How do primary schools meet the emotional, psychological and Essay

How do primary schools meet the emotional, psychological and behavioural needs of pupils - Essay Example In the past, children were just considered as miniature adults and less attention was paid to their development, especially in the field of cognition, language and physical growth. However, the beginning of the 20th century saw growing interest in the field of child development. This enormous interest led to many theories proposed by researchers. It is important to understand these theories to understand child development properly. The child development theories can be classified into psychoanalytic, cognitive, behavioural and social child development theories. The main proponents of psychoanalytic theories are Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. Freud described child development as a series of psychosexual stages (Carver, & Scheir, 2000). The first stage is also known as oral stage. In this stage, the primary source of interaction to the infant is through mouth. Thus sucking and rooting reflexes are important and the infant derives pleasure from activities involving oral stimulation lik e tasting and sucking. Even trust and comfort to the infant is derived from oral stimulation. The primary conflict in this stage is weaning. Fixation in this stage leads to problems with eating and drinking and indulging in smoking and nail biting. The second stage is the anal stage. Gratification in this stage is gained by bladder and bowel movements. The major conflict in this stage is toilet training and how this conflict affects the child is dependent on the way parents approach toilet training. Training using rewards and praises leads to positive experiences and serves as a basis for the child to become productive, creative and competent adults. Parents who take a lenient approach to toilet training can lead to anal-expulsive personality wherein the individuals are destructive, messy and wasteful. On the other hand, strict toilet training leads to rigid, stringent, orderly and obsessive personality as the child grows into an adult. The