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Compare And Contrast Piaget And Child Development

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Introduction Developmental psychology makes an attempt to comprehend the types and sources of advancement in children’s cognitive, social, and language acquisition skills. The pioneering work done by early child development theorists has had a significant influence on the field of psychology as we know it today. The child development theories put forward by both Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson have had substantial impacts on contemporary child psychology, early childhood education, and play therapy. In this essay, I aim to highlight the contribution of these two theorists in their study of various developmental stages, the differences and similarities in their theories, and their contributions to the theory and practice of play therapy. Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896. His interest initially lay in natural sciences, which he studied before his interests moved to psychoanalysis. He later moved to France, and had three children, who were the subjects of many of his observations regarding cognitive development (Kindersley, 2012). Piaget placed his main focus on the study of how intelligence changes as children grow, which he called genetic epistemology. Rather than being concerned with comparing levels of intelligence between children of different ages, he was interested in the natural development of mental skills over time. As noted by Kindersley (2012) Piaget broke away from the behaviourist model prevalent at the time, which had directly linked
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