Personal and Social Development

I think the beginning of the chapter says it perfectly when they wrote that school was not just a place fro developing cognitive and linguistic skills. It is also a place for personal development. Children and adolescents acquire distinctive patterns of behavior and build on self understanding that initially in infancy and preschool years. The very social nature of school makes it and ideal context for social development. The chapter goes over many different aspects of life that led to social development or the lack thereof. Parenting styles have many different effects on students. All styles of parenting such as authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved have a ton of influence on the social development of their children. Sense of self is a massive issue that all children need to address and understand if they want to develop socially. Thoughts such as How smart am I? How attractive am I? Am I a good athlete? It is important that as teachers we do our best to help students understand that they have enormous self worth in any situation. Look for the strengths in all your students. Erik Erikson describes 8 stages through which people proceed over the course of development. Each stage provides a unique development task, and how an individual addresses it influences the person's overall development. Just like it is important to know Piaget's theory and help students progress cognitively, it is important to know Erikson's stages to help us understand what level our students are at and how we can help them progress socially.