the-stages-of-development-and-developmental-tasks.pdf

The Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks
education (Urdaneta City University)
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education (Urdaneta City University)
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Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by ABM 2 OLIVEROS DANIELA (danielaoliveros356@gmail.com)
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CHALLENGE
In this Module you are challenged to:
• define developmental tasks in your own words.
• identify developmental stages of learners in different curriculum year levels.
• describe the developmental tasks in each stage.
• state for yourself how these developmental tasks affect your role as a facilitator
of learning.
INTRODUCTION
For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental task. What
happens when the expected developmental tasks are not achieved at the
corresponding developmental stage? How can you help children achieve these
developmental tasks?
Pre-natal period
Referring to pre-natal development, Santrock (2002) asked the following
questions succintly:
“How from so simple a beginning do endless forms develop and grow and
mature? What was this organism, what is it now, and what will it become? Birth’s
fragile moment arrives, when the new born is on a threshold between two worlds.
Infancy (from birth to 2 years)
As newborns, we were not empty-headed organisms. We cried, kicked coughed,
sucked, saw, heard and tasted. We slept a lot and occasionally we smiled,
although the meaning of our smiles was not entirely clear. We crawled and then
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we walked, a journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step. Sometimes
we conformed, sometimes others conformed to us. Our development was a
continuous creation of complex forms, and our helpless kind demanded the
meeting eyes of love. We split the universe into two halves: “ime will not me.”
And we juggled the need to curb our own wil with becoming what we could will
freely (Santrock, 2002)
Early Childhood (3 to 5 years)
In early childhood, our greatest untold poem was being only four years old. We
skipped, played, and ran all day long never in our lives so busy, busy becoming
something we had not quite grasped yer. Who knew our thoughts, which worked
up into small mythologies all our own. Our thoughts and images and drawings
took wings. The blossoms of our heart, no wind could touch. Our small world
widened as we discovered new refuges and new people. When we said “I” we
meant something totally unique, not to be confused with any other.” (Santrock,
2002)
Middle and Late Childhood (6-12 years)
“In middle and late childhood, we were on a different plane, belonging to a
generation and a feeling properly our own. It is the wisdom of human
development that at no other time we are more ready to learn than at the end of
early childhood’s period of expansive imagination. Our thirst was to know and to
understand Our parents continued to cradle our lives but our growth was also
being shaped by successive choirs of friends. We did not think much about the
future or the past, but enjoyed the present (Except for a few words, the paragraph
is taken from Santrock 2002)
Adolescence (13-18 years)
In no order of things was adolescence. The simple time of life for us. We clothed
ourselves with rainbows and went brave as the zodiac flashing from one end of
the world to the other. We tried on one face after another searching for a face of
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our own. We wanted our parents to understand us and hoped they would give up
the privilege of understanding them. We wanted to fly but found that first we had
to learn to stand and walk and climb and dance. In our most pimply and moments
we became acquainted with sex. We played furiously at adult games but were
confined to a society of our own peers. Our generation was the fragile cable by
which the best and the worst of our parents’ generation was transmitted to the
present. In the end, there were two but lasting bequests our parents could leave
us – one being roots, the other wings (Santrock, 2002)
Early adulthood (19-29 years)
Early adulthood is a time for work and a time for love sometimes leaving little
time for anything else. For some of us, finding our place in adult society and
committing to a more stable life take longer than we imagine. We still ask
ourselves who we are and wonder if it isn’t enough just to be. Our dreams
continue and our thoughts are bold but at some point we become more pragmatic
Sex and love are powerful passions in our lives at times angels of light, at other
times of torment. And we possibly will never know the love of our parents until
we become parents ourselves (Santrock, 2002).
Middle adulthood (30-60 years)
In middle adulthood what we have been forms what we will be. For some of us
middle age is such a foggy place, a time when we need to discover what we are
running from and to and why. We compare our life with what we vowed to make
it. In middle age, more time stretches before us and some evaluations have to be
made, however reluctantly. As the young old polarity greets us with a special
force, we need to join the daring of youth with the discipline of age in a way that
does justice to both. As middle aged adults we come to sense that the generations
of living things pass in a short while and like runners hand on the torch of life.
(Santrock, 2002)
Late adulthood (61 years and above)
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The rhythm and meaning of human development eventually wend their way we
lane adulthood when each of us stands alone at the heart of the earth and
suddenly it is evening”. We shed the leaves of youth and are stripped by the winds
of time down to the truth. We learn that life is lived forward but understood
backward. We trace the connection between the end and the beginning of life and
try to figure out what this whole show is about before it is over. Ultimately we
come to know that we are what survives of us (Santrock 2000)
Infancy and Early Childhood (0-5)
1. Learning to walk
2. Learning to take solid foods
3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6. Acquiring concepts and language to describe social and physical reality
7. Readiness for reading
8. Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a conscience
Middle Childhood (6-12)
1. Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games
2. Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself
3. Learning to get along with age mates
4. Learning an appropriate sex role
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living
7. Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
8. Achieving personal independence
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9. Developing acceptable attitudes toward society
Adolescence (13-18)
1. Achieving mature relations with both sexes
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
3. Accepting one’s physique
4. Achieving emotional independence of adults
5. Preparing for marriage and family life
6. Preparing for an economic career
7. Acquiring values and an ethical system to guide behavior
8. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior
Early Adulthood (19-29)
1. Selecting a mate
2. Learning to live with a partner
3. Starting a family
4. Rearing children
5. Managing a home
6. Starting an occupation
7. Assuming civic responsibility
Middle Adulthood (30-60)
1. Helping teenage children to become happy and responsible adults
2. Achieving adult social and civic responsibility
3. Satisfactory career achievement
4. Developing adult leisure time activities
5. Relating to one’s spouse as a person
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6. Accepting the physiological changes of middle age
7. Adjusting to aging parent
Later Maturity (61-and over)
1. Adjusting to decreasing strength and health
2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
3. Adjusting to death of spouse
4. Establishing relations with one’s own age group
5. Meeting social and civic obligations
6. Establishing satisfactory living quarters
ABSTRACTION
Concept of developmental tasks
In each stage of development a certain task or tasks are expected of every
individual. Robert Havighurst defines developmental task as one that “arises at a
certain period in our life, the successful achievement of which leads to happiness
and success with later tasks while failure leads to unhappiness. Social disapproval,
and difficulty with later tasks.” (Havighurst. 1972).
Developmental stages
The eight (8) developmental stages cited by Santrock are the same with
Havighurst’s six (6) developmental stages only that Havighurst did not include
prenatal period. Havighurst combined infancy and early child hood while Santrock
mentioned them as two (2) separate stages. These developmental stages are
described more in detail in the next paragraphs.
The developmental tasks (Santrock, 2002)
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Let’s describe the developmental tasks as described by Santrock and compare
them to those listed by Havighurst himself.
1. Prenatal period (from conception to birth) – It involves tremen dous growth-
from a single cell to an organism complete with brain and behavioral capabilities.
2. Infancy (from birth to 18-24 months) – A time of extreme dependence on
adults. Many psychological activities are just be ginning language, symbolic
thought, sensorimotor coordination and social learning.
3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years (Grade 1) These are the preschool
years. Young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for
themselves, develop school readiness skills and spend many hours in play with
peers.
4. Middle and late childhood (6 -11 years of age, the elementary school years)
The fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are mastered. The child
is formally exposed to the larger world and its culture. Achievement becomes a
more central theme of the child’s world and self-control increases.
5. Adolescence (10 12 years of age ending up to 18-22 years of age) Begins with
rapid physical changes dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body
contour, and the development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of the
breasts, development-of pubic and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. Pursuit
of independence and identity are prominent. Thought is more logical, abstract and
idealistic. More time is spent outside of the family
6 Early adulthood (rom late teens or early 20s lasting through the 30s) – It is a
time of establishing personal and economic Independence, career development,
selecting a mate, learning live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family
and rearing children
7. Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years of age) – It is a time of expanding personal
and social involvement and responsibility of assisting the next generation in
becoming competent and mature individuals; and of reaching and maintaining
satisfaction in a career
8. Late adulthood (60s and above) It is a time for adjustment to decreasing
strength and health, life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles.
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Issues on Human Development
The interaction of heredity and environment is so extensive that to ask which is
more important, nature or nurture, is like asking, which is more important a
rectangle, height or width. To -William Greenough
CHALLENGE
In this lesson you are challenged to take an informed stand/position on the three
(3) issues on development.
INTRODUCTION
Each of us has his/her own informal way of looking at our own and other people’s
development. These paradigms of human development while obviously lacking in
scholastic vigor, provide us with a conceptual framework for understanding
ourselves and others. Scholars have come up with their own models of human
development. Back up by solid research, they take stand on issues on human
development.
ABSTRACTION
The issues presented can be translated into questions that have sparked animated
debate among develop mentalists. Are girls less likely to do well in math because
of their ‘feminine nature or because of society’s ‘masculine’ bias? How extensively
can the elderly be trained to reason more effectively? How much, if at all, does
our memory decline in old age? Can techniques be used to prevent or reduce the
decline? For children who experienced a world of poverty, neglect by parents, and
poor schooling in childhood, can enriched experiences in adolescence remove the
deficits’ that they encountered earlier in their development (Santrock, 2002)?
Based on the presentations, each one has his/her own explanations for his/her
stand on the developmental issues. What is the right answer? Up to this time. The
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debate continues. Researches are on-going. But let me tell you that most life-span
develop mentalists recognize that extreme positions on these issues are unwise.
Development is not all nature or all nurture. Not all continuity or discontinuity and
not all stability or all change (Lerner, 1998 as quoted by Santrock, 2002). Both
nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, stability and change characterize
our life-span development. … The key to development is the interaction of nature
and nurture rather than either factor alone (Rutter, 2001 as quoted by Santrock.
2002). In other words, it is a matter of “both-and” not “either-or”. Just go back to
the quote beneath the title of this lesson and the message gets crystal clear.
To summarize, both genes and environment are necessary for a person even to
exist. Without genes. There is no person; without environ ment, there is no
person (Scarr and Weinberg. 1980, quoted by Santrock. 2002). Heredity and
environment operate together -or cooperate and interact to produce a person’s
intelligence. Temperament, height, weight… ability to read and so on.
If heredity and environment interact, which one has a greater influence or
contribution. Heredity or environment? The relative contribu tions of heredity and
environment are not additive. So we can’t say 50% is a contribution of heredity
and 50% of environment. Neither is it correct to say that full genetic expression
happens once, around concep tion or birth. After which we take our genetic
legacy into the world to see how far it gets us. Genes produce proteins throughout
the life span, in many different environments. Or they don’t produce these
proteins. Depending on how harsh or nourishing those environments are.
(Santrock. 2002).
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