4-9 years old
Children can run and skip well, play simple ball games, and are skilled tricycle riders.
Children can hop, skip, run; play with a ball and climb.
6-9 years old:
Children continue to grow in size, strength and co-ordination. Their developing fine motor skills permit them to become knowledgeable in performance such as swimming, tennis, and football, and in activities that demand skills.
Adolescence-
Adolescence describes the stages between about age 10 and 18.
Puberty is the time when the body of a school-aged child turns into that of an adult. This growth is regulated by hormones that are genetically influenced. Girls usually reach puberty an average of two years before boys. During this time, extreme weight gains are common, and the skeleton begins to mature. Sex hormones control sexual maturation. Testosterone in boys brings about their facial hair and muscle growth. It also leads to muscle growth. The female organs release estrogen, and it causes breasts, uterus, and the vagina to mature. The two main categories that the changes puberty brings about can be divided into are overall body growth and the maturation of sex characteristics. The first visible sign of puberty is usually a large growth spurt. A growth spurt is the rapid gain in height and weight. For girls, this growth spurt usually takes place around or after age ten and for boys it usually takes place around twelve and a half. Remember when I started to hit puberty; I was all confused about what was happening because my body was changing so quickly. I think it was around year 9 when I started going through puberty. I was kind of chubby. Girls are usually taller and heavier than boys are during early adolescence. Most girls are completely grown by age sixteen. It also marks the development of liberty and an ability to think in more theoretical terms, for example, to explore ideas, challenge power. Solve problems and develop personal values, views, beliefs and morals.
Height and weight
During adolescence, most boys and girls reach adult height and weight, although there is considerable variation in when this occurs. The growth spurt in boys occurs between the ages of 13 and 15 years; a gain of 4 inches can be expected in the year of maximum growth. The growth spurt in girls occurs between the ages of 11 and 13 years; a gain of 3 inches can be expected in the year of maximum growth. In general, boys become heavier and taller than girls. By age 18, boys have about three quarters inch of growth remaining and girls have slightly less.
Physical change in Boys
In boys, the first changes in sexual characteristics are enlargement of the scrotum and testes, followed by lengthening of the penis. Internally, the seminal vesicles and prostate gland enlarge. Next, pubic hair appears. Hair grows on the face and in the underarms about 2 years after it appears in the pubic area. The first ejaculation usually occurs between the ages of 12 and 14, about 1 year after the penis begins to lengthen. Breast enlargement on one side or both is common in young adolescent boys and usually disappears within a year.
Physical changes in girls
In the majority of girls, the first visible sign of sexual maturation is breast maturing, closely followed by the growth spurt. The first menstrual period commonly starts about 2 years after the breasts begin to enlarge. Height increases most before menstruation begins. Soon afterward, pubic and underarm hair appears, however some girls don’t have any pubic/hair growing until they have reached a certain age, I say this because I have a friend who hasn’t got any growth of hair on her underarms, arms and legs; she’s now 17 and they are now starting to grow. This shows that girls can grow at different paces.
Adulthood-
Most adults reach their full height late teens or early twenties, their peak strength in their mid-twenties and their maximum weight in their middle years. Hearing and vision are at their peak around the age of 20, as is reproductive capacity for women. Most adults are highly active between the ages of 16 and 30. Older adults tend to lose some strength and speed with age, even though these changes are often overlooked outside reasonable sport; and older adult could easily accomplish an individual peak of fitness at 40 or 50 if they take up life. During their forties most have the needs to wear glasses, some cannot hear high-pitched noise clearly and they show thinning of hair/loss which is familiar to men. They risk of having miscarriages and pregnancy difficulties as get older; they stop to conceive at the ages of 45-55 because of menopause. The word menopause literally means the permanent physiological or natural, closing stages of menstrual cycles, from the Greek roots
(Greek, meno=moon/men=month, pause=cessation)
Final life stage-
There are three ways that death occurs generally. The first way is the agonal phase. During this phase, gasps and muscle spasms happen when the body can no longer sustain life. The second phase is clinical death. This is when a short interval follows in which heartbeat, circulation, breathing, and the brain functions all stop; recovery is still available at this stage. In the third stage of death, mortality, the person actually passes into permanent death. Soon afterward, this dead person becomes shriveled looking, and has thus undergone all of the physical development a person goes through in a lifetime.
Physical development is the only type of development that one can actually witness. Ever person generally goes through some form of the same development through each age group. The human body is very unique and all of these changes that we experience are what makes us so interesting.
Intellectual development
The stages of intellectual development appear to be related to major developments in brain growth. The human brain is not fully developed until late adolescence or in the case of males sometimes early adulthood. We often expect children to think like adults when they are not yet capable of doing so. It is important that parents know what to expect from their child as they develop and to be sure that the expectations they may have for their child at a given age are realistic.
Sensory Motor Period
(0 - 24 months)
Reflexive Stage
(0-2 months)
- Simple reflex activity such as grasping, sucking.
Primary Circular Reactions
(2-4 months)
- Reflexive behaviors occur in stereotyped repetition such as opening and closing fingers repetitively.
Secondary Circular Reactions
(4-8 months)
- Repetition of change actions to reproduce interesting consequences such as kicking one's feet to more a mobile suspended over the crib.
Coordination of Secondary Reactions
(8-12 months)
- Responses become coordinated into more complex sequences. Actions take on an "intentional" character such as the infant reaches behind a screen to obtain a hidden object.
Tertiary Circular Reactions
(12-18 months)
- Discovery of new ways to produce the same consequence or obtain the same goal such as the infant may pull a pillow toward him in an attempt to get a toy resting on it.
Invention of New Means through Mental Combination
(18-24 months)
- Evidence of an internal representational system. Symbolizing the problem-solving sequence before actually responding. Deferred imitation.
The Preoperational Period
(2-7 years)
Preoperational Phase
(2-4 years)
- Increased use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric.
- Can think about something without the object being present by use of language.
Intuitive Phase
(4-7 years)
- Speech becomes more social, less egocentric. The child has an intuitive grasp of logical concepts in some areas. However, there is still a tendency to focus attention on one aspect of an object while ignoring others. Concepts formed are crude and irreversible. Easy to believe in magical increase, decrease, disappearance. Reality not firm. Perceptions dominate judgment.
- In moral-ethical realm, the child is not able to show principles underlying best behavior. Rules of a game not develop, only uses simple do's and don'ts imposed by authority.
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Period of Concrete Operations
(7-11 years) Characteristic Behavior:
Evidence for organized, logical thought.
- There is the ability to perform multiple classification tasks, order objects in a logical sequence, and comprehend the principle of conservation.
- Thinking becomes less egocentric.
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The child is capable of concrete problem-solving.
- Some reversibility now possible (quantities moved can be restored such as in arithmetic:
3+4 = 7 and 7-4 = 3, etc.)
Period of Formal Operations
(11-15 years)
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Characteristic Behavior:
Thought becomes more abstract, incorporating the principles of formal logic.
- The ability to generate abstract propositions, multiple hypotheses and their possible outcomes is obvious.
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Thinking becomes less tied to physical reality.
- Formal logical systems can be acquired.
- Can handle proportions, algebraic manipulation, and other purely abstract processes. If a + b = x then a = x - b. If ma/ca = IQ = 1.00 then Ma = CA.
- Can use aids such as axioms to go beyond human limits on knowledge.
Paiget’s theory stops in adolescence but most theorists believe that adults continue to improve their thinking ability. Some psychologists suggest that there is a ‘post-formal operations’ stage of think skilled in their ability to make flexible judgments. It may be that many adults develop an ability that could be call ‘wisdom’ as they grow older.
Stages of Emotional Development
- Infants
(0-18mths)
The goal of this stage of emotional development is the development of trust. (Erik Erikson).
An infant needs to know that the world is a safe and predictable place where their needs are met promptly and consistently. Trust grows through everyday interactions such as the routines around feeding, being comforted when distressed, and being presence to the infant's cries. Trust is important because it helps us to be successful in society. The development of positive expectations about the future develops in infancy. Self esteem, Optimism & Attachment.
At 3-4 weeks babies will smile when they feel satisfied. Between 3-8 weeks they will smile in response to faces and voices. These facial expressions are very important in helping infants "attach" to adults. Infants smile more at their parents than at a stranger.
By 4 months infants are beginning to laugh.
By 6-8 months infants learn to express some basic emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger, and fear. S/he may well crawl to his/her parents in an unfamiliar situation.
By 12-15 months there are clear attachments formed to one or two adults and the infant will display nervousness in the presence of unfamiliar people. Up to about 18 months, an infant will watch and copy the emotions of others to guide their responses in new situations.
- Toddlers 18mths - 3yrs
The goal of this stage can be seen to be development of independence.
- This is a time of testing limits. Being able to count on certain consequences for their actions is important for the toddler's sense of where they fit in the world. The two years old becomes aware of him/her self as a separate person.
- The interest in peers increases and we see both cooperative and aggressive behaviors displayed.
- This is a time to learn that there are right and wrong ways of getting what you want.
- Routine and stability are important. Children below about 2 years have few emotion words to describe their feelings.
- Two year olds begin to understand the connection between facial expressions and emotions.
- Parents can help young children by talking about their own feelings in certain situations.
Between 2 - 3 years children begin to talk about their feelings.
Being able to cope with frustration and having to wait first appears at around 24 months. As children get older they are more able to control their own behaviour.
Preschoolers 3 - 5 yrs
This age sees children develop social skills, understand feelings and grow in their understanding of ideas, time, relationships and language. This is a time for the testing of new abilities in new settings.
Imaginary Friends.
As many as 1 in 4 preschool aged children have imaginary friends. Imaginary friends may be clever and may do all the things that the child might wish to do. The imaginary friend may be one that is less able than the child, making it necessary for the child to care for this friend. This also explains why children of this age are attracted to "superhero" play and love dinosaurs. They are big, powerful and masters of their world. Imaginary companions usually disappear when children go to school.
At this age comes a sense of humour and the ability to show empathy. For the first time a child can understand that the same event can cause different feelings in different people (e.g. the winner of a race feels happy while the loser feels sad).
A major challenge for this age is developing friendships with other children. Friendships are formed and preferences develop for playmates of the same gender. Cooperative play increases.
Children 5 -12yrs
Rules, Justice and Secrets.
If all has gone well in the early years, a 6 year old will have a healthy attachment to each parent, be fairly free of anxiety and have a good understanding of emotions and how to express them. The ability to keep secrets develops from about 5 years. Keeping a secret requires the ability to consciously conceal information.
At around 7-8 years children become more aware of their private selves and of their unique thoughts and emotions. This is also the age when they begin to compare themselves with their peers and become concerned about their abilities.
This is a time for rules, board games, team games, house rules, secret club rules, rules of exclusion and inclusion. By this age they are able to understand another's perspective but their understanding of justice it is still very one sided and self centered.
9-10 year olds are less interested in fantasy games and are influenced by peer pressure. They will feel guilty and so don't need to be "told off" to know right from wrong.
Adolescents
The main task of adolescence is to develop independence and learn from mistakes, to learn to resolve conflict in a more adult fashion and to work out where one fits as an individual in society. Sexual identity is also a major part of this developmental stage.
Adolescents have a more organized and complex view of themselves. There is an emphasis on self control and self direction in this stage. Peer influence can be strong in these years but parents remain important. Adolescents want to be independent from their parents, but are still dependent on them. They also depend on the approval of peers to feel confident. As they get older, they develop their own ideas and values about their world, which may not match those of their parents.
Rules may now only be kept if there is a good chance of getting caught, or may be deliberately broken as an act of defiance. Self esteem can change rapidly as adolescents come under the influence of peer groups and role models, and become very sensitive to any signs of rejection.
Young adolescents vary greatly in the way they behave, with some of the variation linked to their stage of physical development. They may at times act like an adult and at other times act as a child. Eleven and twelve year olds often express anger freely. As adolescents reach approximately 13 years they may become quieter. They are often not keen to be identified with their parents and may argue a lot as they adjust their view of their new self. Anger may quickly turn to tears or sulks.
Concentration, self control and the ability to organize themselves is increasing. At 14-16 years relationships with parents may improve as parents allow them more adult responsibilities and freedoms. They should become less sensitive to criticism or advice as they begin to look to planning their future. They may become more tolerant as they are surer of their beliefs and values. They are more socially skilled and better at resolving conflicts.
Social development
Erik Erikson and Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson believed that people were constantly developing socially, from birth throughout all of life. He further believed that successful mastery of each step was necessary before moving on to the next, so if someone stalled out at a certain level, working through the rest would be impacted in a negative way. He divided his set phases of psychosocial development into eight distinct stages, the first five going from infancy through adolescence. Those first five steps are:
Trust vs. Mistrust (Birth to 1 Year)
Primary caregivers are responsible for seeing that the needs of young babies are met lovingly and consistently to help establish a feeling in the baby that the world is a safe and welcoming place.
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1 to 3 Years)
Parents and caregivers should encourage and celebrate the emerging independence displayed during this phase in order to build a child's self-confidence.
Initiative vs. Guilt (3 to 6 Years)
As kids become more assertive, reach out to others for friendship, and begin to explore their individuality, it is important that they be supported in their efforts, lest they feel inept and begin to mistrust their own abilities.
Industry vs. Inferiority (6 Years to Puberty)
School experiences come to the forefront, with children taking pride in planning and executing projects. The encouragement of parents and caring educators helps to build a child's sense of self-esteem, furthering their confidence and ability to interact positively in the world.
Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence)
At the threshold of adulthood, teens are faced with a number of important decisions about their futures. If they have built a solid base, they will have an easier time determining just what their place in the world should be.
Points to Ponder
While each child will develop social proficiency at their own rate, there are some seemingly universal truths to social development:
- Preschool friendships are typically the first "give and take" relationships that kids have outside of their homes.
- Children aged 3-5 often have imaginary friends, which is perfectly normal and need not be a source of concern for parents.
- Early friendships are based more on circumstance (i.e. classmates, neighbours, attendees of the same play group, etc) than on genuine similarities.
- Kids tend to have a "best friend" throughout their school years, but in the early years, that best friend is likely to change several times.
- Most childhood friendships are between children of the same gender, with whom most kids feel that they have the most in common.
- Friendships are usually of high importance to children, especially in late childhood and adolescence, helping kids to strengthen their social abilities.
Bibliography:
www.ifcresourcecentre.co.uk/glossary/Conceptn.jpg
www.med.upenn.edu
BTEC National Health & Social Care, series editors: Beryl Stretch and Mary Whitehouse care book 1
BTEC National Health & Social Care, series editor: E. Lanbridge care book 1
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menopause
http://www.headroom.net.au/family
© Children, Youth and Women's Health Service 2006
www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/StagesChildrensSocialDevelopment.html