Children's Physical Development At Different Stages
Unit 2 Assignment.
E1+E2) Children at the age of 3-5 years old develop at different rates. For physical development a child at the age of 3 should be able to stand on one leg, kick a football, play catch with a large ball and even throw overhand. For their fine motor skills they are able to hold crayons and be able to stack eight or more blocks. At 4 years old a child should be physically be able to hop using only one foot, they can feed themselves using a knife and fork properly and climb outside on the climbing equipment. Children at the age of 4 years old can also thread beads onto a string, make shapes with the play dough and write numbers and letters with a pencil.
The physical development milestones for a 5 year old are they can …show more content…
walk backwards, they can walk up and down the stairs using both of their feet without help. They can also skip, jump or hop ten spaces without losing their balance and keep their balance while standing on one foot for 10 seconds. For the fine motor skills of a 5 year old they should be able to use scissors to cut out pictures neatly, colour inside the lines if a picture and copy shapes and letters.
There are social and emotional development milestones for 3-5 year olds too. For a 3 year old the social and emotional development milestones are they know what taking turns and sharing is but sometimes they will not be willing to do it, they might make up conversations with themselves and play make believe either with themselves or with others. A 3 year old may develop fears at night time and also they will play alongside other children and sometimes join in other children 's play.
Four year olds can have mood swings, for instance, they can be laughing one minute and crying the next minute. They like to be able to do things for themselves without any help from anyone. A 4 year old will want to dress up and pretend they are being someone else. Children this age will become particularly friendly with one person and only want that person as their friend. Also children this age will have difficulty with waiting their turn in group discussions and will show increased self centeredness.
The social and emotional development milestones for a 5 year old would be they are able to take turns and share in groups. Their play will involve roles, props and costumes and become more involved. They are good at showing affection, especially with younger children and animals. They follow instructions when given to them, they like to entertain adults and children and love to make them laugh. They are not shy about talking about their achievements to others as they are very proud about them. (www.officeofchilddeveloment.co.uk)
The physical development milestones for a 6 year old is that they can possibly perform some basic dance moves and follow movement patterns.
They have developed stronger hand-eye co-ordination. They might be able to play a musical instrument and they can follow the rules of games much better than when they were younger as the games have more meaning to them and they like to play them properly.
By the age of 7 years old children should be able to ride a two wheeled bike, they are able to spin, twist and turn while standing still on a spot. They can also perform simple chores like making a bed or sweeping the floor. (http://childparenting.about.com)
For social and emotional development milestones a 6 year old should be able to make friends but may have trouble resolving disputes they may have so they may need a little help. They like having responsibility and helping others when the can. They like learning about the world and how it works, and they like to learn about people and about the relationships people have with each other. They like to have structure and a routine in order for them to feel safe and when behaviour is ‘over the top’, they need limits to be set so they know what is right and wrong and what they should be doing and what they should not be doing.
(http://www.homelearningcollege.com).
Whether it is physical, mental or social and emotional this depends on the child and the adults that are bringing up the child. Most children are different and develop at their own speed. Some children have medical problems or dysfunctions to a degree which means that they learn slower than what the milestone for their age is. It could be to do with the fact that the childs family structure is different. For instance the child might have a lot of family around so there is not much time for the parents to help him with his homework as there is for a child who has his mum and dad or someone there to help him anytime.
E3) A theorist for physical development is Arnold Gesell. Gesell 's theory is concerned with the physical development of children. He advised developmental norms attributed to the ages of children through his observations. He determined the age range at which children should be able to do certain things and the normal sequences of development that he got from observing hundreds of children. Through his research, Arnold Gesell developed some of the first milestones that children should meet. These milestones are called the Gesell Developmental Schedules. This was the beginning of the idea that child development happens in stages. The Gesell Developmental Schedule was able to compare a child’s development to the standard norm. The norm was established through extensive studies of children, as he was an older child he watched his younger siblings grow up and develop which made him aware that he was interested in child development. Children who show early development were likely to have high intelligence according to the schedule. Arnold Gesell believed that child development was mostly biological, not environmental. According to Gesell, a stable environment is important to a child, but only so that they can develop naturally according to their genetics. (www.thekidscave.org/child-development/arnold-gesell-theory-of-child-development).
Lev Vygotsky is a theorist for social development. Social interaction plays an important part in the progress of cognitive development. Vygotsky said 'Every function in a child 's cultural development appears twice, first on the social level and then on the individual level, first between people and then inside the child '. He focused on the connections of people on the sociocultural context in which the act and interact with shared experiences. According to Vygotsky, 'Humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing which help them in social environments '. He says that children develop these cultural things too and use them to communicate. He said that the tolls that are developed led the children to higher thinking. Vygotsky believes that young children are curious and actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of new understandings. According to Vygotsky much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with an adult. The adult may model behaviours and provide verbal instructions for the child. Vygotsky refers to this as co-operative dialogue. The child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by the adult then uses the information to guide their own performance. The Zone of Proximal Development was developed by Vygotsky and is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from an adult. . (www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html)
E5)Observations are used to look at someone closely and notice the changes of something or someone. It can be used to measure someone 's skills in a particular task also. The observations can be used to see what though teachers are doing for a particular class or task. We can observe children to see if they are progressing. We can observe activities that the children are doing and the resources that they are using. We can also observe the behaviour of the children and how it is being dealt with. We observe to learn about development, evaluate provision routines, evaluate strategies, monitor and promote development and to report our findings of our observations to other professionals. One observation is the written one. This is when an observation is just wrote out in a paragraph telling us all the information we need to know. Another observation technique that can be used is a checklist. This is a list of developmental norms which a child should be able to achieve by a certain age. You would use a checklist to check progress or lack of progress and to measure development. The time sample is another observation technique you can use. A time sample is used to look at a child at regular intervals for longer periods of time. This technique is useful for monitoring concentration, movements and interactions of a child.
E6) It is important to maintain confidentiality throughout observations of children. During an observation there are certain things that should not be mentioned. Make sure that on the observation you do not name children in case parents/ carers pick it up or read it and don 't agree. Another way is to not include any personal information like the address, disabilities or medications. Make sure the observations are kept in a folder out of the way of children and that they are all together, this should stop them getting lost and mixed up which would also break confidentiality.
D1+D2) In the first observation that I did when the child of 6 years and 6 months was threading beads onto a string and writing and colouring I found out that the child was really confident with using her pincer grasp to pick up the beads. According to www.homelearningcollege.com children should be able to thread beads onto a string when they are 3 years old. Therefore the child I observed doing this activity is on task with this milestone. I also observed the child doing some writing and colouring during this observation. According to www.baby-centre/physical-development/fine-motor-skills.com children at the age of 6 years old should be able to print their names, copy designs, shapes and numbers and colour within the lines of a drawing. The child I was observing had no difficulty in doing any of these tasks so that means she is meeting he developmental norms for her age. To make sure the child is reaching her full potential in using her fine motor skills I would plan for her to do more complex activities which require fine motor skills. This could be threading smaller beads onto a string so she gets used to using her pincer grasp more, or she could be given more complex colouring sheets to do like colouring a smaller area so she gets used to keeping in the lines of the picture.
In a different observation that I done I was observing the childs physical skills in fine motor development and gross motor development. The child was aged 6 years and 6 months. I saw the child walk backward toe to heel in the yard at break time. I also observed the child colour within the lines of a picture. I seen the child touch each finger to her thumb rapidly and over again in the observation. In the yard the child was climbing on the climbing frame and galloping across the yard with her friends so I know she can do this too. The child was tying up a little boys shoelaces in the yard. According to www.newchildcare.co.uk a child at the age of 6 years old should be able to do all of the things above and more. The things that the child could not do during the observation was cut a square on the lines, connect dots with straight lines, build a pyramid with blocks and ride a bike. I did not see the child do these things in the observation so I don 't know if she can do them or not. Maybe in future observations I will make sure I include the things I didn 't see in this observation and make sure she has the chance to do them so I can see if she is meeting the developmental norms for them for her age. To plan later activities related to the things that the child did in this observation I would maybe do some P.E lessons on gross motor skills and see what else the child can do using her legs and arms. I would compare what she does with the developmental norms for her age and see if she is meeting them.
The final observation I did with the child aged 6 years was various physical activities which focused on gross motor skills. One of the things I observed the child do was doing handstands. According to www.chalkbucket.com) children should be able to do handstands when they just turn 6 years old so she meeting the developmental norm for this. I also observed the child jogging on the spot. children should be able to do this just as they turn three as they should have started walking and started school. She could do this easily so she is meeting the norms for this too. The final thing I observed the child on was skipping. Children should be starting to learn to skip by the time they are 5 years old according to childparenting.about.com. She is pretty confident with this so she is meeting this developmental milestone too. For this child to move forward with her physical gross motor skills now I would recommend doing some things that are a bit harder like try standing on one foot for 10 seconds, throw, bounce and catch a tennis ball, run in an adult manner with quick direction changes and ski with good balance.
C1) Confidentiality is important for several reasons. One of the most important elements of confidentiality is that it helps to build and develop trust. One of the major purposes for keeping a childs or parents information before speaking to the appropriate person to deal with the information is to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the child or parent. Information which is personal can be spoken of only with the permission of the child or the person who speaks up for the child. You should only discuss matters relating to the childs business with your supervisor as they would need to know what is going on with the child so they can inform the parents or the appropriate person if there is a chance that the child or the childs family might be at danger or harm. Discussions should take place in the classroom where no one else can hear you speak of the confidential information. Under no circumstances should the information be spoken of with friends or family. Everyone in the workplace who knows about the confidential information should respect it. All organisations need to have policies and procedures that provide guidelines for workers to ensure confidentiality, certain people should only access to the confidential information and everyone who works in the setting should have access to the policies and procedures of the organisation. Everyone who is in charge of the information need to ensure that it is collected is securely stored and disposed of properly. The childs name should not be used in observations because someone who is not meant to see it might see it and then they know that childs information. For example, a child might be having problems with his maths work and you put this in your observation and another child might see this and the child the observation is about might get picked on for not doing very well at his work. The childs address must not be put on observations because someone might go to the address of the child and that could be dangerous for the child and the childs family.
B1) Observations help you to better your practise for many reasons. They can help you think about how you and other practitioners handle the behaviour of children and what techniques you use for different things. They also help you to recognise if there is a routine in the classroom and if things need changing in the routine if the things that are being done don 't work so good or if there are things that work brilliantly and you should keep doing them. It is important to use the observations that you do in the setting for planning. They help you know what to plan for the children in your care. For example, if there is a little boy in the setting that does not do very well with writing his letters you can give him some extra letter writing work so that he can get used to writing down the letters and practices them. You can also get the parents involved and give the children some work that the parents can help them with at home and tell them to report back to you with how they did. This is working with that parents in identifying the childrens individual needs that they might have so that you can help the children at school as much as you can. Observing staff can also help you better your practise by seeing what they do with the children. You can pick up some tips on how to handle the childrens behaviour or on how to plan effectively and ways that is better for you and the children to learn. Observations also help the people in multiagency teams like social workers, psychiatrists etc. They help these people because if the child has a social worker or goes to see a psychiatrist and you notice something in your observation worth telling them they can help the child too. All the observations you do and act upon are all in the best interests of the child and how we can help them learn and improve themselves.
A) The theorists I wrote about in E3 are Lev Vygotsky for social development and Arnold Gesell for physical development. There is not really much that these two theorists have in common. The only thing is that Lev Vygotsky talks about physical development briefly. The things that they do not have in common is that Lev Vygotsky talks about lots of different area of development like language, cognitive development and he developed the Zone of Proximal development and Arnold Gesell just focuses on physical development. They both link the current practice which is the foundation phase because both their theories are based in Wales. Children will be given more opportunities to explore the world around them and understand how things work by taking part in practical activities that are relevant to their developmental stage. They are challenged with open-ended questions and given opportunities to explore and share their ideas for solving problems in the foundation phase. It brings more consistency and continuity to children’s education at important period in their development. The Foundation Phase places great emphasis on children learning by doing. Young children will be given more opportunities to gain first hand experiences through play and active involvement rather than by completing exercises in books. The curriculum will focus on experiential learning, active involvement and developing each childs :skills and understanding, personal, social, emotional, physical and intellectual well being, positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue, self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form new relationships, creative, expressive and observational skills to encourage their development as individuals with different ways of responding to experiences, activities in the outdoors where they have first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learn about conservation and sustainability. (http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase)
In conclusion I think Vygotskys theory is better because he goes into more detail about lots of different elements but Gesell 's theory just talks about one specific thing.
Bibliography
(www.officeofchilddeveloment.co.uk)
(www.thekidscave.org/child-development/arnold-gesell-theory-of-child-development)
(www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html
(http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase)
(http://childparenting.about.com)
(http://www.homelearningcollege.com)
(www.chalkbucket.com)
E1+E2) Children at the age of 3-5 years old develop at different rates. For physical development a child at the age of 3 should be able to stand on one leg, kick a football, play catch with a large ball and even throw overhand. For their fine motor skills they are able to hold crayons and be able to stack eight or more blocks. At 4 years old a child should be physically be able to hop using only one foot, they can feed themselves using a knife and fork properly and climb outside on the climbing equipment. Children at the age of 4 years old can also thread beads onto a string, make shapes with the play dough and write numbers and letters with a pencil.
The physical development milestones for a 5 year old are they can …show more content…
walk backwards, they can walk up and down the stairs using both of their feet without help. They can also skip, jump or hop ten spaces without losing their balance and keep their balance while standing on one foot for 10 seconds. For the fine motor skills of a 5 year old they should be able to use scissors to cut out pictures neatly, colour inside the lines if a picture and copy shapes and letters.
There are social and emotional development milestones for 3-5 year olds too. For a 3 year old the social and emotional development milestones are they know what taking turns and sharing is but sometimes they will not be willing to do it, they might make up conversations with themselves and play make believe either with themselves or with others. A 3 year old may develop fears at night time and also they will play alongside other children and sometimes join in other children 's play.
Four year olds can have mood swings, for instance, they can be laughing one minute and crying the next minute. They like to be able to do things for themselves without any help from anyone. A 4 year old will want to dress up and pretend they are being someone else. Children this age will become particularly friendly with one person and only want that person as their friend. Also children this age will have difficulty with waiting their turn in group discussions and will show increased self centeredness.
The social and emotional development milestones for a 5 year old would be they are able to take turns and share in groups. Their play will involve roles, props and costumes and become more involved. They are good at showing affection, especially with younger children and animals. They follow instructions when given to them, they like to entertain adults and children and love to make them laugh. They are not shy about talking about their achievements to others as they are very proud about them. (www.officeofchilddeveloment.co.uk)
The physical development milestones for a 6 year old is that they can possibly perform some basic dance moves and follow movement patterns.
They have developed stronger hand-eye co-ordination. They might be able to play a musical instrument and they can follow the rules of games much better than when they were younger as the games have more meaning to them and they like to play them properly.
By the age of 7 years old children should be able to ride a two wheeled bike, they are able to spin, twist and turn while standing still on a spot. They can also perform simple chores like making a bed or sweeping the floor. (http://childparenting.about.com)
For social and emotional development milestones a 6 year old should be able to make friends but may have trouble resolving disputes they may have so they may need a little help. They like having responsibility and helping others when the can. They like learning about the world and how it works, and they like to learn about people and about the relationships people have with each other. They like to have structure and a routine in order for them to feel safe and when behaviour is ‘over the top’, they need limits to be set so they know what is right and wrong and what they should be doing and what they should not be doing.
(http://www.homelearningcollege.com).
Whether it is physical, mental or social and emotional this depends on the child and the adults that are bringing up the child. Most children are different and develop at their own speed. Some children have medical problems or dysfunctions to a degree which means that they learn slower than what the milestone for their age is. It could be to do with the fact that the childs family structure is different. For instance the child might have a lot of family around so there is not much time for the parents to help him with his homework as there is for a child who has his mum and dad or someone there to help him anytime.
E3) A theorist for physical development is Arnold Gesell. Gesell 's theory is concerned with the physical development of children. He advised developmental norms attributed to the ages of children through his observations. He determined the age range at which children should be able to do certain things and the normal sequences of development that he got from observing hundreds of children. Through his research, Arnold Gesell developed some of the first milestones that children should meet. These milestones are called the Gesell Developmental Schedules. This was the beginning of the idea that child development happens in stages. The Gesell Developmental Schedule was able to compare a child’s development to the standard norm. The norm was established through extensive studies of children, as he was an older child he watched his younger siblings grow up and develop which made him aware that he was interested in child development. Children who show early development were likely to have high intelligence according to the schedule. Arnold Gesell believed that child development was mostly biological, not environmental. According to Gesell, a stable environment is important to a child, but only so that they can develop naturally according to their genetics. (www.thekidscave.org/child-development/arnold-gesell-theory-of-child-development).
Lev Vygotsky is a theorist for social development. Social interaction plays an important part in the progress of cognitive development. Vygotsky said 'Every function in a child 's cultural development appears twice, first on the social level and then on the individual level, first between people and then inside the child '. He focused on the connections of people on the sociocultural context in which the act and interact with shared experiences. According to Vygotsky, 'Humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing which help them in social environments '. He says that children develop these cultural things too and use them to communicate. He said that the tolls that are developed led the children to higher thinking. Vygotsky believes that young children are curious and actively involved in their own learning and the discovery and development of new understandings. According to Vygotsky much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with an adult. The adult may model behaviours and provide verbal instructions for the child. Vygotsky refers to this as co-operative dialogue. The child seeks to understand the actions or instructions provided by the adult then uses the information to guide their own performance. The Zone of Proximal Development was developed by Vygotsky and is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from an adult. . (www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html)
E5)Observations are used to look at someone closely and notice the changes of something or someone. It can be used to measure someone 's skills in a particular task also. The observations can be used to see what though teachers are doing for a particular class or task. We can observe children to see if they are progressing. We can observe activities that the children are doing and the resources that they are using. We can also observe the behaviour of the children and how it is being dealt with. We observe to learn about development, evaluate provision routines, evaluate strategies, monitor and promote development and to report our findings of our observations to other professionals. One observation is the written one. This is when an observation is just wrote out in a paragraph telling us all the information we need to know. Another observation technique that can be used is a checklist. This is a list of developmental norms which a child should be able to achieve by a certain age. You would use a checklist to check progress or lack of progress and to measure development. The time sample is another observation technique you can use. A time sample is used to look at a child at regular intervals for longer periods of time. This technique is useful for monitoring concentration, movements and interactions of a child.
E6) It is important to maintain confidentiality throughout observations of children. During an observation there are certain things that should not be mentioned. Make sure that on the observation you do not name children in case parents/ carers pick it up or read it and don 't agree. Another way is to not include any personal information like the address, disabilities or medications. Make sure the observations are kept in a folder out of the way of children and that they are all together, this should stop them getting lost and mixed up which would also break confidentiality.
D1+D2) In the first observation that I did when the child of 6 years and 6 months was threading beads onto a string and writing and colouring I found out that the child was really confident with using her pincer grasp to pick up the beads. According to www.homelearningcollege.com children should be able to thread beads onto a string when they are 3 years old. Therefore the child I observed doing this activity is on task with this milestone. I also observed the child doing some writing and colouring during this observation. According to www.baby-centre/physical-development/fine-motor-skills.com children at the age of 6 years old should be able to print their names, copy designs, shapes and numbers and colour within the lines of a drawing. The child I was observing had no difficulty in doing any of these tasks so that means she is meeting he developmental norms for her age. To make sure the child is reaching her full potential in using her fine motor skills I would plan for her to do more complex activities which require fine motor skills. This could be threading smaller beads onto a string so she gets used to using her pincer grasp more, or she could be given more complex colouring sheets to do like colouring a smaller area so she gets used to keeping in the lines of the picture.
In a different observation that I done I was observing the childs physical skills in fine motor development and gross motor development. The child was aged 6 years and 6 months. I saw the child walk backward toe to heel in the yard at break time. I also observed the child colour within the lines of a picture. I seen the child touch each finger to her thumb rapidly and over again in the observation. In the yard the child was climbing on the climbing frame and galloping across the yard with her friends so I know she can do this too. The child was tying up a little boys shoelaces in the yard. According to www.newchildcare.co.uk a child at the age of 6 years old should be able to do all of the things above and more. The things that the child could not do during the observation was cut a square on the lines, connect dots with straight lines, build a pyramid with blocks and ride a bike. I did not see the child do these things in the observation so I don 't know if she can do them or not. Maybe in future observations I will make sure I include the things I didn 't see in this observation and make sure she has the chance to do them so I can see if she is meeting the developmental norms for them for her age. To plan later activities related to the things that the child did in this observation I would maybe do some P.E lessons on gross motor skills and see what else the child can do using her legs and arms. I would compare what she does with the developmental norms for her age and see if she is meeting them.
The final observation I did with the child aged 6 years was various physical activities which focused on gross motor skills. One of the things I observed the child do was doing handstands. According to www.chalkbucket.com) children should be able to do handstands when they just turn 6 years old so she meeting the developmental norm for this. I also observed the child jogging on the spot. children should be able to do this just as they turn three as they should have started walking and started school. She could do this easily so she is meeting the norms for this too. The final thing I observed the child on was skipping. Children should be starting to learn to skip by the time they are 5 years old according to childparenting.about.com. She is pretty confident with this so she is meeting this developmental milestone too. For this child to move forward with her physical gross motor skills now I would recommend doing some things that are a bit harder like try standing on one foot for 10 seconds, throw, bounce and catch a tennis ball, run in an adult manner with quick direction changes and ski with good balance.
C1) Confidentiality is important for several reasons. One of the most important elements of confidentiality is that it helps to build and develop trust. One of the major purposes for keeping a childs or parents information before speaking to the appropriate person to deal with the information is to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the child or parent. Information which is personal can be spoken of only with the permission of the child or the person who speaks up for the child. You should only discuss matters relating to the childs business with your supervisor as they would need to know what is going on with the child so they can inform the parents or the appropriate person if there is a chance that the child or the childs family might be at danger or harm. Discussions should take place in the classroom where no one else can hear you speak of the confidential information. Under no circumstances should the information be spoken of with friends or family. Everyone in the workplace who knows about the confidential information should respect it. All organisations need to have policies and procedures that provide guidelines for workers to ensure confidentiality, certain people should only access to the confidential information and everyone who works in the setting should have access to the policies and procedures of the organisation. Everyone who is in charge of the information need to ensure that it is collected is securely stored and disposed of properly. The childs name should not be used in observations because someone who is not meant to see it might see it and then they know that childs information. For example, a child might be having problems with his maths work and you put this in your observation and another child might see this and the child the observation is about might get picked on for not doing very well at his work. The childs address must not be put on observations because someone might go to the address of the child and that could be dangerous for the child and the childs family.
B1) Observations help you to better your practise for many reasons. They can help you think about how you and other practitioners handle the behaviour of children and what techniques you use for different things. They also help you to recognise if there is a routine in the classroom and if things need changing in the routine if the things that are being done don 't work so good or if there are things that work brilliantly and you should keep doing them. It is important to use the observations that you do in the setting for planning. They help you know what to plan for the children in your care. For example, if there is a little boy in the setting that does not do very well with writing his letters you can give him some extra letter writing work so that he can get used to writing down the letters and practices them. You can also get the parents involved and give the children some work that the parents can help them with at home and tell them to report back to you with how they did. This is working with that parents in identifying the childrens individual needs that they might have so that you can help the children at school as much as you can. Observing staff can also help you better your practise by seeing what they do with the children. You can pick up some tips on how to handle the childrens behaviour or on how to plan effectively and ways that is better for you and the children to learn. Observations also help the people in multiagency teams like social workers, psychiatrists etc. They help these people because if the child has a social worker or goes to see a psychiatrist and you notice something in your observation worth telling them they can help the child too. All the observations you do and act upon are all in the best interests of the child and how we can help them learn and improve themselves.
A) The theorists I wrote about in E3 are Lev Vygotsky for social development and Arnold Gesell for physical development. There is not really much that these two theorists have in common. The only thing is that Lev Vygotsky talks about physical development briefly. The things that they do not have in common is that Lev Vygotsky talks about lots of different area of development like language, cognitive development and he developed the Zone of Proximal development and Arnold Gesell just focuses on physical development. They both link the current practice which is the foundation phase because both their theories are based in Wales. Children will be given more opportunities to explore the world around them and understand how things work by taking part in practical activities that are relevant to their developmental stage. They are challenged with open-ended questions and given opportunities to explore and share their ideas for solving problems in the foundation phase. It brings more consistency and continuity to children’s education at important period in their development. The Foundation Phase places great emphasis on children learning by doing. Young children will be given more opportunities to gain first hand experiences through play and active involvement rather than by completing exercises in books. The curriculum will focus on experiential learning, active involvement and developing each childs :skills and understanding, personal, social, emotional, physical and intellectual well being, positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue, self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form new relationships, creative, expressive and observational skills to encourage their development as individuals with different ways of responding to experiences, activities in the outdoors where they have first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learn about conservation and sustainability. (http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase)
In conclusion I think Vygotskys theory is better because he goes into more detail about lots of different elements but Gesell 's theory just talks about one specific thing.
Bibliography
(www.officeofchilddeveloment.co.uk)
(www.thekidscave.org/child-development/arnold-gesell-theory-of-child-development)
(www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html
(http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase)
(http://childparenting.about.com)
(http://www.homelearningcollege.com)
(www.chalkbucket.com)