Unit 10 Developmental Stages

Piaget’s Cognitive Stages

Stage 1: Sensorimotor (Birth - 2 Years)

Timeframe is a generalization
Learning and exploring their world through their senses and movement
Major early motor milestones
  * When did I first roll over? Was it difficult for me or did I spontaneously do it well?
  * When did I begin to crawl? Did I like to crawl a lot? Did I crawl for a long time between being inert and walking?
    * Was I a SCOOTER??? (Embarrassing)
  * When did I begin to walk? Was it earlier or later than other kids? Did that concern you?
  * Did you notice any particular ways I explored my environment? Did I put things in my mouth a lot, or look at them intently? Did I have a specific stimulus that I was particularly engaged with, or one that I was adverse to?
  * Did you notice any trends concerning how I met milestones?
  * Did my pediatrician express any concerns about my development in this stage?
  * When did I say my first words, what were they, and what was the context?
If these milestones come too late (too early is generally fine), it may be necessary to have concern about cognitive development
Separation anxiety is a part of this stage
  * Child presents anxiety when separated from caregiver
  * What kind of temperament did I have as a baby?
  * Was I comfortable with strangers?
  * Who did I like the most? As in, who would you want give me to if no one else could get me to stop crying?
  * When I was left at daycare or without you or Dad, did I show resistance?
Object permeance is the child learning to understand that things are still present when not visibly or otherwise sensorily present
* Is there a point I stopped enjoying peekaboo? Did it ever seem like I suddenly understood that you were just behind your hands?
* Did you ever notice that I was able to crawl around a visual barrier to get a toy or see something I knew was on the other side?

Incorporating Language

In early years, child is learning phonemes and morphemes
* Phonemes are an individual sound that is a basic structural element of language
* Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a language
Reading lips, watching source of sound
* Trying to learn how communication is done and trying to acquire it
* Did you notice me watching your lips and even maybe mirroring your mouth movement?
4mo. - 10mo. is the babbling stage
  * Making sounds just to see what happens
  * People get excited which also reinforces this behavior
  * Were there particular sounds I liked a lot?
Around 10mo., we all have a major language neural pruning
  * Babies are trying every single sound, but now they’re pruning down to the sounds they’ve heard around them
  * This is why it’s so hard to learn sounds that don’t exist in your language, because they’re pruned off this early
  * (Give context for this stage), Did you, Uncle Jack, or even Grandpa trill at me a lot when I was a baby like you do at Audrey? Do you think this is why I can trill my R’s today?
6mo. to 12mo. is functional deafness
* Stop responding to non-native words
* Filtering out non-native sounds and letting in the sounds they realize they need to know
1 year is generally when the 1 word stage develops
* AKA the holophrastic stage

Stage 2: Preoperational (2 - 7 Years)

Animism is animated play
  * We are very emotional at this stage
  * Fantasy play, whimsical play
  * Objects are now understood as placeholders for other concepts
  * Did I have an imaginary friend? What were they like? How long were they around? Were they a bad influence on me (as in did I blame my own actions on the friend)?
Egocentrism is literally not being able to see other people’s perspective
  * Did you have to make me apologize a lot?
  * Did you have to give me a lot of talks about sharing and empathy?
  * Did you ever ask me something concerning someone else’s point of view and I only responded with what I could sense?
Conservation
  * Children this age cannot understand that when things change shape, they retain size
  * Due to limited schemas: Tall means big, short means small
  * Also lack reversibility, cannot do problems backwards
  * Did I have a hard time with math, specifically subtraction, in my early elementary years?
  * Did you notice that I had any very limited preconceptions concerning the world around me?
  * Did you ever use this against me to pacify me when upset? For example, if I wanted two cookies, did you just break one in half and tell me there were two?
Sympathy and empathy are nearly impossible at this stage
* Did you notice me becoming more empathetic and understanding in this time period?
Assimilation is the way that kids only have a couple of schemas they can handle so they put things in the same schema that adults will know don’t fit
* “It goes in the square hole!”
* Was there a point where I struggled with the “square hole, square block; circle hold, circle block” game? Was there a time I started to understand it?
This stage is telegraphic stage around two years
  * Fast mapping, learning 7-10 words in a day
  * Do you recall a time I suddenly improved rapidly in speech?
  * When did I start putting words together to make statements?
3-4 years is get more complex, no grammar but overgeneralization of rules we know
  * I ‘goed,’ ‘runned,’ etc.
  * S on end means multiple, ed on end means past
  * Did you ever feel like I suddenly started regressing in language?
  * When did I start reading? Did you read to me often? Did I read all my own or did you walk me through it?
Year 5 is refining previous language skills
* Best time to learn a 2nd language
* I know that Grace attempted a little bit to teach me Spanish around the house. At what age did she do that? Did I take it well? Di you think it was a consequence of bad timing or lack of reinforcement?

Stage 3: Concrete Operational (7 - 12 years)

Goes until someone hits puberty
Decreased centrism
* Starting to understand different perspectives
* Not necessarily abstract thinking
Understand conservation and reversibility
Better schemas
* Can group things within a larger schema
* All dogs, but then dog breeds under that umbrella
Overall, making more connections and understanding larger concepts
* If I ever told you about them, did you notice that we began doing more labs in school?
Shift away from fantasy to concrete objects and experienced situations
  * House, School, Cops and Robbers
  * No more “I want to be a fairy when I grow up,” but a “Astronaut”
  * What did I want to be, in terms of occupation or general future, when I was four? How about ten?
  * Did I explain why I wanted that job? Did it reflect my interests or even a game I had mentioned I was playing at the time (for the younger age)?
Important for children to start getting better with grammar
  * Learning a second language becomes harder
  * How did my writing change? Could I write more extensively?
  * Did my handwriting improve?
No longer assimilating (all large animals are cows), but accommodation
* Child can now sort things into their own schemas because they have a capacity to make more

Stage 4: Formal Operational (Puberty/12 Years - Death)

Developing abstract thought
Completely understanding reversibility and conservation, both in real and abstract scenarios
Developing values
* Maybe even ones that don’t just align with their caretaker’s beliefs
Theoretical thought
* Removing oneself from the concrete experiences that have been lived through
* Did my writing, whether for school or outside of it, become less about my own experiences and more about what I could make up?
When did I start disagreeing with you on abstract concepts (as in, I wasn’t just disagreeing about bedtime) or engaging in arguments (or what you perceived to be an argument)?
* When did I stop parroting your ideas and develop my own political/moral stance?
* When did I become more vocal about my political stance?

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (Birth - 1 Year)

Only social development is understanding to trust a caregiver that feeds you, cleans you, etc.
Security
  * Who did I seem to feel the most secure with? Why do you think that person became my comfort? Did I have multiple attachments (people I was comfortable around and actively comforted by)?
  * How did I handle the presence of non-parental family? Did I like to be held by non-parental filmily or what I would have knows as strangers?
  * Was I particular in my emotional responses (quick to cry or get angry)?

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (1 - 3 years)

Independence
The child wanting to do things by themself
The “no” stage
  * How independent was I?
  * How often did I throw tantrums? What were they over?
  * How often did I try to do things I most certainly could not?
  * Did you allow me to try some of these activities, even if you knew I couldn’t? Did you let me test my own capabilities?
Did you let me put on my own clothes or shoes, even if it took a long time? Are there other activities you allowed me to explore even if it was tedious and inconvenient?
Did you allow me to get hurt with the understanding that I would learn from that experience?

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (3 - 6 years)

The cognitive side of the last stage
  * Did I start showing initiative in social situations, such as wanting to be the “line leader,” choosing what we eat for dinner, choosing the game we play, etc.?
  * Did you allow me to have some measure of control over trivial things? If so, do you feel that validated my ideas and made me more secure in my own thinking?
  * Do you wish you gave me more freedom in this stage? Is there anything you would have done differently? Do you see effects of your parenting in me today, concerning my initiative/guilt about my own thoughts/actions?

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (6 Years - Puberty)

Finding what one is good at
  * How many activities like soccer, dance, etc. did I cycle through?
  * Did I ever land on one for a considerable period of time?
  * Were there any opportunities that you denied me? Do you stand by that decision or do you regret that?
  * Was it hard for me to find the things I was good at? Did you notice my confidence waning?
  * Did I start to struggle with school or social interactions during this period?
  * Was I proud of my accomplishments or was I never satisfied with what I had done?

Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence)

Trying to find who you are
Foreclosure is no soul-searching or identity crisis, just accepting the identity someone “hands you”
Moratorium is soul-searching but commitment to identity is low
Diffusion, no soul-searching or identity crisis, never finding an identity that fits, resulting in waffling and confusion
Achievement, going through a crisis but landing on a committed and personal identity
Do you think I have already found my identity?
Do you think my commitment to this identity is high? Do you think it will change in the future?
Do you think I will have an/another identity crisis, when, and about what? Where do you think it will lead me?

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood)

Both romantic relationships and friendships
Do you think I’ll be successful in relationships?
Do you think I’ll marry? When? To what kind of person?
Do you think I will continue to be friends with my current ones in college?
Do you think I will have more or less friends in college, compared to now?

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Self-Absorption/Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)

Starting to ask yourself if what you are doing is something of value
Is my family what/where I want it to be?
Am I in a life I want?
Do I have a purpose? Am I doing something important? Am I making on am impact on the world?
Adults have solid jobs and aren’t growing up anymore, which is a feeling of stagnation
* Mid-life crisis comes from stagnation and an impulse to make change
Does your perception of me involve me always on the move in life? Do you think I’ll reach a period of stagnation with life progress? How do you think I’ll deal with that?
Many people make impulsive decisions during a mid-life crisis, like making big purchases, moving, quitting their job, etc. What kinds of impulses do you think I’ll make?
What was your mid-life crisis like?
What do you think my life will look like after college and having been removed from the school environment for a considerable amount of time?
Do you think I’ll have kids?

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood)

Have I lived a full life?
Reflecting back with not much time
Do you think I’ll struggle in retirement?
Do you think I’ll fall victim to the trend of people devoting their entire lives to their job and not being satisfied at the end?
Do you think I’ll be content with my life accomplishments?
Do you have a bucket list? Have you achieved many of the goals on there?
Do you think I’ll have a bucket list? Do you think I’ll meet many of the goals on it?
Do you think despairing about life and feeling dissatisfied near the end is inevitable?