Normal Child Development
Back to Basics
April 24, 2008
Clare Gray MD FRCPC
Stages of Development
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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
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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
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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 YEARS
Websites
•http://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/behaviour/Dev
elopment.htm
•http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/human/pub
s/child6_12.html
•http://www.child.gov.ab.ca/acyi/parenting/stag
es/charts/pdf/developmental_stages.pdf
ADOLESCENT MILESTONES :
Websites
•http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/devel
op.htm