Child and Adolescent Development

Child and adolescent behaviour is complex because it is rapidly changing.

Additionally, the range of normal behaviour in children and adolescents varies between
cultures, communities and individual families. Understanding child and adolescent
behaviour is nonetheless an important task for parents. Understanding child or teen’s
behaviour can help to address their developmental needs. Further, understanding
child's actions can help to identify potential abnormal behaviours and address them
before they become serious problems.
Without a clear understanding of the basics of child and adolescent behaviour, it
is difficult to meet a young person’s emotional needs. Since each stage of childhood
development is marked by different behaviours that change relatively quickly,
understanding the child’s behaviours can help parents address that child’s social and
emotional needs. For instance, understanding that toddlers may be clingy because of a
need for both parental protection and autonomy can help you respond to separation
anxiety in developmentally appropriate ways.

Human Development – it is a pattern of biological, cognitive and socioemotional

changes that begins at conception and continues through the life span. Development
includes growth and declined.

The Process and Periods in Development

1. Biological processes – involve changes in the body. Genetic inheritance plays a
large part. It is the process that underlie the development of the brains, gains in height,
changes in motor skills and puberty’s hormonal changes.
2. Cognitive Processes – involve the child’s thinking, intelligence and language. It
enable a growing child memorize.
3. Socioemotional Processes –involve changes in the child’s relationship with other
people, changes in emotion and changes in personality.

Development of learners at various Stages by John Santrock

1. Pre-natal period
Stages of Prenatal Development
A. Germinal – In approximately 3 - 4 days, the zygote travels along the fallopian tube
and eventually implant itself to the uterus wall.
B. Embryonic- The significant development in this stage is the formation of major
organs that form the biological systems, such as respiratory, digestive, and nervous
systems
C. Fetal- Considered the longest and final stage of pregnancy lasting until giving birth.
Aside from having all organs to be highly developing, senses are becoming more
functional
2. Infancy and toddlerhood (from birth to 2 years)
3. Early childhood (3-5 years)
4. Middle and late childhood (6-12 years)
5. Adolescent (13-18 years)
6. Early Adulthood (19-29 years)
7. Middle Childhood ( 30-60 years)
8. Late Adulthood (61 years and above)

The Lifespan Perspectives

There are a number of perspectives surrounding the understanding of
development, what you will see below are seven assumptions of the breadth and depth
of development as discussed by Paul Baltes (Baltes, Lindenburger, & Staudinger,
2006).

1. Development is a lifelong process. We do not stop growing once we reach

adulthood continue developing new understandings of our environment and the world
around us. Our relationships may flourish, while maintaining few friends.
2. Development is multidirectional. Development in one area is simultaneous with
other areas
While children are learning to walk, their socialization skills is also enhanced.
3. Development always involves both gain and loss. Development at every age
involves both growth and decline. For example, gaining a capacity for logical thought as
a school-age child may mean losing some capacity for fanciful and imaginative thinking
of a preschooler.
4. Development is characterized by lifelong plasticity. Plasticity refers to the
capacity to change in response to positive or negative experiences.
5. Development is shaped by its historical/cultural context. A person's development
is affected by the culture and the history of the society he or she grew up in. An
example of this is observed in the types of careers students in a particular community
pursue.
6. Development is multiply influenced. Human development is the product of ongoing
interactions between a changing person and his or her changing world.
7. Understanding development requires multiple disciplines. Human development
is best understood by having knowledge of the psychological perspectives, biological
underpinning and sociological context. Being able to merge what you have learned in all
your pedagogy courses will help you in formulating better instructional materials and
design lesson plans that will address the holistic development of your learners.

Theories and Theoretical Model of Human Development

Theories can provide a useful framework for understanding how development
processes operate. A major goal of child development theories is to identify how
children change and develop as they mature. Understanding the various theories of
child development can help you gain a better understanding of psychology and child
development. In this article, we explain what child development theories are, explore the
seven major theories of child development, and review answers to a few frequently
asked questions.
Child development theories seek to understand and explain how children change
throughout their childhoods. Psychologists and developmental researchers have several
theories to describe and explain the process and stages through which children
 develop. Some theories seek to explain almost every aspect of how human beings
change and mature. Other theories focus on a narrower aspect of human development.

Freud's psychosexual theory

Freud's clinical experience with patients suffering from mental illness led him to
believe that childhood experiences and unconscious desires have a significant impact
on behaviour. Freud's psychoanalytic theory states that individuals form most of their
personalities by the age of five. According to Freud, conflicts that occur during different
stages of childhood can have a long-term impact on personality and behaviour.
Depending on their resolution, conflicts can either contribute to growth or stifle it at each
stage of development. Psychologist Sigmund Freud asserts that a healthy individual
results from having passed each stage of psychosexual development.
 0-2 years of age: This stage is referred to as the “oral phase” because your desires at
this age were all derived from sucking or biting things.
 2-4 years of age: This stage is referred to as the “anal phase” because children at this
age are being potty trained, thus learning to control their bladder and bowel movements.
 4-7 years of age: This stage is called the “phallic stage” because children at this age
were concerned about their penis or clitoris.
 7-12 years of age: This stage of development is what Freud refers to as “period of
latency” where sexual developments are placed on hold.
 13 years of age and onward: This stage is called the “genital phase” because of how
attraction to the opposite sex starts during this age.

Erikson's psychosocial development theory

Erikson's eight-stage theory of psychosocial development focuses on the
interaction among individuals at different stages of life and the conflicts that arise during
these stages. According to Erikson, experience and social interaction play an important
role in the process of psychosocial development. Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory
places a greater emphasis on development across the lifespan than on other
developmental theories.
Throughout childhood and adulthood, people experience developmental crises
that serve as essential turning points. As an example, defining one's identity is the
primary conflict during the adolescent period. The success or failure of resolving
conflicts at each stage can influence the overall effectiveness of development. For
example, if adolescents have difficulty defining their own identities, they may become
confused about their roles.
 Erikson's eight-stage theory of psychosocial development

Behavioural child development theories

Child development theories focus on how children learn through their interactions
with their environment. According to behaviourists, learning and development result
from associations, rewards, and punishments. When someone reinforces a behaviour,
there's a greater likelihood of the behaviour recurring in the future. If someone punishes
a behaviour, it's less likely to occur again in the future.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are two important behavioural
processes that influence development. When you learn by classical conditioning, you
pair an automatic response with a specific stimulus to produce certain behaviour. An
operant conditioning method involves teaching humans how to act in such a way as to
receive rewards and avoid punishments.
Piaget's cognitive developmental theory
 The cognitive theories of child development focus on how the thinking processes
of a child develop throughout childhood. According to Piaget's theory, children think
differently from adults. He proposes that they actively construct their knowledge and
understanding of the world. The development of a child involves four distinct stages,
from birth until adulthood. The four stages in Piaget's theory are:
a. The sensorimotor stage: During the sensorimotor stage, children are between birth
and two years of age. During this period, a child notices the world through sensory
perception and motor interaction.
b. The preoperational stage: This stage occurs between the ages of two and six and is
also a period of rapid growth and development. As children progress through this stage,
they still lack the ability to manipulate information and have difficulty understanding
other people's perspectives.
c. The concrete operational stage: Between the ages of seven and 11, a concrete
operational stage occurs, during which logical reasoning is at its peak. Kids can reason
about concrete events but struggle with abstract concepts.
d. The formal operational stage: From approximately age 12 to adulthood, the
emergence of hypothetical thinking marks the formal operational stage. During this
stage, children can reason about abstract concepts and make systematic plans.

Bowlby's attachment theory

One of the earliest theories of social development was Bowlby's. According to
Bowlby's theory, early relationships with caregivers have a significant impact on a
child's development, and these relationships continue to influence social relationships
throughout a child's lifetime. Bowlby's attachment theory suggests that children are born
with the ability to form attachments. Distinct behavioural and motivational patterns also
characterize these attachments.
An individual with secure attachment develops loving and secure relationships
with others. An anxiety-driven attachment manifests as feelings of worry, insecurity, and
fear of abandonment. A key characteristic of avoidant attachment is a lack of trust, a
lack of emotional availability, and the fear of intimacy. Disorganized attachment
manifests itself as a mixture of desire and avoidance.
Bandura's social learning theory
Bandura was a psychologist who developed the theory of social learning.
According to Bandura, the conditioning and reinforcement processes aren't sufficient to
explain all aspects of human learning. Social theories of child development emphasize
the influence of parents, caregivers, peers, and other social influences on the
development of children. Some studies emphasize the importance of attachment in child
development, and others that emphasize how children learn information by observing
their peers. Social learning theory is a synthesis of behavioural and cognitive theories
that emphasize the role social experiences play in children's learning and development.
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky, a psychologist, wrote a seminal and ground-breaking theory of
learning that has influenced many fields, particularly education and psychology.
According to Vygotsky, the best way for children to learn is through hands-on
experiences. According to his sociocultural theory, parents, caregivers, peers, and
society's norms were all responsible for the development of higher-order functions.
From Vygotsky's perspective, learning is an inherently social process. By
interacting with others, learning becomes part of an individual's awareness of the world.
Vygotsky's theory also introduces the concept of the zone of proximal development. The
zone of proximal development represents the area between what a child can do with
help and what they can do for themselves.

Humanistic Perspective

Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study

of the whole person (known as holism).  Humanistic psychologists look at human
behavior, not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person
doing the behaving.

Humanistic psychologists believe that an individual’s behavior is connected to his

inner feelings and self-image . The humanistic perspective centers on the view that
each person is unique and individual, and has the free will to change at any time in his
or her life.The humanistic perspective suggests that we are each responsible for our
own happiness and well-being as humans. We have the innate (i.e., inborn) capacity for
self-actualization, which is our unique desire to achieve our highest potential as people.