Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Development as a dynamic system

2003; Elsevier BV; Volume: 7; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00156-6

1879-307X

Linda B. Smith, Esther Thelen,

Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills

Development is about creating something more from something less, for example, a walking and talking toddler from a helpless infant. One current theoretical framework views the developmental process as a change within a complex dynamic system. Development is seen as the emergent product of many decentralized and local interactions that occur in real time. We examine how studying the multicausality of real-time processes could be the key to understanding change over developmental time. We specifically consider recent research and theory on perseverative reaching by infants as a case study that demonstrates this approach.