Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

familiar settings. By about one year old,a c co rding to this theory, an infant isex pe ri m e nt i n g, t rying to discover in whatways an object or eve nt is nove l .The ve ryyoung child is thought to be gra d u a l lycoming to kn ow about pe rm a n e n ce anda bout cause and effe ct. By eighte e nm o nths to two ye a r s, an infant is saidto no longer need actual objects to solvep ro b l e m s, be cause s/he can hold a ment a lre p re s e nt ation of them in her/his mind.Piaget stressed the impo rt a n ce oflanguage during the pre o pe rational pe ri od,be cause being able to use languageenables a child to co m m u n i cate moree f fe ct i ve ly with other pe o p l e, to inte rn a l i s ewo rds as thought s, and to inte rn a l i s ea ct i o n . Ch i l d ren at this stage ca ni n c re a s i n g ly imagine things they ca n n o tsee or eve nts that happened in the past.So Piaget’s theorising has been importantin the understanding of ‘objectpermanence’ – meaning that in the earlyphase of life a baby does not know thatobjects – or indeed people – still existwhen they cannot be seen.This is oneof the explanations for the fact that whenonly a few months old, babies do not seemdistressed when their familiar carers orparents leave but later – by around sixto eight months, they do becomedistressed. Piaget also thought that veryyoung children are unable to distinguishthemselves from the environment – soit is by sensing the difference betweenputting one’s toe or a toy in one’s mouththat a baby begins to know theboundaries of the self.Members of the group known as thePost-Piagetians have recognised the waysin which criticisms of his theories neededto be addressed, for example by exploringthe extent to which a child’s thinking isdependent on context (see for exampleDonaldson 1978).Another psyc h o l ogist who adopted Pi a g e t’sf ra m ewo rk , Ko h l be rg (1984),p ro po s e dstages in the deve l o p m e nt of childre n’sm o ral deve l o p m e nt. While much of his wo rkis co n ce rned with older childre n , his ideasa bout the ways in which children inte rn a l i s em o ral standards can info rm early ye a r sp ra ct i ce. He suggests that children fro mfamilies which discuss moral issues, ex p l a i nm o ral judgement s, and model be h av i o u rbased on a moral code have a firmer gra s pof moral issues. Ko h l be rg called the earl i e s tstage in his theory the p re m o ra l l eve l .Ac co rding to Ko h l be rg, in this phase a childwill accept an adult’s ve rd i ct on whethersomething is ri g ht or wro n g. Gra d u a l ly,a child learns to act in ways which willgain approva l , so their moral judgementis depe n d e nt on the judgements of theadults around them. Later in life a childwill inte rnalise official ru l e s, pe rhaps alsoreaching a po i nt in deve l o p m e nt whens/he makes moral judgements based onu n i versal ethical pri n c i p l e s.Ca rol Gilligan (1982) provides a challengeto Ko h l be rg’s theory be cause she arg u e s31