Themes and Theories of Developmental Psychology

Learning Disorders
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Learning Disorders
Learning disorders refer to information-processing issues that prevent an individual from obtaining knowledge or skills and applying them in real-life effectively. They are caused by neurobiological or genetic factors that influence how the human brain functions, hence affecting cognitive processes that are related to learning. The information-processing problems make it hard for individuals affected to write, read, or do mathematical calculations. They can as well interfere with skills, such as attention, memory retrieval, abstract reasoning, and time planning. Learning disorders do not only affect people’s ability to acquire knowledge in an academic context, but they can also lead to problems in creating and maintaining proper relationships with friends, family members, or colleagues in the workplace. Some of the common learning disabilities include dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyspraxia, written or oral disorder, and non-verbal learning disorder. The cognitive-developmental theory and learning theories explain the development and origins of learning disorders and suggest programs or strategies that can benefit human development.
Learning theories explain how individuals obtain knowledge and skills and are important in determining whether people have learning disorders. The primary learning concepts of development are behaviorism, cognitivism, experientialism, social and contextual, and constructivism. Behaviorism depicts that learning is an observable behavioral change that takes place when a person is responding to environmental stimuli. At this point, rewards create positive reinforcements to a specific behavior (Zhou & Brown, 2015). Cognitivism shows that learning is a product of various mental activities, such as knowledge, memory, thinking process, problem-solving, and reflection. Constructivism suggests that learners obtain subjective information through the interpretation of the world around them and restructuring of their thinking process. That is the reason why constructivists use learner-centered strategies where the teacher acts as a guide but not the source of information. Additionally, the social and contextual concept shows that learning is significantly affected by ethnographic and anthropological factors and emphasizes that the environment shapes a person’s learning process. Experiential learning portrays that meaningful daily experiences increase a learner’s understanding and knowledge acquisition by transforming one’s behavior. The four primary steps involved in the experiential learning process include experiencing, absorbing information and reflecting it, conceptualizing it, and testing concepts obtained (Zhou & Brown, 2015). Learning theories are appropriate for the topic of learning disorders since they portray different ways in which humans acquire knowledge. Consequently, they make it clear that humans have a high likelihood of acquiring and retaining the information when they are allowed to participate in the process of learning actively.
Jean Piaget came up with the cognitive-developmental theory, which posits that children undergo four primary phases of mental development. First, the sensorimotor stage occurs between birth and two years. During this stage, infants understand their surroundings via their senses of listening, touching, watching, and grasping (Babakr, Mohamedamin, & Kakamad, 2019). They learn things through trial and error. Second, the preoperational phase takes place from two to seven years. At this age, children develop abstract thinking, imagination, memory, intuition, and language. They can draw pictures or speak about things that they saw or experienced in the past. Third, the concrete operational stage occurs between seven and eleven years. During this period, young people become more aware of their environment, and they learn logical concrete rules and methodical symbols’ manipulation. Fourth, the formal operational phase starts from the age of eleven years to adulthood. In this phase, adolescents can use abstract thinking and develop a hypothesis to address problems that they might encounter (Barrouillet, 2015). Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory is appropriate for the topic discussed since it shows how children start to learn new things after they are born until early adulthood. The cognitive-developmental theory shows that the cause of learning disorders might emanate from cognition problems that children might encounter during the four stages of development.
Both the learning and cognitive developmental theories give relevant information and a proper understanding of learning disabilities. They portray that various factors, such as gender, social and physical environments, culture, and age can influence the way people learn. Through behaviorism, cognitivism, experiential, social and contextual, and constructivism, it is clear that the learning process is complicated and both biological and environmental factors play significant roles in the knowledge acquisition process. Learning theories depict that individuals might learn things using different strategies and that the best learning method for one person might be the worst for another individual. For example, some people might prefer the use of symbols to understand complex things while others like to experience things or visual learning. On the contrary, Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory shows that learning disorders are likely to develop during childhood. At this juncture, biological or environmental factors might hinder children from acquiring relevant concepts during the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages (Babakr, Mohamedamin, & Kakamad, 2019). The most significant thing to note is that learning is a cumulative process and if a person fails to acquire knowledge in one phase, the effect on his life will keep recurring as he or she grows.
Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory is the best concept in explaining learning disorders. In particular, it shows that learning disabilities are caused by factors that affect children at a very young age. The learning process start...