Child Development and Psychology
For a Mukhya Sevika, this domain tests how children grow and learn, because supervision of Anganwadi preschool education depends on it. Expect questions on growth versus development, Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg, Erikson, intelligence, and the principles of early childhood care and education.
Growth and development
Growth is quantitative and measurable (height, weight); development is qualitative, orderly, continuous and lifelong. Development proceeds head to toe (cephalocaudal) and centre to periphery (proximodistal).
Key theorists
- Piaget: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence), preoperational (2–7, egocentrism, no conservation), concrete operational (7–11, conservation, classification), formal operational (11+, abstract thought).
- Vygotsky: learning is social; the Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between what a child does alone and with help; scaffolding bridges it.
- Kohlberg: pre-conventional (obedience, self-interest), conventional (social approval, law and order), post-conventional (universal ethics).
- Erikson: trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame (1–3), initiative vs guilt (3–6).
Worked example
A seven-year-old insists that a tall thin glass holds more water than a short wide one, though both hold the same. Which stage? Reasoning: the child judges by height alone (centration) and cannot reverse the pouring mentally, so conservation is absent - this is Piaget's preoperational stage, typically up to about age seven.
Traps that cost marks
Swapping Piaget's stage names with Erikson's; calling development purely hereditary; and forgetting that IQ = (mental age ÷ chronological age) × 100.