Research On A.Gesell's Psychological Thought Of Child

Gesell (1880-1961) was a famous child psychologist and doctor in American. He was world-famous for the studying of the development of the behaviors of infants and pre-school children.Gesell has put forward the theory of maturation about human development, that children's development is a natural expansion course which is determined and guided by genes, and it is a natural result of biological maturation. Before maturation, education and train cant't obviously facilitate the development. On the contrary, only when matured physiologically, can they produce effect on development Gesell has verified this view through the experiment of climbing stair.He thought that maturation first embodies the full development of nervous-physiological structure according to a predetermined timetable. As the function of nervous system, the behavior also embodies the predictable development of patterning .Based on this, he began to observe and describe children's behaviors and then detailedly analysed these recorded behaviors using a method called cinemanalysis. Then he revealed the principle and the law of behavior development, and summed up five developmental principles and the norm of children's development, and worked out the scale of children's development.