Identifying Cultural Differences and Developmental Delays

It is important to distinguish between cultural differences and development deficits so that a child will not be wrongly diagnosed. Many students are wrongfully placed in Special Education classrooms because the instructor lacked knowledge on varying cultural differences. As an educator it is important to know the culture and beliefs of every student in the classroom, this helps distinguish between a developmental deficit and cultural differences.  Some cultures do encourage children to participate in activities that will help improve fine motor skills, an educator should know that this does not mean that the child has a developmental delay, but they should be encouraged to do exercises that will help them develop necessary skills.  

Who Am I Developmentally?

The developmentalists and pioneers of education I would align myself with would be both Commenius and Jean Piaget.
  I would align myself with Commenius because he believed that learning should go hand in hand with a child's natural growth and development. This is important because it helps determine what should be taught at certain ages. He also believed that a child will learn something when he or she is simply ready to learn. Many times parents or teachers push a child to learn a certain skill, but the child may not be ready to learn.
 I would also align myself with Piaget because he believed that "learning is constructed through the action of the learner" (Piaget, 1971). I believe that incorporating hands on activities in the classroom is very important. This ensures that learning is taking place because the learner or student is actively engaged in the learning process. He also stated that although you may teach a new concept, if the learner doesn't mentally process the new information, then learning is not taking place. He called this process assimilation.
Like most cognitive developmentalists I agree that mental growth is the most important stage of development for a child. If a child cannot function mentally he or she may have problems functioning physically. I believe that mental growth is the command station for learning.