Gesell's Maturational Theory

Last updated

The Maturational Theory of child development was introduced in 1925 [1] by Dr. Arnold Gesell, an American educator, pediatrician and clinical psychologist whose studies focused on "the course, the pattern and the rate of maturational growth in normal and exceptional children"(Gesell 1928). [2] Gesell carried out many observational studies during more than 50 years working at the Yale Clinic of Child Development, where he is credited as a founder. Gesell and his colleagues documented a set of behavioral norms that illustrate sequential & predictable patterns of growth and development. Gesell asserted that all children go through the same stages of development in the same sequence, although each child may move through these stages at their own rate [3] Gesell's Maturational Theory has influenced child-rearing and primary education methods since it was introduced. [4] [5]

Contents

Principles of maturation

He believed that a child’s growth & development are influenced by both their environment and genes, but he largely investigated the children's physiological development. He called this process maturation, that is, the process by which development is governed by intrinsic factors, principally the genes. [6]

According to Gesell, the rate at which children develop primarily depends on the growth of their nervous system, consisting of the complicated web of nerve fibers, spinal cord, and brain. As the nervous system grows, their minds develop and their behaviors change accordingly. [7]

The Concept of Maturation

Gesell observed that maturational development always unfolds in fixed sequences: an embryo's heart is always the first organ to develop, then the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), followed by the peripheral organs. After birth, babies first gain control over their lips and tongues, then their eye movements, followed by control over their neck, shoulders, arms, hands, buttocks, fingers, legs, and feet. There is a genetic cephalocaudal (head-to-foot) trend in both prenatal and postnatal development. [2]

As a baby grows, they learn to sit up, stand, walk, and run; these capacities develop in a specific order with the growth of the nervous system, even though the rate of development may vary from child to child. Gesell believed that individual differences in growth rates are a result of the internal genetic mechanisms. [8]

Maturational theory states that while the child’s social and cultural environments also play a role in their development, these socializing forces are most effective when they are harmonious with the inner maturational timetable. Gesell opposed efforts to teach children things ahead of their developmental schedule, asserting that once the nervous system had matured adequately, a child would begin mastering tasks such as sitting up, walking, and talking from their own inner urges. [8] [9]

The Study of Patterns

Gesell studied infant behavior and how early motor behavior develops. He determined that growth is best measured not quantitatively but in patterns. A pattern can be anything that has a definite shape or form [10] such as an eye blink. Gesell looked for patterns in the process by which actions become organized; for example, the steps in the development of eye-hand coordination. [10] Although the theoretical formulations of Erikson, Piaget, and Havighurst are of value, none adequately address motor development. It is appropriate, therefore, that a theoretical model of motor development that integrates elements from each, plus a dynamic systems and behavior setting perspective, be put forth in order that we may describe and explain this important aspect of human development.

Reciprocal Interweaving

Gesell created the term "reciprocal interweaving" to describe the developmental process in which two opposite tendencies gradually reach an effective balance. For example, when a child is developing a preference for “handedness”, he or she uses first one hand and then the other, and eventually ends up with a preferred pattern of hand use. [10]

Gesell also applied the concept of reciprocal interweaving to the development of the personality. Gesell asserted that, like motor behaviors, personality also develops as a back and forth pull between two opposite poles. He gave the example of a child going through a cycle of introverted and extroverted tendencies, beginning at age three, until the two tendencies become integrated and balanced. Gesell believed that developmental progress requires temporary loss of equilibrium, but is followed by reintegration at higher levels of organization. [10]

Functional Asymmetry

Gesell found asymmetric development to be common in children. [11] In motor behaviors, this can be seen in an infant’s tonic neck reflex, where babies prefer to lie with their heads turned to one side and extend their arm to the same side which the head is turned while flexing the other arm behind their head. It is a reflex where the infant directs vision towards the hand or fist in extension. [12]

Self-Regulation

Gesell believed that even newborns could regulate their own development, and demonstrated that babies were able to determine their own schedules for eating & sleeping. [11]

Gesell also observed self-regulatory mechanisms in personality, overall integration and equilibrium. He interpreted development as a process where behavior advances in a spiral pattern, alternating between equilibrium and disequilibrium as children enter new phases. While tensions arise, these self-regulatory mechanisms ensure that the organism never goes too far in one direction. [13]

Individuality

Critics often point out that when summarizing his findings, Gesell gave the impression that all children behave in exactly the same way at each age. However, his position was that the developmental sequences are common to all children, but that they vary in their individual rates of growth. He suggested that these growth rates are possibly related to differences in temperament and personality. [11] For example, he speculated that a child who grows slowly might be cautious, even-tempered, and patient; whereas a child who develops more quickly might be more outgoing, happy, and quick to react. Gesell also believed that a child’s environment should be adjusted to his or her temperament and growth style.

Philosophy of Child-rearing

Gesell believed in a child-centered approach to raising children. He urged parents to recognize the genetic schedule that babies are born with, pointing out that it is the product of over three million years of biological evolution [11] He observed that babies appeared to know what they needed and what they were ready to do & learn. He directed parents to look to the children themselves for cues on how to help the child develop as an individual, and to set aside their own expectations of what the baby “ought” to be doing, [14] particularly in the first year of life.

Gesell developed a series of development schedules summarizing the sequences of development in children. [15] He believed that parents familiar with these sequences will become more patient and understanding during times of disequilibrium and instability [16] knowing that they will eventually disappear.

Criticisms

Modern critics of Gesell point out that he put too much emphasis on maturation and not enough on environmental factors such as learning. [17] [18] Criticisms also include that his developmental stages imply too much uniformity as if all children go through the stages at the same age. [3] He does not specify how much variation can be expected at each age. In addition, Gesell’s research was limited to middle-class children in a university setting [11] so critics are hesitant to generalize his findings to other cultures.

Critics also have asserted that the Maturational Theory can be used as an excuse to withhold treatment and educational opportunities from children. [5]

Recent research has challenged Gesell's age norms, showing that newborns may have more abilities than was reported and that his developmental picture may be too slow. [11] Newborns have been found to be a lot “smarter” than Gesell originally reported showing advanced competencies at early ages. Despite the many criticisms, pediatricians and infant specialists still use Gesell’s norms to help them determine what babies should be able to do at various ages [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Developmental psychology</span> Scientific study of psychological changes in humans over the course of their lives

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions, which are physical development, cognitive development, and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation.

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

Maturationism is an early childhood educational philosophy that sees the child as a growing organism and believes that the role of education is to passively support this growth rather than actively fill the child with information. This theory suggests that growth and development unfold from within the organism. It is also based on the idea that a learner's development is governed by a biologically based schedule.

In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babbling</span> Stage in child development and language acquisition

Babbling is a stage in child development and a state in language acquisition during which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering articulate sounds, but does not yet produce any recognizable words. Babbling begins shortly after birth and progresses through several stages as the infant's repertoire of sounds expands and vocalizations become more speech-like. Infants typically begin to produce recognizable words when they are around 12 months of age, though babbling may continue for some time afterward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attachment theory</span> Psychological ethological theory about human relationships

Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby.

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged. Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize, understand, and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are, reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old, they play with toys, listen to their parents speak, they watch tv, anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.

Arnold Lucius Gesell was an American psychologist, pediatrician and professor at Yale University known for his research and contributions to the fields of child hygiene and child development.

Prenatal development includes the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal development until birth.

Child development stages are the theoretical milestones of child development, some of which are asserted in nativist theories. This article discusses the most widely accepted developmental stages in children. There exists a wide variation in terms of what is considered "normal", caused by variations in genetic, cognitive, physical, family, cultural, nutritional, educational, and environmental factors. Many children reach some or most of these milestones at different times from the norm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child development</span> Developmental change in children

Child development involves the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence.

The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism.

Domain-general learning theories of development suggest that humans are born with mechanisms in the brain that exist to support and guide learning on a broad level, regardless of the type of information being learned. Domain-general learning theories also recognize that although learning different types of new information may be processed in the same way and in the same areas of the brain, different domains also function interdependently. Because these generalized domains work together, skills developed from one learned activity may translate into benefits with skills not yet learned. Another facet of domain-general learning theories is that knowledge within domains is cumulative, and builds under these domains over time to contribute to our greater knowledge structure. Psychologists whose theories align with domain-general framework include developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized that people develop a global knowledge structure which contains cohesive, whole knowledge internalized from experience, and psychologist Charles Spearman, whose work led to a theory on the existence of a single factor accounting for all general cognitive ability.

Mental disorders diagnosed in childhood can be neurodevelopmental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. These disorders negatively impact the mental and social wellbeing of a child, and children with these disorders require support from their families and schools. Childhood mental disorders often persist into adulthood. These disorders are usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence, as laid out in the DSM-5 and in the ICD-11.

Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), theorized in the 1970s, occurs when a pregnant woman uses cocaine and thereby exposes her fetus to the drug. Babies whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant supposedly have increased risk of several different health issues during growth and development.

Esther Thelen was an expert in the field of developmental psychology. Thelen's research was focused on human development, especially in the area of infant development.

In the framework of the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) the leading activity is the activity, or cooperative human action, which plays the most essential role in child development during a given developmental period. Although many activities may play a role in a child's development at any given time, the leading activity is theorized to be the type of social interaction that is most beneficial in terms of producing major developmental accomplishments, and preparing the child for the next period of development. Through engaging in leading activities, a child develops a wide range of capabilities, including emotional connection with others, motivation to engage in more complex social activities, the creation of new cognitive abilities, and the restructuring of old ones.

The Gesell Developmental Schedules are a set of developmental metrics which outline the ages & stages of development in young children developed by Dr. Arnold Gesell and colleagues. The original scale is generally considered not to satisfy the standards of rigor currently accepted in the field of psychometrics and is no longer used as an evaluative rubric in the clinical context. The most current form of the schedules comes from the Gesell Institute of Child Development and is known as the Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised for ages 2 ½ to 9 years. This assessment uses the principles of the schedules to determine the developmental age & stage of an any given child.

Louise Bates Ames was an American psychologist specializing in child development. Ames was known as a pioneer of child development studies, introducing the theory of child development stages to popular discourse. Ames authored numerous internationally renowned books on the stages of child development, hosted a television show on child development, and co-founded the Gesell Institute of Child Development in New Haven, Connecticut.

Myrtle Byram McGraw was an American psychologist, neurobiologist, and child development researcher.

References

  1. ↑ Jerry Aldridge; Renitta L. Goldman (2007). Current Issues and Trends in Education. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. pp. 96–97. ISBN   978-0-205-48620-5.
  2. 1 2 H Rudolph Schaffer (2006). Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology. SAGE Publications. pp. 30–. ISBN   978-0-7619-4346-4.
  3. 1 2 Developmental-behavioral Pediatrics: Evidence and Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2008. pp. 21–. ISBN   0-323-04025-X.
  4. ↑ Rebecca Staples New; Moncrieff Cochran (1 December 2006). Early Childhood Education [Four Volumes]. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 388–. ISBN   978-0-313-01448-2.
  5. 1 2 Lynne Graham-Matheson (20 November 2014). Essential Theory for Primary Teachers: An Introduction for Busy Trainees. Routledge. pp. 110–. ISBN   978-1-317-62461-5.
  6. ↑ Ann Gordon; Kathryn Browne (1 January 2013). Beginnings & Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. Cengage Learning. pp. 114–. ISBN   1-133-93696-2.
  7. ↑ George F. Michel; Celia L. Moore (1995). Developmental Psychobiology: An Interdisciplinary Science. MIT Press. pp. 345–. ISBN   978-0-262-13312-8.
  8. 1 2 Leonard Carmichael (January 1970). Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology . Wiley. p.  315.
  9. ↑ Phillip T. Slee; Marilyn Campbell; Barbara Spears (30 August 2012). Child, Adolescent and Family Development. Cambridge University Press. pp. 146–. ISBN   978-1-107-40216-4.
  10. 1 2 3 4 William C. Crain (March 1980). Theories of development: concepts and applications. Prentice-Hall. p. 21. ISBN   978-0-13-913566-8.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Crain, W. (2011). Theories of development concepts and applications. Boston, MA: Pearson. Various pages.
  12. ↑ Daly, W. (2004). Gesell's Infant Growth Orientation: A Composite. Journal of Instructional Psychology,31, 321-324.
  13. ↑ "Maturational Theory", in Jerry Aldridge; E. Anne Eddowes; Patricia Kuby (1 January 1998). No Easy Answers: Helping Children with Attention and Activity Level Differences. Association for Childhood Education International. ISBN   978-0-87173-140-1.
  14. ↑ Robert V. Kail; Theresa Zolner (2005). Children. Pearson Education Canada. p. 11. ISBN   978-0-13-123814-5.
  15. ↑ Laura E. Levine; Joyce Munsch (16 September 2010). Child Development: An Active Learning Approach: An Active Learning Approach. SAGE Publications. pp. 61–. ISBN   978-1-4129-6850-8.
  16. ↑ Edward F. Zigler; Matia Finn-Stevenson; Nancy W. Hall (1 October 2008). The First Three Years and Beyond: Brain Development and Social Policy. Yale University Press. pp. 23–. ISBN   978-0-300-12739-3.
  17. ↑ Stephen Hupp; Jeremy Jewell (8 December 2014). Great Myths of Child Development. Wiley. pp. 116–. ISBN   978-1-118-52124-3.
  18. ↑ Spencer A. Rathus (1 April 2003). Voyages in Childhood . Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. p.  27. ISBN   978-0-534-52833-1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.