Because parents were children once, they have the advantage of experience when raising children. But just having experienced something doesn’t assure an understanding of the underlying theory, and there are many different theories of child development that have been studied and proposed by researchers.

Not one is a definitive answer to the questions parents have about what their child is going through at a particular time, but they may help to shed light on some parental questions.

This broad overview is designed to summarize these complex theories and offer a starting point for further inquiry.

Sigmund Freud’s theories focus very little on “normal” functioning and instead focus almost entirely on disorders. According to Freud’s 1915 publication “Three Essays on Sexuality,” child development is a defined by a series of psychosexual stages, and each stage is marked by the satisfaction of a libidinal desire.

Freud posits that the fulfillment of these desires can later play a role in adult personality.

Erik Erikson’s theory is also based on stages, but goes beyond childhood and into all of the human lifespan. Erickson’s theory is that each developmental stage is focused around overcoming a conflict, and that whether the individual succeeds or fails in this is what has an impact on his functioning.

Jean Piaget’s theories are cognitive and suggest that children think differently than adults. This theory is probably the one that seems most reasonable and accessible to parents, who can readily attest to how differently a child thinks.

Piaget also proposed a stage theory of cognitive development and was the first to attest to the importance of the child in gaining knowledge. According to Piaget, children have an active role in obtaining knowledge about the world.

Theories that focus on behavior, such as those proposed by Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner, focus on how a child’s interaction with his environment affects his behavior.

Unlike cognitive theory, these theories focus only on observable behavior. For these theorists, development is considerd a reaction to things: punishments, rewards, reinforcement, and stimuli (think of Pavlov’s dogs, for instance).

Finally, social development of children has received a great deal of attention and study. Again, these theories will seem accessible and understandable to parents who are able to observe and participate in the importance of the social interactions of their children.

John Bowlby was one of the first researchers to propose that children are influenced by their early relationships with their caregivers, and that those relationships will affect their other relationships throughout their lives.