ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s work on education, first published in 1762, is widely recognized as having been a revolutionary influence that paved the way to the scientific approach to child behavior and development. Kessen (1965) suggested that Rousseau’s Emile, ou de l’Éducation (1911) is at the origin of child study as a specific discipline of knowledge. Aside from influencing the establishment of a new discipline, Rousseau’s essays on education contain a set of fundamental principles that inspired, and eventually shaped, Francophone perspectives on child development. Claparède (1912) recognized in the Emile of Rousseau critical issues and fundamental principles that dictated his views of child development. The principles included the law of genetic succession, which posits orderly stages in development, and the law of functional autonomy, which emphasizes the appropriateness of the child’s behavior at the various stages of development. The law of functional autonomy refers to the achievements and organizations that are specific to each period of development and is in sharp contrast to the view that children are merely miniature or unfinished adults. Principles of genetic succession and functional autonomy became the cornerstones of Piaget’s theory.
