2.14 Answers to activities

Activity 2.2: Understanding stages of development

  1. The developmental stages of children can be grouped as follows:
0–2 years2–5 years6–10 yearsAdolescence

Cannot engage in purposeful activities

Start to roll over from their back to their front

Able to put 2–3 words into phrases

Not yet able to engage more directly in social forms of play or interaction

Begin to recognise and respond to their primary caregivers

Recognise letters and numbers, colours, shapes and textures

Begin to ask questions – why, what, who?

More able to control the use of their of hands and fingers

Develop a sense of humour

Begin to understand and assert a sense of self

Able to consider several parts to a problem or situation

Become increasingly separate from parents and seek acceptance from teachers

Become more involved with friends

Still think in concrete terms

Sometimes moody and disengaged

Have an emerging interest in sexual activity

Desire for greater privacy

Peer group can place an increasingly influential role on their lives

Struggle with a sense of identity

Develop the ability to think through the consequences of their actions

  • Go back to the answers you gave to the questions at the beginning of this study session. How accurate were you?
  1. The possible changes in parental relationships might include:
  • adolescents becoming more critical of parents
  • desire for greater privacy
  • more arguments over behaviour and boundaries
  • adolescents becoming more aware of their parents and potentially having greater understanding
  • parents giving adolescents more responsibilities
  • greater difference in parental attitudes towards boys and girls
  • adolescents wanting to spend more time with peers than family.

It is often felt that adolescence is a period of great tension between parents and adolescents. However, it is important to recognise that as adolescents acquire greater skills and capacities, they also can provide an increasing source of support to their parents, if parents are able and willing to acknowledge their children’s right to greater independence and ability to take on more responsibilities for their own decision-making. Adults need to learn to listen to adolescents without judging them.

2.13 Self-assessment questions

3 Children’s needs and rights