How Child Development Affects Learning

Learning is directly impacted by a child's current development level. Clearly, an infant will learn very differently than an 8 year old child. Understanding where a child is developmentally will help you as you seek to teach said child.

I personally agree with Erickson's theory of child development, specifically that cognitive development is social in nature. Erickson holds that there are eight stages of development that people progress through during their lifetime. 

How do these stages of development affect learning? Let's look at some examples. A child in the Initiative vs. Guilt stage learn best though play. Research (specifically found here, here, and here) has demonstrated that children in this age range benefit from play as opposed to more traditional academic tasks. 

In contrast, a child in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage is naturally curious and desires to master the tasks set before them. They would do quite well in a regular academic setting. On this point, Santrock notes: 

"Teachers need to challenge students without overwhelming them: be firm in requiring students to be productive, but not be overly critical; and especially be tolerant of honest mistakes and make sure that every student has opportunities for many successes." (21)

As educators, we must strive to understand how a child's current developmental level affects their ability to learn. We must not ask children to do things that they are not developmentally able to do. For example, we should not ask a child to complete a task that requires executive attention (such as writing an essay) before they have developed that ability. We must be sure to teach on the appropriate level so that children can be successful and become confident in their own ability to learn.