CONTENT

For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental

task. What will happen when the expected developmental tasks are
not achieved at the corresponding developmental stage? How can you help children
achieve these developmental tasks?

 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Pre-

Natal Period
Referring to pre-natal development,
Santrock (2002) asked the following
questions succinctly:

1. How from so simple beginning to

endless forms develop and grow and
mature?

2. What was this organism, what is it now and what will it become? Birth’s fragile
moment arrives, when the newborn is on a threshold between two worlds.
Taken from the internet

Infancy (from birth to 2 years)

As newborns, we were
not empty 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 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 the0 meeting
eyes of love. We split the universe into two halves. “me and not me”. And we juggled the
need to curb our own will 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 being 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 yet. 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-
12years)
In the 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 few words, the paragraph is
taken from Santrock, 2002)
Taken from the internet

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 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 climbed and
dance. In our most pimply and awkward moments we become 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 –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 out 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 runner’s hand on the torch of life.
(Santrock, 2002).

Late Adulthood (61 years and above)

Taken from the internet

“The rhythm and meaning of human development eventually wend their way to late
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 now that we are what
survives of us. (Santrock, 2002)
 Developmental Tasks
 In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of every individual.
Robin Havighurst defines development 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).
There are eight (8) developmental stages given by Santrock. The eight (8)
developmental stages cited by Santrock are the same with Huvighurst’s six (6) developmental
stages only that the latter did not include prenatal period. Havighurst combined infancy and
early childhood while Santrock mentioned them as two (2) separate stages.
These developmental stages are described more in detail in the next paragraph.

 Developmental Tasks by Santrock (2002)

1. Prenatal period (from conception to birth) – it involves tremendous 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 beginning-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 identify are prominent. Thought is more logical, abstract and
idealistic. More time is spent outside of the family.
6. Early adulthood (from 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 to live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family and
rearing children.
7. Middle adulthood (40-60 years of age) – it is time of expanding personal and
social development 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.

REFERENCE
Corpuz, B.C., [Link] (2018). The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles. Metro
Manila: Lorimar Publishing Inc.