Understanding child development

Social, emotional, intellectual and language development, whilst related to physical growth, are complex and multifactorial. There’ve been many attempts to understand and make sense of these areas and many theories have been developed. It’s probably true to say that no one theory can explain every aspect, or is right in every detail. Indeed many theories have focused in on just one aspect of child development.

Instead, we must consider each theoretical framework as part of a wider whole. Within this resource, an overview of the major theories that are considered to be influential are given. Remember it’s not the theories in of themselves that is important, but how they might help us to understand the underlying principles that explain the complexity of child development.