By Diane Clark Johnson
Development is given in a range of years. Each child develops as an individual. Ask yourself, are you expecting too much or too little?
Your child's behavior "problem" may be just one of his/her important and normal developmental tasks. Awareness of these tasks should reassure you that your child’s development is normal and likely to change again soon. A behavior "problem" often lasts more than 6 months, happens in more than one place consistently, and appears as a pattern.
Normal Expectations:
During the past 15-20 years intrauterine development has become very important. Prior to this time, environmental effects on fetal development were not considered important.
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period (Birth to 2 years)
0-1 years
· Trust of caregiver/parent
· Forming a secure attachment now is critical for later years
· World view is expanding
1-3 years
· Focus Oriented, can now experience outrage
· Self-control/self-management are key
· Impulses are out of control
· Parallel play normal
· Peers are competitors or providers
· Perspective taking is just beginning
· Able to learn cause and effect
· Thinking is relatively concrete
Piaget’s Preoperational Period (2-7 years)
2-5 years
· During the first five years of life, children are egocentric -- they can only see their own perspective
· Increasing ability to tolerate frustration and to delay gratification
· Important for them to say NO, allows them to have feeling of control
· Normal to have focused aggression
· Play is critical, imaginary friends are useful and normal
· External to internal control begins to develop/ more able to self-regulate
· Socialization learned; learning what is socially appropriate
· Language development
· Gender identity
5-7 years
· A very sensitive time for child when making mistakes
· Parent needs to allow mistakes and help teach that mistakes are opportunities to learn
· Parents can have influences setting cultural bias
· Parent can begin to plants seeds for empathy, through modeling
Piaget’s Period of Concrete Operations (7-11 years)
6-12 years
· Latency, this period sexual and aggressive drives diminish
· Generally a stable period
· Beginning of our continuous memory/Can begin to develop expectations
· Most memories are happy
· Adaptive functions solidified, habits and patterns develop now
· Child is often able to organize and get along on their own
· Social skills and ego functions develop now
· Peer relationships are key
· Develop "social markers" or labels i.e.: fat, left-handed
· Mastery is important, being good at something is critical
· Interest in the outside world
Important tasks during latency
· Friendships
· Self control (body, emotions)
· Mastery of environment
· Clear distinction between public and private life (secrets)
· External and internal life (fantasy)
· Reassuring during this period to know there is a "Higher Authority"
· Hobbies and organized collections offer opportunity for control, organization and order
· Personality traits develop now
8-9 years
· Competition enables self evaluation
· Peer rivalry
· Clear gender barriers in spite of efforts to avoid
· Able to be both caring and mean
· Teasing between sexes important -- helps set boundaries
Piaget’s Period of Formal Operations (12 and On)
12-18 years
· Social and moral development
· Rebellion, self identity or expression
· They want to be trusted
When considering your child’s behavior it is important to consider:
· normal developmental tasks, listed above
· external factors; family stress, parenting style, environment
· internal factors; temperament, biological vulnerability
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