What is holistic development?  

Holistic development is not just a term but a powerful concept that shapes an individual’s overall growth and progress in all aspects of development, including physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual development. It is a view that does not isolate these areas but instead emphasises their interconnectedness and interdependence. It is a recognition that each area influences the other, and they all develop together, not separately. This understanding is crucial for educators as it underscores the importance of a comprehensive approach to an individual’s development, one that goes beyond academics.   

Holistic development is more comprehensive than the traditional view of developmental areas. These areas can be classified into different categories, each with its own set of important or irrelevant areas. Some well-known categorisations include the Early Years Foundation Stage’s Prime and Specific Area of Development, SPICE and PILES.  

The Early Years Foundation Stage includes the following developmental areas. The prime areas of development include physical development, personal, social, and emotional development, communication, and language. Within the specific areas of development, these branch out more broadly to include Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. For SPICE, this includes Social, Physical, Intellectual, Communication, and Emotional development and for PILES, which is gradually becoming replaced with the above two other categorisations represent Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional, and Social development. These three already identify the divergence between the discussion that can be had when talking about development and developmental areas, which is partly why the term holistic development has been growing in popularity, as it reflects a more authentic representation of what needs to be considered when planning and supporting an individual’s learning, development and growth.   

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Exploring areas of development  

Despite holistic development, which views all developmental areas as interconnected and interdependent (Miller, 2010), it is important to understand the developmental aspects and features within the different areas that can be included within a holistic view. 

It is important to note that the following is a normative representation of what is developed within each area; it will differ and depend on each individual. 

Physical development: 

This area of development refers to a wide range of aspects related to, as suggested by Early Education (2021), an individual’s brain, body, and mind. It includes gross and fine motor skills, including grip, agility and ability to perform what the Department for Education (2021) categories as fundamental movement skills, which are;

• Rolling
• Crawling
• Walking
• Jumping
• Running
• Hopping
• Skipping
• Climbing

Alongside these movement skills, other aspects, such as hand-eye coordination and sensory and spatial awareness, fit into physical development. It encompasses aspects like nutrition, sleep, and self-care, including hygiene, the ability to dress and undress, and physical and mental well-being.   

When exploring physical development, an important aspect to consider is the difference between the commonly used terms of growth and development. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they differ in what they refer to. The term growth relates to how cells subdivide, such as bone growth. Growth refers to the biological aspects of physical development. 

Compared to growth, the term development refers to learning skills that an individual gains and masters during their lifetime. for example, the development of fine motor manipulation skills. However, it is important to remember that many aspects of growth and development are intertwined, such as grasp development. Starting with the more biological response of grasping and controlling an object through the palmar grass within the first six months of a child’s life. Then, with the development of their hand-eye coordination, pressure development, and intellectual growth, they move into the second stage of grasp, which is pincer, and then the final stage of a tripod. 

Communication and language development: 

Often seen as the underpinning for an individual’s broader holistic development, communication and language development focus on an individual’s acquisition and mastery of speech, language and communication skills, including but not limited to listening, speaking, reading, writing and gesturing. It involves understanding and using vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and broader communication skills, such as how to start and hold a conversation, turn-taking during spoken and sign communication and maintaining appropriate social connection during an interaction like eye contact, spacing, tone and volume.

Concerning spoken communication and language, repetition and repeating of sounds, words, and gestures are a core aspect of this area. This leads to vocabulary development through using and understanding common social phrases, which requires contextual and instructional understanding. However, before an individual can develop their vocabulary and use accurately spoken communication, they first need to develop and understand the tongue’s and mouth’s positioning to promote clear and effective pronunciation. The ability of individuals to control their tongue and mouth to form the shapes and position required to produce recognisable sounds, letters and words is developed gradually through acknowledging sounds and responding to stimuli, be that spoken or unspoken and mimicking sounds, letters and singular words.

Emotional Development: 

This area of development encompasses understanding, expressing, and regulating emotions. It involves recognising and managing emotions while also understanding and empathising with the emotions of others. Some key aspects of emotional development are creating and maintaining a positive image of self, resilience, and the ability to navigate emotions through social relationships. 

Another aspect of this area of development is the ability to effectively and positively express a range of emotions, which then supports an individual’s ability to manage emotional transitions. This is supported by the Department for Education (2021), who suggest that an individual will demonstrate and articulate an understanding of their feelings and those of others. Connected to this recognition of their emotions, an individual will also be able to begin to regulate their behaviour based on the situation they are in.

Social Development: 

Social development involves a wide range of skills and has recently become a commonly discussed area with children seen to be falling behind in expected norms. These include according to the Department for Education (2021), some of the following aspects;

• The formation of appropriate relationships with others.
• Understanding social norms and roles.
• Understanding cultural norms and roles.
• Developing social skills such as appropriate and sustained communication, cooperation, empathy, and conflict resolution. 

Social development includes, as identified above, an individual’s ability to positively and appropriately interact with family members, peers, teachers, and other significant adults in a child’s life. Another aspect of social development is the acquisition and understanding of societal norms and the effective navigation of social interaction within these norms and a range of social environments.  

Intellectual and Cognitive Development 

Intellectual and cognitive development involves the growth of an individual’s thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, memory, attention, and overall intellectual functioning. This area is seen as the foundation for all other higher-order development areas, such as social, communication and language and morals. This means that depending on the development and progress made within this aspect, will impact the development and progress of others. 

Similar to that of physical development, intellectual and cognitive either, though they are used interchangeably to refer to different aspects. Intellectual development focuses on the individual’s ability to understand and interpret information, ideas and concepts. On the other hand, cognitive development, like growth within physical development, refers to the biological growth and processes of the brain and how it gathers, organises, and recalls information. An idea linked to this is that of Cognitive Load Theory. 

Alongside these areas, intellectual and cognitive development also encompasses processes like language acquisition, understanding complex concepts such as time, positional language, and similarities and differences. This area also involves skills such as reasoning and making connections between ideas.  

Creative and Imaginative development: 

Creative and imaginative development focuses on exploring creativity and imagination through play, art, music, and storytelling while also recognising, valuing, and appreciating the variety of artistic, creative and imaginative beauty of local, national, and global culture. It is also seen that within this developmental area, learning in, through, and about creativity and imagination enables individuals to express themselves in a range of ways effectively, confidently, and accurately. 

Creative and imaginative development develop important skills, both those specific to the expressive arts and those which are transferable;

• Time management
• Attention to detail
• Resilience
• Empathy
• Cultural awareness
• technical proficiency
• Emotional expression
• Artistic interpretation
• Imagination
• Adaptability
• Collaboration and cooperation
• Feedback reception

Cultural development: 

Cultural development focuses on children’s appreciation of diversity, development of a sense of morality, and understanding of ethical concepts. The impact of cultural development has been discussed in more detail within our cultural capital explainer.   

Cultural development among children and young people refers to the process through which individuals acquire an understanding, appreciation, and engagement with their own culture as well as with other cultures around them. This development is crucial for fostering a sense of identity, empathy, and global awareness. Cultural development encompasses various aspects, and some of the main skills and knowledge gained within this developmental area include:

• Perspective-taking
• Cross-cultural communication skills
• Local, national and international cultural Literacy
• Local, national and international competence
• Global citizenship
• Cultural identity formation

Overall, cultural development among children and young people is essential for promoting social harmony, fostering inclusive communities, and preparing individuals to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and diverse world.

Spiritual and Moral development: 

Spiritual, or as it is sometimes referred to as religious and moral development, broadly focuses on an individual’s sense of purpose, meaning, and connection to something greater than themselves. It can also touch upon beliefs that contribute to a sense of identity and connectedness with others and the social and natural world around them. It also, as suggested by Education, Scotland (2018), enables the development and reflection upon individuals and their capacity for moral or ethical judgement.

Focusing more on the religious aspect of spirituality, within which it is closely intertwined, enables children and young people to explore the world’s major religions and views that are independent of religious belief and to consider the challenges posed by these beliefs and values. 

Moral development, as mentioned, is the process of learning individual and societal beliefs surrounding what is considered to be right and wrong behaviour, with some of the following aspects seen as core knowledge and skills to be gained within this developmental area;

• An understanding of right and wrong
• An understanding of ethical and unethical actions, behaviours and practices
• An understanding of moral, ethical and positive social interaction 
• An understanding of how to positively implement their beliefs and values
• An understanding of the diversity of beliefs and religions
• A respect for others based upon the beliefs and practices which are different from their own.

Personal development:

The area focuses on the development of a strong and resilient self-identity, enabling an individual to understand who they are both internally and externally and within a range of different situations. It enables an understanding and advocacy for meeting one’s own deficiencies and growth needs. As well as developing personal preferences, likes, and dislikes and making decisions based on these. In order to achieve this, some of the knowledge and skills required are;

• Reflection
• Self-awareness
• Emotional awareness

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What is Holistic education?  

A holistic approach to education is a concept that focuses on a philosophy of educating the whole person beyond that of the core academic subject. It focuses more on the mastery of knowledge, skills, and understanding than meeting set, standardised attainment goals. This focus is because holistic education aims to educate the whole child, educate the student as a whole rather than an assemblage of individual parts, and see the child as part of society, culture, and environment (Forbes, 2003). Whereas holistic development focuses on the interconnectedness and interdependence of developmental areas, holistic education also addresses the broadest development of the whole person to support them in reaching their full potential.   

With this broader view of development, Holistic education can be divided into four pillars of learning: learning to learn, learning to do, learning to live together, and finally, learning to be. Each pillar focuses on a different aspect of the learning process.  

Pillar one: Learning to Learn  

The first of the four pillars is that of Learning to Learn, which focuses on developing the ability to learn rather than in the gathering of factual and academic knowledge. This practical application is based on Learning to Learn’s aim to develop a lifelong learner who is intellectually capable with strong reasoning and problem-solving abilities and who is critical, curious, and imaginative in their learning journey. Some of the skills required to be developed by an individual within this pillar are;   

• concentration,  
• memory,   
• critical and logical thinking,  
• imagination,   
• reasoning,   
• pattern recognition and,  
• problem-solving  

A core part of this pillar is the need for educators to support individuals in developing reliable and effective cognitive strategies to receive and gather new information. Mooney (2013) furthers this by connecting this pillar with Piaget’s theory of assimilation and accommodation because, as they suggest, individuals within this pillar continuously receive new information and will be required to apply and connect this to their current schemas through a process of the assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium framework, which highlights the need for individuals to have sufficient cognitive strategies in order from them to problem-solving and apply logical reasoning when confronted with new or contradicting information, events and experiences.  

Pillar two: Learning to Do  

The next pillar of holistic education is Learning to Do, which focuses on the practical application of learning and the requirement of experiences to strengthen the cognitive connection between what is presented to an individual and what they can process, retain, and recall. As stated, learning to do is concerned with the practical skills and the application of knowledge rather than how an individual gathers and organises that knowledge, which was the focus of pillar one. However, an important aspect to note is that this pillar goes beyond the narrowly defined knowledge and understanding that an individual gained and instead focuses on the specific practical tasks and the required connection between those separate and singular knowledge blocks. This is because Learning to Do aims to enable an individual to carry out complex tasks such as talking, riding a bike, or cooking effectively without needing a sizeable conscious effect.   

Even though the pillar of learning to do focuses on the practical application of the knowledge gained and the importance of experiential learning in reinforcing and strengthening the learning process. According to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (1996), the skills required from an individual to achieve this are more behavioural than solely practical or intellectual, with the UNESCO alluding that the following behavioural skills are required to be developed by an individual within this pillar are;   

• resilience,  
• decision making,  
• communication and negotiation Skills,  
• flexibility,   
• adaptability,  
• risk-taking,  
• emotional and social intelligence,  
• conflict resolution, and,  
• initiative   

Pillar three: Learning to Live Together   

Unlike the previous two pillars, this one goes beyond looking at what knowledge can be gained and how to refocus its usability to a specific focus on a partial development area. Learning to Live Together, as the name suggests, focuses on an individual developing core social, emotional and civic skills to integrate into their immediate environment and transition between situations and social groups.   

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation explores this pillar in two forms. The first is the discovery of others, and the other is the experience of a shared purpose. Both forms of Learning to Live Together promote an understanding of the need for cooperation and the interdependence of the learning process with that of others. This idea of social learning is not new, with Social Constructivist Vygotsky and his theory of the Zone of Proximal Development highlighting the importance and impact that others have on an individual’s development. The difference between this pillar and other social learning theories is that this pillar does not talk about the influence or impact that socialisation can have on learning. However, that socialisation must occur for learning to occur. One cannot happen in isolation from the other, and as such, some of the skills required to be developed by an individual within this pillar in order for them to learn, develop and meet their full potential are;   

• Conflict Resolution  
• Cooperation  
• Empathy  
• Individual and societal values  
• Cultural Competence  
• Active Listening  
• Civic Engagement  
• Ethical Decision Making  

Pillar four: Learning to Be   

Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, pillar four, Learning to Be, revolves around the ideas of an individual’s personal growth, self-awareness, and reaching their full potential or, in other words, self-actualisation. Within this pillar, the focus moves to human values rather than personal. Learning to Be goes beyond practical and cognitive skills and into ideas such as morals, ethics and spirituality in an attempt to develop a ‘whole’ individual.    

In connection with this attempt to develop the whole person, Miller (2019) posits this would encompass the development of an individual’s soul, mind and spirit, which is mirrored in another educational philosophy that advocates for a holistic approach, which is that of Waldorf education. Rawson and Richter (2000) state that Waldorf education promotes the need to inspire an individual’s spirit, engage them in hands-on learning to stimulate the brain and enable them to socialise to enrich the soul.  

However, this connection between Waldorf education and holistic education goes beyond how they define education and how it is conducted. As such, educating the whole individual means more than meeting standardised academic criteria; instead, it is about promoting a circular learning experience rich in connection, culture and curiosity. As such, some of the skills required to be developed by an individual within this pillar are;    

• Moral reasoning   
• Ethical reasoning   
• Situational reasoning   
• Integrity   
• Individual and societal values   
• Cultural Competence   

With this pillar’s broad and sometimes esoteric view of learning focused on that of the collective rather than the individual perspective, Learning to Be can be interpreted as learning to be human rather than learning to be a holistic individual and like with that of self-actualisation, it is not expected that all individuals will be able to reach and master the identified skills within this pillar.    

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History of holistic development and education  

Holistic education and, more broadly, holistic development, in their currently recognisable form, is a relatively new movement that arose in the 1980s in response to the restrictiveness of current mainstream education. They promote a more organic approach to education, learning, and development.  

However, Holisticism as a school of thought is not new and holistic education and Holistic development stems from the philosophy of Holism, which views the world and, by extension, learning as a synthetic, ordering, organising, and regulating activity and expresses that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Holism itself comes from the Greek concept of holon, which sees the universe or, in this context, an individual as made up of intreated wholes that cannot be reduced in parts (Smuts, 1926).  

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Reference   

Department for Education,. 2021. Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework for Group and School-based Providers. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65aa5e42ed27ca001327b2c7/EYFS_statutory_framework_for_group_and_school_based_providers.pdf 

Education Scotland,. 2018. Experiences and outcomes: Curriculum for excellence. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/media/wpsnskgv/all-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf

Forbes, S,. 2003 Holistic Education: An analysis of its ideas in nature. Brandon: Holistic Education Press.  

Miller, J. P,. 2010. Whole Child Education. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.   

Miller, J. P,. 2019. The Holistic Curriculum. 3rd Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.   

Mooney, C. G. (2013). Theories of childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky (Rev. ed.). Redleaf Press Publisher.  

Rawson, M. & Richter, T,. 2000. The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum. Forest Row, Sussex: Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship.   

Smuts, R. E,. 1926. Holism and evolution. South Africa. N & S Press.  

UNESCO (1996). ‘The four pillars of education’, in Learning: The Treasure Within: Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century. Paris: UNESCO.   

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