Reflections on Child & Adolescent Development
Child and adolescent development is a combination of intellectual, cognitive, social, emotional and physical (or motor) changes in children that occur in roughly four stages (at very approximate ages): infancy (birth to 2 yrs), pre-school or early childhood (3 to 8 yrs), later childhood (9 to 12 yrs), and adolescence (13 to 18 yrs). The changes are influenced by genetic predisposition, prenatal development, nutrition and health care, culture and home environment, and education. The nature vs. nurture debate (whether development is mostly due to genetic or environmental factors) is currently seen as a combination of both influences, with the genetic predisposition of an individual providing a very broad framework for later change induced from external environmental factors.
Major theories of development include Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Lev Vygotsky’s cultural mediation or guided participation, and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (Pressley and McCormick, 2007). Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposed that children learn through play, with four stages: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete, and formal operations. Vygotsky also studied child development through play, similar to Piaget, designating the zone of proximal development, describing when a child is on the cusp of advancing in cognitive or motor ability. Bronfenbrenner’s theory involves four types of nested environmental systems (micro-, meso-, exo-, and mesosystems), corresponding to social, cultural and familial environments, each with rules and norms that affect development.
Compared to the earlier research outlined above, more recent research has been more cognizant of the interplay between genetic and environmental influences on development (Medina, 2008).
Medina, J. (2008). Brain rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Pressley, M. & McCormick, C. B. (2007). Child and adolescent development for educators. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
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