Child Development

Using historical footage and photos in combination with video shot at day care centers, this program offers an entertaining and enlightening introduction to the major child development theorists, how their theories differ, and how the application of multiple theories can be beneficial to parents, caregivers, and educators. Theorists presented include Sigmund Freud, Maria Montessori, Arnold Gesell, Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Rudolf Dreikurs, Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, John Bowlby, B. F. Skinner, Benjamin Spock, Lawrence Kohlberg, T. Berry Brazelton, Diana Baumrind, and Howard Gardner.

As the number of two-earner families continues to rise, the demand for day care is increasing. Filmed at a nursery, this three-section program discusses some of the possible impacts of day care on children’s long-term development. Parents, caregivers, and psychology experts express their views about the effects of day care on attachment; about children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development; and about a growing understanding that time spent in day care is of as much concern, psychologically speaking, as the quality of that care. The program concludes with insights into what might be done to help parents combine work and child care more effectively.

n this video, adolescent medicine specialist Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, explains the importance of unstructured play in a child's development. From The American Academy of Pediatrics publication "Reaching Teens: Strength-Based Communication Strategies to Build Resilience and Support Healthy Adolescent Development."

he popular Xbox and PlayStation games are all the rage from toddlers to teens. But whatever tech-savvy experience kids get from video games, hands-on play still may be the most important activity for them. Child development research shows us how basic toy blocks can build great minds and skills in kids.

arents often disagree about the best way to raise children, and when they seek professional advice, find the experts are at odds with each other, too. This program helps caregivers sort through the contradictions as it summarizes some major theories of child development. Pointing out that different philosophies each tend to focus on only one aspect of human growth, the video reviews Piaget’s ideas about cognitive stages, the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Erikson, Gesell’s phases of physical development, Skinner’s behaviorism, and Vygotsky’s sociocultural model—encouraging parents to take a “whole child” approach when putting theory into action.