Explain What Do Researchers Mean When They Say Development Is Continuous Or Discontinuous

A further distinction between developmental theorists sees some as holding a discontinuous theory of development that is believing that stages are discrete and distinct, with children moving from one to the other in a clear cut fashion, whereas others believe that the stages are continuous and overlap, with the child moving to and fro across distinctions. ‘Developmental theories recognize both consistency and variability in child development’ (DEEWR, 2010: 2).

Children gain skills and abilities as they grow,the changes in their capabilities and personalaties develop with age. There are many factors which distinguish each child such as diet, stimulation, environment,medical conditions,and illness. But most children generally develop at a similar rate.There are four key area of developmet which are; physical, social and emotional,cognitive(intellectual), and language developmet. Younger children between birth and five generally develop at much more rapid rate in comparison to older children. Growth and development begins at the moment of conception and continues until much later in life. Below i have listed the sequences and rate at which children develop.

There are many different theories of development which we use to understand children’s behaviour, reactions and the way in which they learn.

Psychology is the study of the behavior and mental processes of all living organisms. In psychology, different perspectives are made in order for us to have a better understanding of the different changes and behavior humans will undertake throughout their life. These “theories” help contribute to the study of human growth and development and provide us with a better understanding. They can be sorted into continuous or discontinuous, one course or many courses of development, and nature or nurture. In developmental psychology continuity and discontinuity are two theories that compete to try and explain how individuals change throughout their lives. The continuity theory says that someone changes for the duration of their life along a smooth course whereas the discontinuity theory instead claims that people change abruptly. A development theory is one course when it is believed that there is one universal common path for all people across all places and cultures. On the other hand, a development theory with many courses is stated to have specific stages for specific individuals across specific contexts. Lastly, the nature theory argues that we are born the way we are and genetics determine who we are and who we will become. The nurture theory argues that outside influences such as society determines

itself abundantly or how complex it is, is a reflection on how we see the world. In the text Development Through the Lifespan, explains we either go through a continuous process or a discontinuous process that allows us to categorize our experiences. With continuous process we are gradually increase the same type of skills that were there to begin with; discontinuous process is a new way of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times. Thorough out the semester, we were exposed to several different theorist regarding the early developmental stages of children. Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Eric Erikson,

Throughout life, we go through many changes, most of which are unnoticed until we truly stop and reflect. As we grow, we are continually developing and changing. According to modern theorists, we change physically, cognitively, and socioemotionally. We change physically as our bodies grow, cognitively as we age and become wiser and we change socioemotionally, by the interactions we have with others, and how we are affective by those interactions. These changes are lifelong, starting at birth and continue until death. Just as these changes are steady and constant, development is a lifelong process.

In chapter one Berk gives us an introduction to development theories. He goes into context on weather development is continuous, discontinuous, or does it occur in stages. Many theorists believe that development is continuous and has no age limit. For example, Lifespan Perspective infers “Every age period has its own agenda, its unique demands and opportunities that yield certain similarities in development across many individuals” (Berk, 2017, p.8.) In contrast, Psychoanalytic perspective and Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory believe development is discontinuous. Both theories believe development takes place in stages according to your age. While most theories focus on being continuous or discontinuous other theories believe development

Development is a lifelong process consisting of four main stages in which life goes through. Each stage of life has many ways of benefiting that particular time that an individual is developing in. These show ways that individuals can determine for themselves what is and is not beneficial to his/her development. These recommended strategies will psychologically benefit the well-being and growth of an individual from prenatal development through adulthood.

#2 Cognitive development is a continuous process with periods of gradual change. As a young child my thoughts were developed through the perception of the world, and the many interactions I faced physically living with my older brothers.

We also become more active by discovering how to move our bodies, and discovering our abilities. What develops at this stage in life is object permanence we do not recognize objects exist even if we are not able to see them. The second stage is from two to seven years (2-7), the toddlerhood stage known as preoperational, the mental operation when children start to develop in pretend and play, and use symbols to represent things. We learn how to walk and talk and are egocentric, we do not understand that others have a different point of view than we do. In this stage we are able to develop memory which helps us understand the difference between the past and present. Yet we cannot understand complex concepts such as cause and effect, and comparison. The third stage is the concrete operational stage which is between ages seven and eleven (7-11), at this stage we develop and demonstrate logical and concrete reasoning. We are able to discover and realize that thoughts and feelings are unique and that each individual is different. The last and final stage is the formal operational stage which is from age eleven to adulthood. It involves reasoning, logic and understanding. At this stage we become capable of finding solutions to problems, and understand more about the world and how it works. For Piaget to discover under which stage a person falls he used a famous conversion task

* cognitive skills develop more in a continuous manner, developmental changes are more quantitative in nature, improving gradually.

Development can be fueled by a variety of different things including but not limited to peers, family members, experiences, and broader social contexts. The ends of development really depend of who the individual is and in what type of environment they develop, but two general ends of development would be at a bare minimum, survival and if everything falls into place correctly, fulfillment.

Child development is all apart of a life cycle. The life cycle defines pathways for individuals as they age from birth to death. Child development is an interesting topic to observe. Anyone who is around or care for children cannot help but to notice the rapid growth from infancy to adulthood. Those without children can recognize the rapid growth also, because he or she was once a child. “Childhood has thus been identified as a stage of life, associated with chronological age, located between infancy and youth, and including adolescence” (Burke 4). Children go through periods of development as they grow up in life, and they also participate in their own development and learning. Childhood is generally considered to be a natural biological stage of development (Burke 1). In each stage there are multiple changes in the development of the brain. Studies show that child development processes through three stages; early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence.

Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to define development, and discuss my own theory of Change, Observation /case study and conclusion.

Growth and development- The continuing changes of the inner and outer aspects of the individual