Theories in Child Development

¶ … Shaping of Virtues in a Child There have been many debates on the behavioral patterns of children and how they will grow up. Indeed, some scholars like Aristotle have indicated that virtues are innate and each child is born with his own set of virtues.

The question that hence lingers in many minds is then how should one bring up a child if these virtues are innate? The answer to this challenge is not a straight jacket answer that fits all but in this paper there will be attempt to try and explain how both nature and nurture marries to develop the real, not ideal, person that lives in the contemporary society.

Many arguments abound on whether behavior is developed by nurture or endowed by nature, and the long running debate has come to a conclusion that behavior is shaped by both and these two play crucial roles in the upbringing of children and what they become in their later years. Of more significance here is the nature aspect in shaping behaviors of a child, though it should not be lost that the environment plays a crucial role as well.

It has been agreed that it is not the genetic predisposition to the criminal genes that makes one a criminal but when the right social environment comes along then such a person is likely to be a criminal than one without the genes. From the study of 32 Monozygotic twins it was concluded that there was heritability involved in the behavior pattern from childhood to adulthood since the monozygotic twins behaved more similarly than the dizygotic twins regardless of the environment (Joseph, 2001).

In defense of the nurture perspective here is a case scenario of a young child getting to school. In the education system there is a basic triangle of three people; the child, the teacher/parent and the environment. The teacher here will be charged with preparation of the environment and continued updating of the learning environment to suite the contemporary environment.

He is also charged with introducing the child to the learning environment like the books, projects, materials, lessons which nurture the exploration of the child and the creativity as well. The Montessori environment in specific encourages participation and the children are free to move uninhibited within the room and explore the learning environment as opposed to being stacked behind desks. This freedom will extend to their mental dispositions as they will explore their deepest imaginations and creativity in the process of moving within the learning environment.

This then shows that the educationists know very well that the environment plays a significant role in the shaping up of the child to be either independent or dependent, outspoken or suppressed, aggressive or passive and even the career path since those who are never exposed to computers may never think of becoming programmers in the future. Indeed, the social interaction and the shaping up of the behavior of the child are further supported by the sociological theory or otherwise referred to as social control theory.

This helps to even explain the criminal tendencies that an individual may develop as they grow up despite the genetic make up. The sociological theory explains that each individual will most likely give back to the society what they are taught from childhood and grow up observing (Strategic Policy Brief, 2009). This is openly seen by the high crime rates that are seen among the informal dwellings where the living standards are low and their suburbs. This is because people.