Child Development

Child Development

Why should a discussion of education begin with a discussion of child development? Knowledge of child development is crucial to educators because that developmental knowledge can inform educators about the optimal age for appropriate communication strategies, for the relationship, and for environments that provide the best-needed support for the development of the child’s innate capacities. A primary assumption in this view is that knowledge is emergent and that it needs context and relationship to come into being. In my own research from this perspective, I’ve found that a developmental stage is defined by the way the child organizes the world in each stage of life in relationship to the context using all his or her faculties (and their interrelationship): cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and self-perception. Therefore, creating environments designed to nurture development optimizes the child’s learning because building bridges between previous learning and new learning requires knowledge of the student’s mental and emotional development (Caine & Caine 2011). The field of neurobiology tells us that stages in brain development impact the child’s capacity and ability for comprehension and skills. In other words, our development changes the physical structure of our brain, and different parts of the brain are ready for specific learning at different times (Bransford 2000). In addition, what changes in development is our way of knowing self and the world and our meaning-constructing (Kegan 2000). Knowledge is emergent, not constructed. Thus, knowledge of the emerging consciousness of the child is of primary importance to education.

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