Erikson came up with eight stages that he believed everyone passed through and that

there was a crisis at every stage and the only way out of the crisis was balance. His stages
included; trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs.
inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. selfabsorption and integrity vs. despair.
Maslow created the self-actualization theory in which he believed humans had a
hierarchy of needs. He believed that you must meet each stage before you could move up
the pyramid. I really like this pyramid because the layers feel basic to me, they are the
very basic needs we need and there are only five of them, which is much easier for the
mind to categorize.
Piaget believed that childrens minds are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge
by adults; instead, children actively try to make sense of their experiences by building or
constructing their own knowledge (Bredekamp, page 110), this theory is known
constructivism. Piaget invented four stages of cognitive development- sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational and set aside three types of
knowledge children use; physical, logico-mathimatical and social-conventional.
Vygotskys sociocultural theory is based on his belief that children learn from social
interaction within a cultural context (Bredekamp, page 116). Vygotskys Zone of
Proximal Development is based on a child not being able to complete something on their
own but being able with some help, the help is known as scaffolding. This is something I
notice in classrooms often and used it on some children today during my math project.
While the children were sorting shapes, if they got one wrong, I would simply ask them
something along the lines of lets out all the triangles in this compartment, what is this on

here (referring to a square placed with the triangles).

Behaviorism states that everything is based on a consequence- that children do things
based off of if they will receive a positive or negative consequence. This is one that I
have heard mothers use often. If your child is motivated by getting a treat at the grocery
store, you may tell them that they can only get a treat after if they behave and stay seated
in the cart or you may reverse it and tell them that acting like that will not result in a treat.
The Reggio Emilia Approach combines other theories to create an experience for children
including that schools consist of teachers, parents and students and they all play a role
together.
Looking at the stages created by all of these theorists seems too strict to me even though
they may just be guidelines. All children learn differently and at different rates so I dont
like when I see an age attached to a phase or development. Also, Maslow and Vygotsky
stated you had to move through each phase or state to be able to move onto the next, I
dont believe this is true, I think we are capable of not completing each and not even
entering some. That however, is just my opinion. To me, it seems like all of these theories
have good information in them and like some of them could work well together.
Vygotsky believed that speech is the most important tool for learning and that learning
depended on interaction with other people (Bredekamp, page 117) and I believe this to be
true. We use communication whether it be verbal or otherwise in pretty much everything
we do. He also believed that make-believe play was the leading activity in childrens
development from ages 2-5 (Bredekamp, page 118) which I agree with, this is how
children can change roles and mimic things they have witnessed and taken not of. I had
never heard of the Reggio Emilia approach before but this one made a lot of sense to me,

it seems like an open ended experience for children and I think more schools should be
like this. I loved that teachers stay with the same students for years- this allows for a
much greater understanding and relationship. I also love that the curriculum isnt planned
but is more go with the flow and goes in the direction that the children take it. I thought
that is sounded more fun which is something that engages children as they learn in my
experience. Eriksons stages are the ones I have the most trouble with- when you read the
descriptions they make more sense but the names of them really make them feel less
credited to me, they are hard to grasp.

Reference Page

Bredekamp,Sue.EffectivePracticesinEarlyChildhoodEducation:Buildinga
Foundation.UpperSaddleRiver,NJ:Pearson,2011.Print.