Preface

Child Development’ is a compulsory course of DIET, the most authentic teacher training course. Main objective of this course is to offer an introduction to the study of childhood, child development and adolescence. It aims to develop understanding about children of different age groups through close observation and interaction with children, under the first unit, describes the concept and principles of growth and development, development takes infancy to adolescence period by Havighurst, techniques of gathering information about children as Naturalistic observation, Interviews, Reflective Journals, Case studies, Cumulative Records.

Second part of this book deals with Physical and Motor development of different stages, Gross and fine motor skills, Play meaning, characteristics, principles, types of plays and importance of play in education and development of children.

Third part of this book describes the concept of social and emotional development, types of emotions and development of emotions in early childhood and school years, moral development in different stages.

The next part of this book focuses on the concept, structure and processes of cognitive development, Piaget theory, cognitive and social development theory by Vygotsky. Child is the center point of education. The last part of this book describes the self concept, self esteem and role of Defense mechanisms in human life, Development of self, Personality development, Development of good habits and development of life skills.

We are grateful to many authors and psychologists for guiding me in writing this book. I am also thankful to the publisher for bringing the text in such a presentation style.

I feel the students, scholars and teachers are the best judge of its merits, therefore, suggestions for improvement are cordially invited.

Author