Normal Child Development

Back to Basics

April 24, 2008

Clare Gray MD FRCPC

Stages of Development

• Infancy (birth to 15 months)

• Toddler period (15m to 2.5 years)

• Preschool period (2.5 to 6 years)

• Middle years (6 to 12 years)

Developmental Schedules

• Landmarks described by Arnold Gesell– Motor and sensory behavior– Adaptive behavior– Personal and social behavior– Language

Major Theorists

• Sigmund Freud– Psychoanalytic perspective

• Erik Erikson– Psychosocial view of eight stages of life

• Jean Piaget– Cognitive perspective

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• ORAL STAGE (birth – 1 year)– Mouth is the main source of pleasure and interaction

– Fixation can lead to thumb sucking, nail biting, smoking and overeating

• ANAL STAGE (1 to 3 years)– Anus is the main source of gratification, withholding

and expelling feces and toilet training are important

– Fixation can lead to extremes of order and cleanliness or disorder and messiness

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• PHALLIC STAGE (3 to 6 years)– The genitals are the main source of gratification– Child attaches to the opposite-sex parent and

later shifts to same-sex parent as the superego forms

– Gender role and moral development are important

– Interactions between the id, ego and superego form the basic personality

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

• LATENCY STAGE (6 to 12 years)– Sexual instincts are suspended

– The super ego continues to develop through social interaction

– Intellectual and physical activities are important

• GENITAL STAGE (12 years to adult)– The onset of puberty causes sexual instincts to reappear

– Forming mature sexual relationships is important

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages

• TRUST vs. MISTRUST (birth to 1 year)– Responsive caregiving gives infants a sense of

trust in others and self and that the world is a good place (Hope)

• AUTONOMY vs. SHAME & DOUBT (1 to 3 years)– Children become more self-sufficient and want

independence; reasonable freedom of choice leads to autonomy (Will)

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages

• INITIATIVE vs GUILT (3 to 6 years)– Pretend play and acceptance of responsibilities help to

foster a sense of direction; children must balance this with the demands of parents (Purpose)

• INDUSTRY vs INFERIORITY (6 to 12 years)– Children learn to cooperate with peers and master

academic tasks; competency and productivity are important (Skill)

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages

• IDENTITY vs ROLE CONFUSION (12 to 18 years)– Adolescents strive to develop a coherent and lasting

personal identity (Fidelity)

• INTIMACY vs ISOLATION (young adulthood)– Young adults work to achieve intimate relationships

and commitments to other people

– Those who have not formed a strong sense of self may have difficulty (Love)

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages

• GENERATIVITY vs STAGNATION (adulthood)– The focus is on child rearing and work

productivity to contribute to the next generation (Care)

• EGO INTEGRITY vs DESPAIR (late adulthood)– Older adults attempt to reflect on their lives and

feel satisfied with their successes and failures (Wisdom)

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• SENSORIMOTOR (birth – 2 years)– Infants understand and organize the world through

sensory information and motor activity

– Object permanence develops

• PREOPERATIONAL (2 – 7 years)– Children use symbolic representation for events, places

and people

– Worldview is egocentric

– Language and pretend play develop

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• CONCRETE OPERATIONS (7 – 11 years)– Children can solve logical problems about

concrete physical subjects– Conservation and hierarchical thinking develop

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

• FORMAL OPERATIONS (11 to adult)– Adolescents can reason logically about abstract

topics, hypothetical problems and possible outcomes of a situation

Temperament

• Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas

• Identified 9 behavioral dimensions, from which reliable differences can be obtained– Activity level, rhythmicity, approach or

withdrawl, adaptability, intensity of reaction, threshold of responsiveness, quality of mood, distractibility, attention span and persistence

Attachment

• Ability to form a special relationship with significant others

• John Bowlby• Universal human need to form close

affectional bonds • Tendency to seek closeness to another

person and feel secure when that person is present

Attachment

• Attachment behaviours of the infant are reciprocated by the adult

• The experience of security is the goal of the attachment system.

• Secure, anxious/avoidant, anxious/resistant, disorganized

Three Phases of Adolescence

• -early adolescence (10 to 13)

• -mid-adolescence (14 to 17)

• -late adolescence (18-24)

Developmental Changes

• Pubertal changes

• Cognitive changes

• Identity construction

• Peer socialization

• Dealing with sexuality

• School and achievement pressures

• Renegotiating family relations

Identity Construction

• In early adolescence one’s sense of self (self-concept, self-image) is more negative and less stable than in later adolescence

Social Development

• Expansion of relationships beyond the family

• Shift from parents to peers as providers of companionship and intimacy

• need peer’s approval and advice

• development of empathy

Family

• Early adolescents attempt to increase their emotional distance from parents as they seek to raise their level of independence

• majority of adolescents report being satisfied with their relationships with their parents and rely on them for help and advice

Psychological Tasks

• Early adolescence: accept his or her growing and changing body

• Middle adolescence: separate from the internalized figure of the parent and venture out of his or her own family world

• Late adolescence: crystallizing one’s own sexual and vocational identity

Offord Centre for Child Studies

http://knowledge.offordcentre.com/dev_learn/resources.html

DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES - BIRTH TO 12 YEARSWebsites

•http://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/behaviour/Development.htm •http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/human/pubs/child6_12.html •http://www.child.gov.ab.ca/acyi/parenting/stages/charts/pdf/developmental_stages.pdf

ADOLESCENT MILESTONES :Websites •http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/develop.htm