Arnold Gesell facts for kids

Arnold Lucius Gesell (born June 21, 1880 – died May 29, 1961) was an American psychologist and a professor at Yale University. He is famous for his important work on how children grow and develop. He also studied how to keep children healthy.

Early Life

Arnold Gesell was born in Alma, Wisconsin. He was the oldest of five children. His father, Gerhard Gesell, was a photographer, and his mother, Christine Giesen, was a schoolteacher.

Arnold's first look into how children develop came from watching his younger brothers and sisters learn and grow. He continued to observe them until he finished high school in 1896.

After high school, Gesell went to Stevens Point Normal School. There, a class taught by Edgar James Swift made him interested in psychology. Gesell worked as a high school teacher for a short time. Then, he went to study at the University of Wisconsin. He earned his degree in philosophy in 1903.

Career

Before becoming a professor, Gesell worked as a teacher and a high school principal. He then went to Clark University to get his psychology doctorate. The president of Clark University, G. Stanley Hall, had started a movement to study children. Arnold earned his Ph.D. from Clark in 1906.

Gesell worked at several schools in New York City and Wisconsin. Later, he became a professor at the Los Angeles State Normal School. This school is now known as the University of California, Los Angeles. There, he met Beatrice Chandler, who became his wife. They had a daughter and a son.

Gesell also spent time at schools for children with mental disabilities. He became very interested in what causes these disabilities and how to help children. In 1910, he started studying medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. This helped him understand the human body better.

In 1911, he became an assistant professor at Yale University. He continued his medical studies there and earned his MD in 1915. At Yale, he started the Clinic of Child Development. Later, he became a full professor at the university.

Gesell also worked as the school psychologist for the Connecticut State Board of Education. He helped create classes to support children with disabilities. This was a very important step, making Gesell the first school psychologist in the United States.

He wrote several books about child development. These include The Preschool Child from the Standpoint of Public Hygiene and Education (1923) and The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child (1925). He also wrote An Atlas of Infant Behavior (1934), which showed typical milestones for babies at different ages. With Frances Ilg, he wrote two popular guides for parents: Infant and Child in the Culture of Today (1943) and The Child from Five to Ten (1946).

Gesell used the newest technology in his research. He used video and photography to record children's behavior. He also used one-way mirrors to observe children without disturbing them. He even invented the Gesell Dome, which was a dome-shaped one-way mirror. He studied many children, including Kamala, a child who grew up isolated from people. He also studied young animals, like monkeys.

As a psychologist, Gesell talked about how both nature and nurture (our genes and our environment) are important for child development. He believed that many parts of human behavior, like which hand we prefer to use (handedness) and our temperament, are passed down through our genes. He also said that children adapt to their parents and to each other. He supported the idea of having a nationwide nursery school system in the United States.

Gesell's books became very popular and shared his ideas with many parents. He encouraged parents to "nourish the child's trustfulness in life." His ideas were important for child advocates even before Benjamin Spock became a famous parent advisor. In The Child from Five to Ten, Gesell wrote that children "still have much to teach us, if we observe closely enough."

Maturational Theory

Gesell's ideas became known as his Gesell's Maturational Theory of child development. This theory suggests that children develop in a set order, following a natural timetable. Based on his theory, he created a series of summaries called the Gesell Developmental Schedules. These schedules describe the typical stages of child development.

After Gesell retired from Yale University in 1948, his colleagues, Frances Ilg and Louise Bates Ames, started the Gesell Institute of Human Development in 1950. The institute was named after him. In 2012, it was renamed the Gesell Institute of Child Development.

Personal Life

In 1911, Gesell married Beatrice Chandler. She was a teacher he had met in Los Angeles. They had a daughter and a son. Arnold Gesell passed away at his home in New Haven in 1961.

Selected Works

• Gesell, Arnold. The Preschool Child from the Standpoint of Public Hygiene and Education. 1923.
• Gesell, Arnold. The Mental Growth of the Preschool Child. 1925.
• Gesell, Arnold. An Atlas of Infant Behavior. 1934.
• Gesell, Arnold & Ilg, Frances L. Infant and Child in the Culture of Today. 1943.
• Gesell, Arnold & Ilg, Frances L. The Child from Five to Ten. 1946.

See Also

In Spanish: Arnold Gesell para niños