Theoretical Practices

Everyone grows and develops at different rates however in order to understand developmental delays there has to be some form of measurement in place, this measurement is called developmental milestones. Milestones look at people’s physical, cognitive, linguistic, emotional and social development in relation to age, to predetermine whether the person is developing within a normative range or not. Each branch of human development is entwined for example someone who has a physical impairment may be emotionally affected etc therefore, it is important to look at each aspect of development holistically.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs asserted that everyone is assigned the same basic needs in order to develop to their fullest potential, thus this could lead to a breakdown in development if these needs are not met. For example, a baby’s main goal is to have their biological and physiological needs met, when these are met they need to feel safe, there after they look for love and attention then they need their esteem needs met. If these needs aren’t met, babies fail to thrive and could suffer a relapse in development. (Dr Karen Cullen 2011)

Learning is the lifelong constant cognitive process the brain goes through in order to transfer our life experiences into knowledge, All this done through a process of mimicking, imitation or conditioning.

Erikson’s psychosocial theory has eight stages. In the first stage he believed that in order for a child to progress and achieve they have to learn to trust their main caregiver without this trust children will quickly become untrusting. The second stage states that parents that allow children to explore and give them choices would help them to become independent. Where...

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...n the culture in which they live. An exemplar of this is the process a child goes through in order to ride a bike, a more knowledgeable person or adult will hold the back of the bike to build up the child’s confidence of cycling without stabilizers. Once the child’s confidence is built, the adult will start to let go of the bike so that the child can cycle unsupported. However, this may involve the child falling over a few times so it is important that the adult start the process over again providing support and encouragement until the child has built up enough courage and confidence to master the art of riding their bike on their own. This support is known as scaffolding. Once the child has mastered how to ride a bike they then become the more knowledgeable person therefore they themselves can go on to teach someone how to ride a bike. (Dr K Cullen 2011)