Compare And Contrast Early Childhood Development And Cognitive Development

CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

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Since the start of 20th century, development psychology has witnessed many changes. An Early theorist has impacted the field of psychology significantly. The most notable psychologists whose influence determines early childhood education and child psychology are Jean Piaget, Eric Erikson, Vygotsky, and Skinner (Biehler, 2004). This paper seeks to compare and contrast their approaches by expressing their views on the early childhood learning and development. The paper also explains how each theorist would handle the issue of cognitive development in early childhood and the best advice for Jasmine 's parents.

Similarity and Differences

Jean Piaget developed a cognitive development theory focuses on four stages. The transition from one stage to another follows a sequence. He believed that all kids pass through the stages sequentially in their lifetime. On the other hand, Eric Erickson also developed a theory that consists of eight stages across the lifetime of a person. Even though he developed the theory much later after Piaget, the theory bears cross similarity and differences with that of Piaget (Hayes, 2010). Below is a discussion of the two theories (Osborne, 2009).

Erik’s theory perceives the entire life development process in eight stages. According to him, the individual interacts with the environment to influence the development. Depending on how one handles the