Slide 1

1—Introduction
• Child Development—Yesterday and Today
• Developmental Processes and Periods
• Developmental Issues
• Careers in Child Development
• Summary

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 Slide 2

1—Introduction
• It is not always clear how childhood
experiences affect later life.
• Studying children helps parents, teachers,
and others involved with children to offer
them better guidance.
• Studying children helps each of us gain an
understanding of our own history, which
helps us understand our own lives.

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 Slide 3

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Development is the pattern of change that
begins at conception and continues through
the life span.

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 Slide 4

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Historical Views of Childhood
– Original sin view
• Advocated during the Middle Ages, the belief that
children were born into the world as evil beings and
were basically bad
– Tabula rasa view
• The idea, proposed by John Locke, that children are
like a “blank tablet”

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 Slide 5

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Historical Views of Childhood (continued)
– Innate goodness view
• The idea, presented by Swiss-born philosopher Jean-
Jacques Rousseau, that children are inherently good
– In the past century and a half, our view of
children has changed dramatically
• We now conceive of childhood as a highly eventful
and unique period of life that lays an important
foundation for the adult years

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 Slide 6

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• The Modern Study of Child Development
– Shift from philosophical view to systematic
observation and experimentation
– Alfred Binet: Tasks to study attention and memory
– Arnold Gesell: Photographic dome allowed unobtrusive
observation; development relies on biological,
maturational blueprint
– G. Stanley Hall: Unfolding stages of development

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 Slide 7

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• The Modern Study (continued)
– Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was prominent
in the early part of the twentieth century.
– During the 1920s and 1930s, John Watson’s (1928)
theory of behaviorism influenced thinking about
children.
• Watson argued that children can be shaped into
whatever society wishes by examining and changing
the environment.

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 Slide 8

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• The Modern Study (continued)
– Genetic epistemology
• The term James Mark Baldwin gave to the study of
how children’s knowledge changes over the course
of their development.

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 Slide 9

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving the Lives of Today’s Children
– Health and Well-Being
• Poverty
• AIDS
• Starvation
• Poor health care
• Inadequate nutrition and exercise
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Sexual abuse

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 Slide 10

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Health and Well-Being (continued)
• Through direct work with children
– Luis Vargas, child clinical psychologist
• Research on premature infants
– Tiffany Field’s (2001) research focuses on how
massage therapy can facilitate weight gain in
premature infants

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 Slide 11

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Families and Parenting
• Understanding child development can improve
parenting, but good parenting takes time and
commitment
• Contemporary families face pressures that make it
difficult to devote time and effort to parenting
• Latchkey children
• Research on family and peer relations

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 12

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Education
• Education is another important dimension in
children’s lives
• Research suggests mentoring may help improve the
education of many children

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 Slide 13

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Sociocultural Contexts: Culture, Ethnicity, and
Socioeconomic Status
• Context: settings influenced by historical,
economic, and social factors that may reflect the
influence of culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic
status.
• Culture: the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other
products of a group that are passed on from
generation to generation.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 14

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Sociocultural Contexts (continued)
• Ethnicity: Characteristics rooted in cultural
heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion,
and language.
• Ethnic identity: A sense of membership in an
ethnic group, based upon shared language, religion,
customs, values, history, and race.
• Race: A controversial classification based on real or
imagined biological characteristics.

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 Slide 15

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Sociocultural Contexts (continued)
• Socioeconomic status (SES): Grouping people with
similar occupational, educational, and economic
characteristics; implies inequalities.
• Poverty in the first few years of life is a better
predictor of school completion and achievement
than poverty in adolescence (Brooks-Gunn, 2003).
• Poverty is a powerful controller of home
environment.

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 Slide 16

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Improving Lives (continued)
– Sociocultural Contexts (continued)
• Gender: The psychological and sociocultural
dimension of being female or male.

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 Slide 17

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
Home Environments of
Infants by Ethnicity and
Poverty Status

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 Slide 18

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
• Resilience, Social Policy, and Children’s
Development
– Resilience: The ability to triumph over adversities
(e.g., poverty).
– Social policy: A government’s course of action
designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
• Researchers increasingly undertake studies that
they hope will lead to wise and effective decision
making (Maccoby, 2001).

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 Slide 19

Child Development—
Yesterday and Today
Characteristics of
Resilient Children and
Their Contexts

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 Slide 20

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 1
• Describe the past and the present in the field
of child development.

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 Slide 21

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 1
– Review
• What is development?
• How has childhood been perceived throughout
history?
• What are the key characteristics of the modern study
of child development?
• What are some contemporary concerns about
today’s children?
• What is social policy, and what is its status in regard
to America’s children?

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 22

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 1
– Reflect
• Imagine what your development as a child would
have been like in a culture that offered fewer or
distinctly different choices than your own. How
might your development have been different if your
family had been significantly richer or poorer than it
was?

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 Slide 23

Developmental Processes
and Periods
• Development
– The pattern of change that begins at conception and
continues through the life cycle
– It is created by the interplay of biological, cognitive,
and socioemotional processes

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 Slide 24

Developmental Processes
and Periods
• Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional
Processes
– Biological processes: Changes in an individual’s body.
– Cognitive processes: Changes in an individual’s
thought, intelligence, and language.
– Socioemotional processes: Changes in an individual’s
relationships with other people, emotions, and
personality.

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 Slide 25

Developmental Processes
and Periods
• Periods of Development
– Prenatal period: The time from conception to birth;
lasts approximately 9 months.
– Infancy: The developmental period that extends from
birth to about 18 to 24 months.

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 Slide 26

Developmental Processes
and Periods
• Periods of Development (continued)
– Early childhood: The developmental period that
extends from the end of infancy to about 5 to 6 years of
age; sometimes called the preschool years.
– Middle and late childhood: The developmental period
that extends from about 6 to 11 years of age; sometimes
called the elementary school years.

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 Slide 27

Developmental Processes
and Periods
• Periods of Development (continued)
– Adolescence: The developmental period of transition
from childhood to early adulthood; begins at
approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ends at 18 to
22 years of age.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 28

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 2
• Identify the most important developmental
processes and periods.
– Review
• What are the three key developmental processes?
• What are five main developmental periods?
– Reflect
• At what age did you become an adolescent? Were
you physically, cognitively, and socioemotionally
different when you became an adolescent? If so,
how?

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 Slide 29

Developmental Issues
• Nature and Nurture
– Nature-Nurture Issue
• Involves the debate about whether development is
primarily influenced by nature or nurture (Kagan &
Herschkowitz, 2005; Lippa, 2005)
• Nature: an organism’s biological inheritance
• Nurture: an organism’s environmental influences
• “Nature” proponents claim biological inheritance is
the most important influence on development;
“nurture” proponents claim that environmental
experiences are the most important

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 Slide 30

Developmental Issues
• Continuity and Discontinuity
– Continuity-Discontinuity Issue
• The issue regarding whether development involves
gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct
stages (discontinuity)

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 Slide 31

Developmental Issues
Continuity and
Discontinuity in
Development

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 Slide 32

Developmental Issues
• Early and Later Experience
– Early-Later Experience Issue
• The issue of the degree to which early experiences
(especially infancy) or later experiences are the key
determinants of the child’s development
• Western cultures tend to support early experiences
as being more important than later experiences
• Most other cultures believe that later experiences
are more important

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 Slide 33

Developmental Issues
• Evaluating the Developmental Issues
– Development is not all nature or all nurture, not all
continuity or all discontinuity, and not all early or later
experiences (Gottlieb, 2004; Overton, 2004)

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 Slide 34

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 3
• Describe three key developmental issues
– Review
• What is the nature and nurture issue?
• What is the continuity and discontinuity issue?
• What is the early and later experience issue?
• What is a good strategy for evaluating the
developmental issues?

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 35

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 3
– Reflect
• Can you identify an early experience that you
believe contributed in important ways to your
development? Can you identify a recent or current
(later) experience that you think had (is having) a
strong influence on your development?

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 Slide 36

Careers in Child Development

• Education and Research
– College/University Professor:
• Teach courses at undergraduate or graduate level (or
both)
• Conduct research
• Advise students and/or direct their research
• Serve on college/university committees
– Researcher: At colleges/universities, government
agencies, or private industry

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 Slide 37

Careers in Child Development

• Education and Research (continued)
– Elementary School Teacher
– Exceptional Children (Special Education) Teacher:
• Work with individual children who have a disability
or are gifted
– Early Childhood Educator:
• Teach at community college level

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 Slide 38

Careers in Child Development

• Education and Research (continued)
– Preschool/Kindergarten Teacher
– Family and Consumer Science Educator:
• Specialize in early childhood education or instruct
middle/high school students about nutrition,
interpersonal relationships, human sexuality,
parenting, and human development
– Educational Psychologist:
• Teach at college/university level and conduct
research in educational psychology

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 Slide 39

Careers in Child Development

• Education and Research (continued)
– School Psychologist:
• Focus on improving the psychological and
intellectual well-being of elementary and secondary
school students
• Give psychological tests, interview students and
their parents, consult with teacher, and possibly
provide counseling to students and their families

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 Slide 40

Careers in Child Development

• Clinical and Counseling
– Clinical Psychologist: Help people with psychological
problems
– Psychiatrist:
• Help people with psychological problems
• Have medical degree, then do a residency in
psychiatry
• Administer medications to clients

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 Slide 41

Careers in Child Development

• Clinical and Counseling (continued)
– Counseling Psychologist:
• Like clinical psychologists, may do psychotherapy,
teach, or conduct research
• Do NOT work with clients who have severe mental
disorders
– School Counselor:
• Identify students’ abilities and interests, guide
students in developing academic plans, and explore
career options with students

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 Slide 42

Careers in Child Development

• Clinical and Counseling (continued)
– Career Counselor: Help individuals identify
appropriate career options and guide them in applying
for jobs
– Social Worker: Help people with social, family, or
economic problems and may specialize in a certain area
– Drug Counselor: Counsel people with drug abuse
problems

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 Slide 43

Careers in Child Development

• Medical, Nursing, and Physical
Development
– Obstetrician/Gynecologist:
• Prescribe prenatal and postnatal care and perform
deliveries in maternity cases
• May treat diseases and injuries of the female
reproductive system

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 Slide 44

Careers in Child Development

• Medical, Nursing, and Physical
Development (continued)
– Pediatrician :
• Medical doctor who specializes in working with
children
• Administer drugs to children
• May counsel parents and children on ways to
improve children’s health

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 Slide 45

Careers in Child Development

• Medical, Nursing, and Physical Development
(continued)
– Neonatal Nurse: Involved in the delivery of care to
newborn infants
– Nurse-Midwife: Formulate and provide
comprehensive prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care to
selected maternity patients
– Pediatric Nurse: Monitor infants’ and children’s
health, work to prevent disease/injury, and help
children attain optimal health

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 Slide 46

Careers in Child Development

• Medical, Nursing, and Physical Development
(continued)
– Audiologist: Assess and identify problems of hearing
loss and problems in balance
– Speech Therapist: Identify, assess, and treat speech
and language problems
– Genetic Counselor: Provide information and support
to families who have members with birth defects or
genetic disorders, and to families who may be at risk
for inherited conditions

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 Slide 47

Careers in Child Development

• Families and Relationships
– Child Welfare Worker: Work for child protective
services to protect children’s rights, evaluate child
maltreatment, and, if necessary, remove children from
the home
– Child Life Specialist: Work with children and families
of children who need to be hospitalized

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 Slide 48

Careers in Child Development

• Families and Relationships (continued)
– Marriage and Family Therapist: Provide
psychotherapy within the context of a marital or family
relationship

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 Slide 49

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 4
• Summarize the career paths involved in working
with children
– Review
• What are some education and research careers that
involve working with children?
• What are some clinical and counseling careers that
involve working with children?
• What are some medical, nursing, and physical
development careers that involve working with
children?

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 Slide 50

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 4 (continued)
• Summarize the career paths involved in
working with children (continued)
– Review (continued)
• What are some family and relationship-oriented
careers that involve working with children?

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 Slide 51

Review and Reflect:

Learning Goal 4
– Reflect
• Which of the careers that were described are the
most interesting to you?
• Choose three of these careers and go to the related
website connections to learn more about them.

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 Slide 52

Summary
• Development is the pattern of movement or
change that occurs throughout the life span.
• Prior to the nineteenth century, philosophical
views of childhood were prominent, including the
notions of original sin, tabula rasa, and innate
goodness.
• Today, we conceive of childhood as an important
time of development.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 53

Summary
• Five important contemporary concerns in
children’s development are health and well-being;
families and parenting; education; the
sociocultural contexts of culture, ethnicity, and
socioeconomic status; and gender.
• Social policy is a national government’s course of
action designed to promote the welfare of its
citizens.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 54

Summary
• Development is influenced by an interplay of
biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
processes.
• Child development is commonly divided into the
following periods from conception to adolescence:
prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle and late
childhood, and adolescence.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 55

Summary
• The nature-nurture issue focuses on the extent to
which development is mainly influenced by nature
(biological inheritance) or nurture (experience).
• Some developmentalists describe development as
continuous (gradual, cumulative change), others
describe it as discontinuous (a sequence of abrupt
stages).

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 56

Summary
• The early-later experience issue focuses on
whether early experiences (especially in infancy)
are more important in development than later
experiences.
• Most developmentalists recognize that extreme
positions on the nature-nurture, continuity-
discontinuity, and early-later experience issues are
unwise.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 57

Summary
• Education and research careers include
college/university professor, researcher,
elementary or secondary teacher, exceptional
children teacher, early childhood educator,
preschool/kindergarten teacher, family and
consumer science educator, educational
psychologist, and school psychologist.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..

 Slide 58

Summary
• Clinical and counseling careers include clinical
psychologist, psychiatrist, counseling
psychologist, school counselor, career counselor,
social worker, and drug counselor.

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 Slide 59

Summary
• Medical, nursing, and physical development
careers include obstetrician/gynecologist,
pediatrician, neonatal nurse, nurse-midwife,
pediatric nurse, audiologist, speech therapist, and
genetic counselor.
• Families and relationships careers include child
welfare worker, child life specialist, and marriage
and family therapist.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..