Child Development

Piaget (and many subsequent researchers) gave us a fairly complete global picture of the stages children pass through as they grow. There is great variability however within stages, and viewed with fine detail, Piaget's theory does not account for the messy and complex way humans evolve. Piaget was wrong in thinking that development always follows an invariant order, and that stages are clean and distinct. There is a global order, but much variability lies within it.

Many of Piaget's tests that resulted in his theory of developmental stages, have been challenged. Findings on these tests have been shown to vary depending on the amount of informational redundancy; ie. if a child is familiar with a task (or is made familiar), if there is repetition of inputs, if there are salient landmarks available, and if the relevant perceptual input is made more prominent, then young children tend to be able to accomplish tasks that Piaget said they could not (because they were not developmentally ready).

What this means for the teacher is that developmental theory may provide a structure through which to organize thoughts and help understand children, but it should not be used as a strict tool to judge individual kids. Some children develop faster or slower, not always following the prescribed and expected pathways, or within expected time frames. This is especially true where there are impairments like blindness. The uniqueness of human children and the conditions of their environment must always be foremost in the mind of the teacher. The teacher can also improve the chances of the child to learn a task by providing more informational redundancy. The younger the child and/or the more impaired the child, the greater the need for redundancy.

Mobility specialists have the added responsibility of figuring out how child development is affected by blindness, vision impairment, and varieties of physical, emotional, and cognitive secondary conditions. No easy task, since the verdict is not in on normal child development, not to mention the complicating affect of other problems. Nevertheless, there is a great deal we do know that has practical implication for the orientation and mobility specialist working with children. Most of the theoretical ground work comes from the research of Jean Piaget

Developmental theory gave us a valuable tool to structure our teaching in a logical and effective manner. But it is more than this. Piaget stressed that his research unearthed the same truth again and again. Children develop fully and in a sophisticated way provided they discover the world through their own actions.

The teacher can set the stage for learning to occur, to act as a guide, to encourage, but the teacher should not lecture the child or imprison the child in a chair shoved up against a table. Human beings do not develop without movement. Lack of movement causes the neuromuscular system to deteriorate. Without movement the perceptual system freezes and de-evolves (Held's experiments, for example, showed that restricting movement caused blindness). Since perception and neuromuscular activity are food for the intellect, movement is necessary for cognitive development (intelligence). The more self-directed the movement, the richer the sensory input, leading to sharper perceptions and eventually keener intellect.

The human vision system is a powerful passive collector of percepts. Objects have form, pattern, and spatial properties that can be measured, compared, and visually remembered. A blind child must replace visual percepts with a combination of sensory inputs from the remaining senses. These non-visual sensory inputs can only be gathered if the blind child moves through space and actively researches spatial relationships. There is a demonstration used by trainers from the High Scope Foundation that shows teachers how concrete instructional approaches are superior to other "traditional" educational practices. This demonstration is even more significant for blind children and their teachers. The high scope trainers explore the teaching of the concept "apple."

A card is passed around the room. On the card is the word "apple." Teachers are asked what this word tells them about apples. It is obvious that not much is learned from the written word, yet many blind children live in a world where the word is all they know about many concepts.

Next, a picture of an apple is passed around. Again the teachers are asked what the picture tells them about apples. More than a word, but not much more. Blind students can be very articulate in their descriptions, giving the impression that they are highly aware of their environment. Yet these students may have a shallow understanding of concepts.

Next around is a plastic apple. Now teachers report shape and color. Models are useful tools, but they have limited conceptual value, especially for blind children. The cognitive leap between simulation and reality is not always made. Blind children need to explore the real world

Next around is a basket filled with real apples to be felt, cut up, smelled, and tasted. Here is a concept that has strength; a multi-sensory experience that is honest and has staying power. Traveling to an orchard to explore apple trees and eating the fruit right off the tree is an even better educational experience. Now we are doing orientation and mobility.

It could be argued then, that a major role of the orientation and mobility specialist is to place blind children in learning environments where they can examine the real world of objects (their characteristics and their spatial relationships). Perceptual exploration forms the basis for conceptualization, and for intellectual development. Real world experiences provided through mobility training are the foundation upon which a viable intellect is created. The traditional understanding of the mobility specialist as primarily a cane trainer must be challenged. The role of the mobility specialist working with children is acutely important.

It should also be understood that it is not only the blind child who needs to be exposed to real world environments. All children in special education who have severe impairments that affect their navigation need mobility training. Any child who has difficulty actively exploring the world on their own (students in wheel chairs for example) needs mobility training.

As we explore the teaching of navigation, and as we examine how mobility aids are used, we will pay particular attention to the critical thresholds of child development. Expecting children to perform neuromuscular or intellectual feats before they are maturationally ready may be harmful for the child, and is certainly professionally irresponsible. On the other hand, a good grasp of child development allows us to do sophisticated assessments, design realistic outcomes, provide age appropriate lesson plans, and to intervene at opportune moments.

Developmental theory states that children pass through four broad stages that correspond with successive age ranges. From infancy to about age two, children go through what Piaget called the sensorimotor stage. This is a time when children physically manipulate and sensorially explore the environment. It is not a time when there are mental thoughts about the world.

During the preschool years, from age two until about six or seven (Piaget's Pre-operational stage), children begin to have internal thoughts about the external world, especially as they learn to use language. The child learns to use words as symbols of objects. During this pre-operational stage, children can represent their world in symbols, but they cannot yet mentally manipulate language to classify or logically explore the world. They are in a perceptual world (still absorbing), not a conceptual world.

The third (Piaget's operational) stage unfolds between the ages of seven to eleven or twelve. These are the elementary school years during which children begin to manipulate thoughts, just as they once manipulated the physical environment. Students learn to classify objects, using similarity and difference, and they begin to understand time, number, and space with a degree of sophistication. Although children can begin to reason logically at this early age, their thoughts are still concrete. They cannot yet manipulate abstract ideas.

Piaget's final stage is called the age of formal operations. This occurs after the age of twelve, during the middle and high school years (adolescence). During this time, children develop the adult abilities to use hypotheses, to bring organizational systems into their thoughts, and to understand and employ empathy.

At the same time that all these cognitive stages are evolving, there is a concomitant unfolding of neuromuscular abilities. The child walks at the end of the sensorimotor period, just as language is developing. During the preschool years the child learns to ascend and descend steps using alternating feet. Around age three the blind child learns to walk in a straight line, and at age four to walk in a circle. The ability to do fine motor skills gradually develops as the child moves through the elementary years.

For the mobility specialist, it is imperative to know when a child might be ready to sequence (chain landmarks), or even at what age the child can perceive what a straight line of travel is. It would be helpful to know at what age a child might be able to keep a cane in step (maintain a rhythm) while performing the simultaneous tasks of centering, extending and hyperextending the wrist, maintaining correct sweep of the cane (arc height and width), all the while staying oriented in space.

It would also be helpful to know at what stage a child is able to grasp Piaget's spatial concepts, the ages at which children understand topographical space (the world of objects, shapes, textures), Euclidean space (layouts, coordinate systems, reference points), and Projective space (understanding personal- egocentric-and object perspective). In the chapter concerned with how children navigate, I discuss spatial concepts in greater detail. Motor readiness is a major topic addressed in the chapter dealing with mobility.

Development has two aspects, the increased knowledge attained as children experience the world and practice their skills, and maturational readiness. Piaget and developmental theory is very much about finding appropriate maturational milestones. Much of mobility training, although it is guided by awareness of maturation, is about providing experience and practice moving in space.

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