Organization and Management of ECDD Programmes

ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ECCD PROGRAMMES

Lesson 02: Application of Developmental theories in ECE

Erik Erikson

Biographical note

Erik Erikson is a Neo-Freudian and promoter of psychoanalytic theory of personality development. He believed that development was a universally lived process in biological, social and psychological stages. He has incorporated both the Freudian biological concepts and the demands of society into the framework for successful ego development stages.

Educational implications of Erikson’s theory

• The preschool children are in Erikson’s third stage of development, initiative versus guilt, which lasts from third to the seventh year of life.
  
• The job of the teachers and parents is to fulfill the biological and emotional needs of the children and also cooperate with the child by making the toilet training less severe. This will build self confidence in the children. They must also cooperate with the child by making toilet training easy and making them independent.
  
• There is a need to provide necessary controls and checks for the undesirable behaviors of the children. But children should not be asked to follow perfect behavioral modes at an early age. Their initiative should not be curbed as it will create guilt feelings among the children.
  
• There should be adequate emphasis on self actualization of the potentialities by the children so as to avoid later regrets and sorrows in life.
  
• This stage is marked by play and play is the work of children. The crisis of this stage occurs when parents or teachers interfere with their behaviour.