Human Development
Human development encompasses the critical milestones that shape a child’s growth, learning, and communication. In this chapter, you’ll discover how parenting styles influence development. The remarkable process of language acquisition, and the cognitive milestones that guide children’s thinking and problem-solving abilities. Let’s explore these foundational aspects of growth and learning.
By the end of this chapter, you should know:
- How important are parenting styles?
- How do children acquire language?
- How do children learn to think?
Let’s take a closer look at them.
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How important are parenting styles?
Parenting styles significantly impact a child’s development, shaping their emotional, social, and behavioral outcomes. Diana Baumrind’s research identifies three major parental styles—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—each of which has distinct effects on children.
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
Authoritarian parents enforce strict rules and expect unquestioned obedience. They emphasize discipline and conformity, often without considering a child’s feelings or rights. This style tends to produce children who are obedient and self-controlled. But may also result in emotional stiffness, withdrawal, and a lack of curiosity. These children may struggle with social interactions due to the rigid, authoritarian nature of the parenting.
Permissive Parenting
Permissive parents are lenient, offering little guidance or accountability. They prioritize the child’s desires over rules, often allowing them to “do whatever they want.” While permissive parenting fosters independence, it can also lead to immature. Dependent children who lack boundaries and struggle with behavior management. These children may have difficulty dealing with authority and consequences in later life.
Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parents strike a balance by providing firm, consistent guidance while also offering love, affection, and responsiveness. They aim to foster independent thinking, emotional regulation, and good decision-making in children. The children of authoritative parents tend to be well-adjusted, self-controlled, inquisitive, and resilient. They have strong problem-solving skills and manage emotions well, adapting effectively to challenges.
Maternal and Paternal Influences
While mothers tend to be more involved in caregiving, fathers also play a crucial role in a child’s development. Particularly through play and interaction. Fathers often engage in rough-and-tumble play, which can foster physical coordination and social competence. While mothers are more likely to offer verbal stimulation and nurturing care. These distinct roles contribute to the child’s understanding of gender roles and social dynamics. With fathers often encouraging exploration and risk-taking, and mothers providing comfort and emotional support.
Human Development: Ethnic Differences in Parenting
Parenting practices vary across cultures, with different expectations regarding behavior, discipline, and values. These differences can influence children’s socialization and their ability to adapt to societal norms.
African-American Families
African-American parenting emphasizes loyalty, respect for elders, and self-reliance, particularly in urban environments where safety and resilience are prioritized. Discipline tends to be strict, but it is viewed as necessary for ensuring children’s survival and success.
Hispanic Families
Hispanic parents value family loyalty (familismo) and often employ strict discipline. Social skills like obedience, courtesy, and respect are emphasized, and children are expected to prioritize family unity over individual desires. These values can sometimes put children at a disadvantage in highly competitive environments.
Asian-American Families
Asian cultures emphasize interdependence, respect for family, and the importance of hard work and achievement. Asian-American parents often expect high standards of behavior, self-control, and discipline, particularly after age five. These parents stress the greater good of the family over individual desires, fostering a strong sense of responsibility and moral behavior in their children.
Arab-American Families
Arab-American families prioritize obedience, respect, and maintaining family honor. Discipline can include corporal punishment, and children are taught to respect not only their parents but extended family members and other adults. Success, educational achievement, and family welfare are central values in these cultures.
Human Development: Implications of Parenting Styles
Parenting is deeply influenced by cultural and ethnic values, and what is considered an effective or appropriate parenting style can vary significantly across societies. For example, practices like co-sleeping or strict discipline may be viewed differently depending on cultural expectations. Ultimately, parenting must be understood in the context of the child’s cultural background, as different ethnic groups may prioritize different values, such as obedience, independence, or community.
How do children acquire language?
Language development is both an innate biological process and one shaped by social interactions. Babies begin communicating from birth, initially through crying, which signals their needs—hunger, pain, or discomfort. By about 6 to 8 weeks, infants begin cooing (repeating vowel sounds like “oo” and “ah”). As babies grow, they enter the babbling stage (around 7 months), combining consonants like “b,” “d,” “m,” and “g” with vowels. Although this babbling sounds similar worldwide, the language of the parents soon influences the sounds the child makes. For example, Japanese babies babble with sounds that resemble Japanese, and Spanish-speaking babies babble similarly to Spanish sounds.
By 1 year, children begin to respond to familiar words like “hi” or “no,” and by 18 months to 2 years, they start forming their first simple words like “Mama” or “Dada.” This is followed by a single-word stage, where they use one word at a time (e.g., “go” or “juice”). This evolves into two-word speech, also known as telegraphic speech (e.g., “Want Teddy,” “Mama gone”).
Human Development: Language and the “Terrible Twos”
Around the age of two, children are both learning language and becoming more independent. They begin to assert themselves, and this is often when parents experience the “terrible twos.” This period is characterized by defiance, such as saying “No” to requests or making choices based on defiance (e.g., spilling juice on purpose). While this can be frustrating for parents, it is a crucial part of the development of independence and self-assertion.
As children approach age 3, their language skills advance rapidly, leading to a dramatic increase in vocabulary and ability to use words in a more structured way. By the time a child reaches first grade, their language skills are well-developed enough to understand and engage with complex language.
Human Development: The Roots of Language
The rapid development of language is often explained by Noam Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition, which posits that humans have an inborn, biological predisposition to learn language. According to Chomsky, children’s language learning is similar to their ability to walk, meaning that children are naturally equipped to learn the fundamental structure of language. This idea is supported by the fact that children worldwide often use similar patterns when forming their first sentences.
Chomsky’s theory emphasizes nature in language acquisition, but many psychologists argue that nurture (social learning) plays an equally important role. Researchers have shown that imitation and social feedback (e.g., parents repeating a child’s sentence correctly or asking a clarifying question) are key to how children develop language.
Early Communication and Parent-Infant Interaction
Before babies can speak, they communicate with parents through non-verbal cues, such as eye contact, smiling, and vocalizations. One of the key aspects of early communication is “turn-taking,” where both the parent and child alternate vocalizations, establishing the foundations for conversational rhythm. Studies show that even babies as young as 6 weeks synchronize their gaze with adults’ speech rhythms, and by 4 months, babies engage in vocal turn-taking with adults. This early interaction is crucial for developing both language skills and social understanding.
Human Development: Parentese (Motherese)
Parents often use a special style of speech called “parentese” (or motherese) when speaking to their infants. Parentese involves a higher pitch, exaggerated intonations, slower speech, and simpler vocabulary. The purpose of this speech pattern is to get the baby’s attention and help the baby learn language. For example, parents may say things like, “Did Samantha eat it ALL UP?” with a rising tone at the end. Babies are naturally attracted to parentese, preferring it over regular adult speech by around 4 months. Studies also show that the use of exaggerated tones when praising or comforting babies (e.g., “GOOD girl!” with a rising pitch) is universal across cultures.
As children grow older and their language skills improve, parents adjust their speech to match the child’s developing ability. For example, parents clarify what the child says, prompting them to expand their language use.
How do children learn to think?
Understanding how children develop cognitive abilities is a key area of developmental psychology. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s theory on cognitive development offers valuable insights into how children’s thinking evolves. Piaget proposed that children’s intellectual abilities develop through distinct stages, each representing a new level of understanding and mental capacity.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget (1951, 1952) suggested that children’s thinking evolves in a series of stages, each marked by specific cognitive skills. His research emphasized that children’s cognitive abilities are not as abstract as adults’. Instead, they often base their understanding of the world on concrete examples and objects they can see and touch, and they rely on fewer generalizations and categories compared to adults.
Key Concepts: Assimilation and Accommodation
Piaget believed that cognitive development involves two essential processes: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation occurs when children incorporate new information into their existing mental structures. For example, when a child sees a horse for the first time, they may call it a “horse” because it fits their existing concept of horses, derived from previous experiences with toy horses or depictions on TV.
Accommodation happens when existing cognitive structures need to change to incorporate new information. If the same child sees a zebra at the zoo and initially calls it a “horse,” their mother would correct them, teaching the child the concept of a zebra. The child must adjust their cognitive structure to include zebras as a separate category from horses.
Human Development: The Sensorimotor Stage (0–2 Years)
During the sensorimotor stage, babies explore the world primarily through their senses and motor actions. One key concept they develop during this period is object permanence—the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. This is a major milestone because it signals that the child can hold a mental image of an object, even if it’s no longer visible. For example, at around 8 to 12 months, babies start actively searching for objects that are hidden from view.
Human Development: The Preoperational Stage (2–7 Years)
In the preoperational stage, children begin to use language and form mental images. However, their thinking remains largely concrete and intuitive, which means they have difficulty understanding abstract concepts or performing operations on ideas in their minds. Piaget described the thinking of children in this stage as egocentric, meaning they struggle to view things from other people’s perspectives. For example, a child may assume that if they can see something, others can too. This is demonstrated in situations like when a child places a block on a table and believes that everyone can see it, even when someone else is in a different room.
Another hallmark of this stage is the lack of conservation—the understanding that the quantity of something remains the same even when its appearance changes. For instance, if you pour the same amount of liquid into a taller, thinner glass, the child may think the taller glass has more liquid, even though both glasses contain the same amount. The child’s thinking is still influenced by appearances rather than logical transformation.
The Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 Years)
As children enter the concrete operational stage, their thinking becomes more logical, systematic, and reversible. They gain the ability to conserve—understanding that the quantity of something remains constant despite changes in shape or appearance. For example, a child in this stage will understand that pouring liquid from a short, wide glass into a tall, narrow glass does not change the amount of liquid. Similarly, they now understand that rolling clay into a snake does not change the total amount of clay.
Children also develop the ability to perform mental operations—they can reverse their thinking, such as recognizing that if 2+2 equals 4, then 4–2 must equal 2. This mental reversibility is what enables children in this stage to perform more complex and logical problem-solving tasks compared to younger children.
Key Features of Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years): Development of object permanence and coordination of sensory and motor experiences.
Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): Use of symbolic thinking and language, but thinking is still egocentric and lacks conservation.
Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): Development of logical thinking, mental operations, and conservation abilities.
Human Development: Cognitive Development and Language Learning
Piaget’s stages are not only fundamental to understanding how children think but also closely tied to how they learn language. The cognitive skills children acquire in each stage shape their ability to understand and use language. In the early years, children learn language by associating words with objects, and as they mature cognitively, they begin to understand more abstract concepts and use language more complexly. Cognitive development and language learning, therefore, go hand in hand in shaping how children interpret and interact with the world around them.
The Formal Operational Stage (11 Years and Up)
After the age of 11, children enter the formal operational stage, a period in which their thinking becomes more abstract, systematic, and reflective. In this stage, children are able to think about hypothetical possibilities—ideas or situations that may not be real but can be imagined or predicted. For instance, when asked what might happen if people could suddenly fly, an older child may consider possibilities, such as how it would change society or technology, whereas younger children would simply respond that it is impossible.
In addition to abstract thinking, children in this stage become self-reflective about their own thoughts and reasoning. This allows them to engage in more complex forms of reasoning, such as inductive (generalizing from specific instances) and deductive (drawing specific conclusions from general principles) reasoning. For example, older children and adolescents can understand abstract systems like math, philosophy, and psychology, and they learn to test hypotheses systematically in a way that earlier stages do not allow.
Human Development: Intellectual Development Beyond Adolescence
Piaget believed that formal operational thinking represents full intellectual maturity, but this is not the end of intellectual growth. After late adolescence, individuals may continue to acquire specific knowledge and wisdom based on their experiences, rather than undergoing fundamental changes in thinking ability. This suggests that while cognitive capacity may mature through the formal operational stage, real-world learning, culture, and life experience contribute significantly to further intellectual development.
Applying Piaget’s Ideas: Guiding Intellectual Development
Parents and educators can use Piaget’s insights to help guide children’s intellectual development. The key is providing experiences that are slightly more challenging than the child’s current level of understanding, a method Piaget referred to as the one-step-ahead strategy. For example, instead of forcing children into accelerated learning, it is best to engage them in activities that stretch their existing abilities just enough to promote growth.
The approach should avoid “hothousing,” or forcing children to achieve specific skills at an early age, as this can create pressure and stifle intellectual curiosity. Instead, parents and teachers should provide a nurturing environment that respects the child’s interests and encourages natural intellectual growth without undue stress.
Piaget’s Legacy: Revisiting and Expanding His Ideas
While Piaget’s theory has had a lasting influence on understanding cognitive development, modern research has led to some revisions and expansions of his ideas. For example, contemporary research shows that cognitive abilities emerge earlier than Piaget initially thought. Piaget believed infants did not develop object permanence (the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight) until around 1 year of age, but studies now suggest that infants as young as 3 months can understand that objects do not disappear when they are no longer visible.
Similarly, Piaget’s belief that children are egocentric in the preoperational stage and cannot understand other people’s perspectives until age 7 has been revised. Research on theory of mind—the understanding that others have different thoughts, beliefs, and intentions—shows that children as young as 4 years old can begin to grasp this concept.
Another criticism of Piaget is that he underestimated the role of culture in cognitive development. Piaget’s theory suggests that children naturally progress through stages of cognitive development, but it fails to account for how cultural factors influence the development of intellectual abilities. For instance, children in different cultures may develop cognitive skills at different rates based on cultural values, education, and social interactions. Piaget’s framework is therefore a valuable starting point, but it is increasingly recognized that cognitive development is shaped by both biology and cultural experiences.
Human Development: Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, presented a sociocultural perspective on cognitive development, emphasizing the importance of social interaction and cultural context in shaping a child’s thinking. Unlike Piaget, who focused on the role of maturation in cognitive development, Vygotsky believed that cognitive growth is deeply influenced by the environment and social exchanges. His theories highlight how children acquire knowledge and intellectual skills through guided interaction with more knowledgeable individuals, such as parents, teachers, or peers.
Human Development: The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
One of the most influential concepts introduced by Vygotsky is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD refers to the range of tasks that a child cannot perform independently but can accomplish with the help of a more knowledgeable person. Vygotsky recognized that there are tasks that children are just about ready to perform but need guidance to master them. By working within this zone, with support from a tutor, children can advance rapidly. This aligns with Piaget’s idea of the one-step-ahead strategy, where children are provided with challenges that are slightly beyond their current abilities.
Scaffolding
Another key idea from Vygotsky is scaffolding. Scaffolding refers to the temporary support that a more knowledgeable person provides to help a child complete a task. This support is gradually removed as the child becomes more competent. The tutor adjusts their level of assistance according to the child’s current needs, ensuring that the child is neither under-challenged nor overwhelmed.
For example, when a child is learning how to complete a puzzle, a parent might first offer strong guidance, such as suggesting a strategy to begin with or pointing out matching pieces. As the child progresses, the parent provides less help, allowing the child to take more initiative. This process allows the child to internalize the strategies used and eventually solve similar problems independently.
Learning Cultural Skills
Vygotsky’s theory also emphasizes that cognitive development is intertwined with learning cultural values and practices. In Vygotsky’s view, learning is not just about acquiring cognitive skills but also about mastering the tools and customs valued in a particular culture. For instance, a child might learn to count not just by memorizing numbers but also through culturally specific practices, such as writing the numbers down or making notches on a stick. These activities reflect how children learn not only cognitive processes but also the cultural significance of these processes.
In Vygotsky’s framework, children learn more than just specific skills; they also absorb the cultural beliefs and social practices that shape how people in their culture think, act, and solve problems.
Implications of Vygotsky’s Theory
Vygotsky’s theory has far-reaching implications for education and parenting. First and foremost, it suggests that adults play a crucial role in children’s cognitive development. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers are not merely passive observers of development but are active contributors who help guide children through the learning process.
Vygotsky also pointed out that adults unconsciously adjust their behaviors to help children learn what they need to know. For example, parents might intuitively recognize when a child is struggling with a task and adjust their support accordingly. This flexible, responsive approach helps ensure that children have the scaffolding they need at each stage of their learning.
Additionally, Vygotsky’s theory underscores the importance of social interaction in the learning process. Children do not just learn by observing their tutors but through active engagement in collaborative activities. This emphasizes the importance of dialogue, conversation, and shared problem-solving in the learning process.