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What is the Whole Child Lens?

1) This issue becomes important when you realize that this book focuses heavily on the social-emotional aspects of development, even though school readiness and cognitive development are in the spotlight at present as more and more children are failing in school- even middle-class ones. School readiness is, of course, a concern for everybody, but professionals with a child development background often come at it from a different angle than some other professionals and families by recognizing that social-emotional development is vitally tired to cognitive development.
2) Otherwise known as the Human Ecology Theory, the Ecological Systems theory states that human development is influenced by the different types of environmental systems. Formulated by famous psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, this theory helps us understand why we may behave differently when we compare our behavior in the presence of our family and our behavior when we are in school or at work.
3) The bioecological model is a theoretical model of gene-environment interactions in human development. This model, first proposed by Urie Bronfenbrenner and Stephen J. Ceci, in 1994, is an extension of Bronfenbrenner's original theoretical model of human development, called ecological systems theory. Bronfenbrenner developed the bioecological model after recognizing that the individual was overlooked in other theories of human development, which were largely focused on the context of development (e.g., the environment).
4) The bioecological model of human development can be applied to both children and maturing adults, and is thus a lifespan approach to development. The framework emphasizes the importance of understanding bidirectional influences between individuals' development and their surrounding environmental contexts.In the bioecological model, in contrast to his earlier models, Bronfenbrenner also includes time (known as the chronosystem in his model) as an important component in the way that people and environments change. The bioecological model proposed a new method of conducting research which was heavily influential in developmental psychology and is still considered relevant today.

User Sean Chou
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Final answer:

The Whole Child Lens is an approach that integrates all aspects of a child's development and is related to various developmental theories. These theories provide frameworks to understand how individual experiences and environmental interactions affect human development from infancy through adulthood, involving cognitive, physical, social, and emotional growth.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Whole Child Lens is an approach that considers all aspects of a child's development, emphasizing that cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development are all interconnected. In the context of developmental psychology, theorists like Urie Bronfenbrenner have proposed comprehensive frameworks to understand human development. For instance, Margaret Beale Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) combines phenomenology and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to explain the behaviors of ethnic minority youth, acknowledging how individual experiences and environmental contexts shape development.

Bronfenbrenner's theories, particularly the bioecological model, illustrate the importance of examining bidirectional interactions between a child's development and their environmental contexts, including family, school, and community systems. This model is extended over the lifespan, encapsulating how these interactions impact both children and adults over time. Time, or the chronosystem, is acknowledged as a significant factor affecting individual and environmental change. Other key theories of development include Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stages of development, Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, and Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of development, which all contribute to our understanding of human growth from infancy to adulthood. Each of these theories provides insight into the complex nature of developmental processes, emphasizing the role of biological drives, social interactions, or cultural factors in shaping who we become.

User Piotr Owsiak
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