Child Development Theories by Thomas R.M

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Child Development Theories by Thomas R.M

Thomas R.M believes that studying and understanding the growth and development of a child is helpful to train the young on how to live well. Children differ in emotional growth, physical, social and cognitive patterns. Children differ even if they are identical twins. Think of a child you will find out that their response to the play, affection, people, and objects be it living or non-living in their environment is very different. In this book, Thomas R.M helps us to understand children better by discussing the principles of child development, the brain growth, and development of a child. He further gives a good guideline on how the different child development theories can be used practically in early childcare and education. The book report will later compare the different theories that are Erickson, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Gardner.

According to Thomas R.M, child development is the change or growth that occurs in children starting with the infancy throughout adulthood. The study of child development helps the learner to build a good profile of what actions children can partake at various ages. For instance, you will find that children love to run at the age of two hence when your child is at the age of two, you will provide enough space for him or her to move freely. Another good example is that infants explore their environment using their body senses and knowing this will help you know that the baby toys are supposed to remain clean and safe for the proper health of the child. Thomas R.M emphasizes that understanding child development also helps us appreciate the different names given to young children at the various stages. For instance, infant describes a child from birth through the first year. The toddler is the name of a child from age one up to the third birthday because of their style of walking. The preschooler is used to describing children between ages three and six.

Child development has three main dimensions that are physical development, cognitive development and social-emotional development (Thomas, 2009). Physical development refers to a physical change in body form. It occurs in a relative, stable and predictable manner. There is a change in bone thickness and most of the body organs become active e.g. the hearing, vision, and muscles start to work. The body size and weight increases too. The physical skills that a child acquires like crawling and walking are part of physical development. The skills can be divided into gross-monitor development, which involves improvement of competencies, by the use of large muscles in legs and arms. The other class of the skills is the fine-motor development, which includes the use of muscle of hands and fingers to grasp or hold something. Thomas R.M clarified that the environment affected the physical evolution of a child. The environmental factors here that he considers include the nutrition and activities that the child is subjected to them.