Sociocultural Theory in Early Childhood Development

Sociocultural is defined as relating to, or involving a combination of social (relating to human society) and cultural (taste in art and manners that are favored by a social group) factors.” (Socialcultural , 2010) You might ask why we are defining these words. It gives a better understanding of Vygotsky beliefs “that children seek out adults for interaction, beginning at birth, and that development occurs through these interactions.” (Morrison, 2009 sec 14.6) I agree that his theory is the best process for learning. Many people feel that social interaction and learning begin at birth, but there have been research conducted that fetus can learn through parental interaction. According to Fetal memory “Prenatal memory may be important for the development of attachment and other maternal recognition. There is much evidence that the fetus learns the speech characteristics of its mother prenatally and prefers its mother's voice to other female voices after birth. It may be that by learning to recognize its mother prenatally the newborn infant has a "familiar" stimulus in its environment after birth to respond to.” (Hepper, 2005, para 18).

“Once a child is born we begin helping them with tasks that are too difficult to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance which is the (ZPD) zone of proximal development.”(Morrison, 2009 sec 14.6.1) this is the major concept of Lev Vygotsky theory. As our children grow we will interact with them throughout their lives. We may feel that a child should be at a certain stage in life; which would fit perfectly into Piagets theory that a child develops in stages. However we have always helped them with task; we sit back, observe the child trying the task, and when they c...

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...e are shown what to do every day of our lives and without instruction on how to complete a task it would be a chaotic. When thinking back from learning how to stand, putting on clothing, tying your shoes, writing the alphabets, and playing ring-around-the- rosy you are actively interacting with your parents, teachers and peers. After getting help you are then left alone to complete the task and to continue to progressively learn new things.

Works Cited

Hepper, P. (2005, December). Fetal memory: Does it exist? What does it do? Retrieved July 4, 2010, from Circumcison Refrence Library : http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/hepper1

Morrison, G. S. (2009). Early Childhood Education Today. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson .

Socialcultural . (2010). Retrieved July 5, 2010 , from In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary : http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sociocultural