Stages of development, Ages 0-18The following pages contain a brief summary of the Stages of development according to Piaget... The better you know your child and understand his development the better prepared you will be able to contribute to his growth physically, mentally, emotionally,socially and spiritually. With children it is never to soon to begin with good parenting as you well know from your experience. Stages of development from Age 0-2 years At this stage of child development a newborn's understanding is limited to direct contact with the environment and with only simple reflexes-seeing, listening, sucking, touching, crying, and movement of arms, trunk, and head. Intelligence develops as a child interacts with the environment, experiencing reactions and sensations from reflexive actions. A child begins to communicate through different cries for different needs... Around the age of 2, through experience and experimentation, an early sign of thought takes place as a child becomes aware that objects do no cease to exist when they are hidden. They start to make use of imitation, memory and thought...Children will also begin to solve problems through a primitive type of creativity. Stages of development from Age 2-7 years During this stage of development,children shift from interacting with their environment through senses and movement to functioning in a conceptual-symbolic mode. They can now think in symbolic form. Gradual language development begins around the age of 2, and is almost mastered by 4... They can count, but still do not really understand what numbers mean...Their communication is no yet person to person, but consists of the child's monologue... They are able to think operations through logically in one direction, referred to by Piaget as centration. Children do not yet have the ability to mentally trace a series of events or easily understand cause and effect relations... Piaget also uses the term egocentrism to describe children in this stage... Egocentrism is the inability to take on another's point of view; children can not conceive that anyone thinks differently from themselves... Stages of development from Age 6-7 years Around the age of 6-7, or earlier if a child is constantly exposed to other children, egocentrism will erode... Children begin to validate their own thoughts against those of their peers. Through maturation and experience a more sophisticated and adult-like state of cognitive development begins to evolve... This is a good time to start with structured parenting. Set up simple house rules, establish basic boundaries of time, place, touch etc. Children are in need of a consistent routine at this age... It might be helpful at this point to read up a bit on discipline, boundaries, value and character development. Stages of development from Age 8-10 years Reasoning abilities become more developed at this stage of development, but now children are able to solve concrete (hands-on) problems in a logical fashion... Egocentric thinking dissolves...and children learn that others have ideas and views different from their own... They begin to pay attention to the point of view of others...as a way to verify their own. They understand laws of conservation and are able to classify...and understand reversibility...the ability to think backward from the end to the beginning. At this point children want and need structure ...they still want to please their parents...It is a time for reinforcing positive behavior...and kids want to help out with chores around the house. Parents can continue to instill basic values that will stick...such as a sense of responsibility...rewards and consequences... Stages of development from Age 11-15 years From 11-15 years old, there is a progression of the developmentof new cognitive abilities... Towards the end of the period...they have complete conceptual and abstract thinking abilities... They can talk about concepts...possibilities...from hypotheses and conclusions...and use rules to solve abstract problems... During this final stage...a new type of egocentrism emerges...which may explain some behaviors and attitudes commonly associated with young teens... Because of their increased cognitive abilities...they can imagine what others may be thinking... They tend to believe that others are thinking about them....and that they are as critical in their thinking as the teens are of themselves... This is the "age of peer pressure"...Teens often develop concerns about social issues...and their identity... As their thinking ability has developed...so does their questioning of adult authority... They no longer view their parents as the source of absolute truth... Early teen years... are often marked with withdrawal from their family as they step towards independence... Stages of development from Age 16 and older At this stage of development according to Piaget's theory a child's operational thought should be developed by age 16... however, each child moves through the stages at their own pace and are subject to cultural, religious and environmental factors that could delay or accelerate progression. This is a time when parents can still influence their teenagers...Parents can monitor behavior and control money, rewards and privileges...insist on a code of morality and boundaries, a work ethic,responsibility and accountability... It is a tough stage for both parents and teenagers...It is during this period that parents can still still be effective and reinstate core values about healthy relationships that have been taught at an earlier age. For more information...you can go from this page to read more about core values . A new window will open. Just close it to return here when you are finished. You can also get more information about how stages of development relates to core values and healthy relationships . Visit these web pages that are simple to understand and rich in content... Make sure your browser allows pop-ups...then come back...I'll wait for you right here... Good your are back...It's time to move on to our next topic...
|