Theory HandoutECHS 1540April 19, 2014Kayelin PascuaArnold GesellMy article is about Arnold Lucius Gesell and he was a psychologist and pediatrician who works on child development studies and was well known for it. Gesell studied children to see how they learn and discover new things. He wanted to know everything about child development. He was born on June 21, 1880 in Alma, Wisconsin. Gesell was a brother of five. He watched his siblings grow up and develop and that's when he was interested in the child development. When Arnold Gesell was younger his parents valued education and early in his life as well. Gesell graduated high school in 1896. After he graduated high school he went to school to become a teacher and principle. He wanted to do something more with children so he went to the University of Wisconsin and received his bachelors of pharmacy in 1903. He thought that it would be better if he went to medical school so that his research would be more knowledgeable. Than that year he met a professor of psychology named Joseph Jastrow. After Gesell met Jastrow he went to Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. He was introduced to child development and that is where Gesell eared his doctor of philosophy in 1906. For a couple years he was a professor of psychology and child hygiene at California State Normal School in Los Angeles. On February 18, 1909 Gesell married Beatrice Chandler. After he got married he studied at Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children and also went to Vineland, New Jersey, as the director Henry Goddard of psychological research were doing tests on feebleminded children. Feebleminded means they are unable to make big decisions and judgments. When Gesell went to Vineland he knew that was the start of his profession in mentally defective children. Gesell went years doing summer classes with Goddard at New York University and they helped train teachers for defective children. In 1910 he started courses as a medical student. The dean of medical school is George Blumer and he provided him space to study "retarded" children as the article says. From 1915 to 1919 Gesell was a psychologist for Connecticut State Board of Education. It could identify handicap children and help with programs. Gesell became a professor of child hygiene upon his retirement in 1948.Maturationist Theory is about a children maturing as they grow up. He uses developmental patterns in childhood to lay stress on the physical and mental growth that he saw as determined primarily by their parents. Gesell went to school through his own life to become the best of the best. He wanted to know everything he could know about children. Gesell believed that children learn by interacting with adults and children help them learn new things and know how to get along with others. Going to study in different states to learn as much as he knows now. His theory believe is that the childhood to adulthood is either biological or genetic. He felt that a...
