10 Principles of Development

Development is a continuous process in human beings. According to developmental psychology, Development starts with conception and ends with death. The development includes cognitive development, emotional development, intellectual development, and social development. We understand the development process with the help of principles of development.

 

There are many principles of development. And all the principles are interconnected. Individual differences affect all principles. They are-

1.  Principle of Continuity

In the continuity process, development is continuous. It starts with conception and ends with death. It follows all periods of development. The periods of development occur between prenatal development to late adulthood. So, all principles follow the continuity approach.

Human life continues till death. And the process of development also goes on continuously.

2.  Principles of development direction

    According to prenatal development, the direction of the development is head to tail and near to far. This development head to tail is called cephalocaudal trend and near to far is called the proximodistal trend. In the prenatal period, the head develops first than other parts of the body. In the proximodistal trend, development starts with the center part of the body and moves to other parts.

The development follows a specific and sequential process. This principle plays an important role in the principles of child development. And development has its own specific direction.

3.  The development follows a fixed pattern and sequence

The principles of development have their specific pattern. So, development follows the pattern in a sequence way.  In language development, infants are able to vegetative sounds, cooing sounds, and babbling sounds. These all stages follow the sequence pattern of sound. In development, all principles follow step-by-step procedures. One example of language development shows that development follows fixed sequences.

In this example, a child’s language development depends on the holophase, telegraphic and complex period.

This example shows that development follows a fixed pattern according to periods.

4.  Individual Differences

The development follows individual differences. The capacities and abilities of individuals are totally dependent on individual differences. Human beings have emotional, mental health, physical health, temperament, and cognitive differences.

Every person has his own qualities. And all qualities lead to individual differences. So, a teacher also teaches according to these rules.

5.  Development general to specific

In human beings. principles follow the pattern of general to specific. In development general behavior leads to specific behavior. Example:- At birth, an infant’s crying sound is related to only feeding. But a toddler’s crying sound is related to a specific purpose. So, it is important to know this principle.

6.  Development is predictable

   According to developmental psychologists, the prediction of development is possible. And, developmental psychologists can apply many psychological tests and methods to children and predict the children’s future behavior.

The main goal of all principles is to predict behavior for the future.  Psychologists explained the development with examples.

Example 1:-   Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory, conducted many experiments on children and explained that cognitive development occurs according to four stages. So, prediction of the development is possible.           

  Example 2:-   Gardner’s theory of multi-dimensional intelligence showed that prediction of the behavior is possible. Psychologists identified the individual’s occupation for the future with the help of multi-dimensional intelligence theory.

 

7.  Development is a gradual process

Development is not always the same process. Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory explained that development is divided into eight stages. process.

8.  Interaction heredity and environment

The development of children is not possible without heredity and environmental factors. Because of these two, the complete development of the children is possible.

9. Principle of Integration

    Children integrate knowledge. Piaget did experiments for children’s integrated knowledge. They integrate on the basis of previous knowledge.

 

10.  Development is Multidimensional

   Development is presented with the help of multi-dimensional. Multidimensional includes cognitive, social, emotional, physical, language, and moral development.

According to this principle, only the physical development of children does not happen. They have overall development.

 

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