Education 245: Growth and Development
This class was a great learning experience. My professor knew so much about children and how they operate. She has years of experience under her belt from working with kids in schools and through having children herself. She explained how kids go through different phases of growth and development. Different theorists have different stages. For example, Erikson has numerous stages starting with infancy and ending with old age. Each of his stages has a conflict that the particular group is conflicted over. During the infancy phase, infants are contemplating basic trust versus mistrust. These ideas are central to these age groups and help understand what a child is thinking about at their given age.
I was able to construct a research project on the children I babysit for during the summer. I asked all three children, who are of varying ages and are in different stages on the development process, twenty questions and compared their answers. This experiment was eye opening in the fact that I was able to really understand what they were thinking and their level of understanding. For example, the youngest of the three children is unable to explain why his friends are his friends while the older children are able to explain that their friends are loyal and trustworthy.
I really liked this class because it was a breath of fresh air to learn about kids and their development through life. I was able to use my own experiences as a child to truly understand these ideas.
This paper below is my research project that I constructed looking at the family dynamics of kids at different ages.