers to the settings in which development occurs (Santrock, 2021).

• These settings are influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors (Spring,
2013).

Culture

• Culture encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a specific
group of people that are passed on from generation to generation.

Ethnicity

• Ethnicity is rooted in cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language.

Socioeconomic Status

• Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to a person’s position within society based on

Gender

• Gender is a key dimension of children’s development

• It refers to the characteristics of people as males and females.

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Issues in development

Nature and Nurture

• The nature–nurture issue focuses on the extent to which development is mainly influenced
by nature (biological inheritance) or nurture (environmental experiences).

• Nature refers to the traits, capacities, and limitations that each individual inherits genetically
from his or her parents at the moment of conception (Berger, 2018).

• Nurture includes all of the environmental influences that affect the individual after
conception.

• This includes everything from the mother’s nutrition while pregnant to the cultural
influences in the nation.

Continuity and Discontinuity

• The continuity–discontinuity issue focuses on the extent to which development involves

• Change is qualitatively rather than quantitatively different.

Early and Later Experience

• The early–later experience issue focuses on the degree to which early experiences
(especially in infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of the child’s
development.

Evaluating the Developmental Issues

• Most developmentalists do not take extreme positions on these issues, although debates
still ensue.

J. Chivasa