Maturationism

Maturationism is an early childhood educational philosophy that sees the child as a growing organism and believes that the role of education is to passively support this growth rather than actively fill the child with information.

The idea is that genetic factors play a larger role in development than environmental ones, particularly in regard to language acquisition.

Maturationism is associated with the concept of developmental stages.

References

• Early Childhood Education: E-N; By Rebecca Staples New, Moncrieff Cochran
• Early childhood education: an international encyclopedia, Volume 1; By Rebecca Staples New, Moncrieff Cochran
• Shaping early childhood: learners, curriculum and contexts; By Glenda MacNaughton