Child Development Theories
Children, in most cases, learn effectively from what they see others doing and not from what they see from the surrounding environment. Jenny clearly understands that she does everything for them so that they can grow to be well-mannered adults in the future. Whenever the children have problems, Jenny takes time to explain to them what caused the problem and the consequences of the problem. Several theories have been developed to help understand the role that Jenny plays in the life of a child as they grow. Two theories best describe the development process of a child as they learn through observation. There is Piaget’s theory on cognitivism and Vygotsky’s on social culture.
Piaget’s theory believes that child development depends on the stages they undergo in life. On the other hand, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory believes learning to be a social process. Piaget’s theory disagrees that intelligence is a natural trait; he claims that intelligence develops more as an individual matures and interacts with the environment (Poehner et al. 429). The theory from Piaget does not focus on observation as a learning tool but instead focusses on the processes involved in learning. According to Piaget (1936), there are internal connections that transpire during the process of learning (Carpendal et al. 7). The children under the tutelage of Jenny learn by observing what Jenny does on a daily basis, they get to put to use what Jenny teaches them and thus can learn about what is happening around them.
When the children continuously interact with the surrounding environment, they amass knowledge and skills. On the other, there is a learning that was put forward by Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky, interacting socially with children plays a vital role in their cognitive development, a child will learn after successfully interacting with an individual. Vygotsky states that during construction, a child processes information twice, first on the social level and, then on a personal level (Poehner et al. 429). Vygotsky’s theory of learning best describes the process that Jenny is using to teach the children. Jenny clearly understands the importance of social interaction and is why she spends most of her time with the children so that they can learn from her.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory plays a critical role in the learning process and hence is beneficial to the development of a child. The approach has a ZPD concept that teaches use to under the strengths and weaknesses of every child during the learning process (Poehner et al. 429). Understanding the strengths of a child enables the teacher to understand the capabilities of each child, it becomes easy for the teacher to help a child achieve better levels of themselves. Another benefit of the theory is role play in Vygotsky’s theory. According to this point of view, children need to be given adequate time to play (Poehner et al. 429). When children get to play, their imaginations are improved, and their understanding of concepts also stretches, which in the end results in child development. When children imitate what the teacher is doing, children gain opportunities leading to gaining of intelligence.
Though the theory may enjoy some benefits, it has its limitations. The concept of ZPD is vague; it does not carry the actual picture of the learning style of a child. Hence, making it difficult to understand their learning abilities since there is no standard metric to be used to measure the learning abilities of a child.