Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University Learning Module PDF

# Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University - Learning Module PED 1: Child and Adolescent Development & Learning Principles ## Republic of the Philippines ## Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University Region IX, Zamboanga Peninsula R.T Lim Blvd., Zamboanga City ## **Learning Module**...

# Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University - Learning Module PED 1: Child and Adolescent Development & Learning Principles ## Republic of the Philippines ## Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University Region IX, Zamboanga Peninsula R.T Lim Blvd., Zamboanga City ## **Learning Module** ### PED 1 **CODE:** The Child and Adolescent Development and Learning Principles **COURSE** **Document No.:** ZCSPC - LM2020 **Date Developed:** **Date Revised:** August 2023 **Issued by:** ZCSPC - CTE **Prepared by:** Judith S. Martinez, Ph.D **Prof. Anna Maria P. Gomez** ## Vision A world class Polytechnic University ## Mission Produce globally competent human capital and research innovations for quality lives. ## Institutional Outcomes Globally competitive graduates who can perform advanced technological competencies in their field of specialization. ## Core Values - Love of God - Social Responsibility - Commitment/Dedication to the Service - Accountability ## Introduction Welcome to Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University, the premier higher education institution in Zamboanga Peninsula, one of the Centers of Development in Teacher Education Institutions in the country and an ISO accredited institution as recognized by the Commission on Higher Education. It is our pride and honor, that you choose ZPPSU as your school of choice. At the onset of the NEW NORMAL condition which resulted at the height of the Pandemic fever that hit almost the entire globe in 2019, this institution has ventured at trying to find ways and means to provide accessible and quality tertiary education for all. After a couple of years of restrictions, fortunately, our country and the rest of the world are back to its feet in all spheres of social and economic activities as well as at the education sectors. The lessons and experiences during the Pandemic Era has taught us to adapt flexible learning the hard way. It is for this reason that the administration has decided to offer flexible learning education using two modalities: Blended and Distance Learning education back then in order to ensure that no one is left behind. The increase in the number of clients or applicants for admission at the university since after pandemic has gone extremely high for both in campus and off campuses. The College of Teacher Education Department, for example, from barely less than a thousand across programs now almost double in size. Due to limited facilities of classroom and laboratories, for the first time after Pandemic, the college is following a flexi class schedules to accommodate all students from all levels. A partial online learning modalities and partial Face to Face set up are hereby embraced as mode of instructions effective this school year 2023-2024. It is why we encouraged students to try to download the module and try to work on it independently and email to upload to google classroom the responses of each task per module. This module has been prepared to guide you in your learning journey with the use of the Guided and Self-directed learning activities prescribed to finish your course. Each module includes reading materials that have been chosen to help you understand the ideas and concepts introduced by the module. For this semester, Dr. Judith S. Martinez or (Coach Jude) is your class facilitator for your class PED 1 **CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING PRINCIPLES**. This course focuses on understanding the **GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT**. Exercises and assessment of learning activities are provided to test your comprehension and apply the concepts that you have learned from this module. After accomplishing all modules, you are expected to do the following: 1. Understanding the basic concepts and current issues of the Adolescent human development specifically that of the Child and 2. Identify age appropriate developmental characteristics of children and adolescents and its inter-relationships with some Learning Principles. 3. Apply the knowledge gained in real life and classroom situations. ## How to Use This Module This is a self-study module particularly designed to help you study with little or no intervention from your teacher. Please follow very carefully the instructions on how to use this module so you can fully benefit from it. - The lessons on this module is logically organized. Every lesson is connected to the next and necessary for a better understanding of the next topic. Hence, please do not skip a page. Read every page of this module and do every task that is asked of you. - Read the Table of Contents so that you will have a good grasp of the entire course. Having an overview of what you are about to study will help you see the interrelationships of the concepts or knowledge that you are about to learn. - Every lesson or unit begins with the learning objectives. The objectives are the target skills or knowledge that you must be able to gain or perform after studying the entire lesson/unit. - Take the post test, activity or practice exercise given at the end of the lesson or unit. Do this only when you have thoroughly read the entire lesson or unit. When answering every activity, test or exercise, please answer them honestly without looking at the answer key. The answer key is given to you for you to check your own progress and monitor your own understanding of the lesson. The knowledge you will gain depends on how much effort and honesty you put into your work. - Please pay attention to the Study Schedule on page _. This will guide you and make sure that you don't lag behind. Lagging behind will result to cramming and eventually affects your understanding of the lesson. - Know what it takes to pass the course. Please refer to the Evaluation and Grading System on page _and _respectively. - If you encounter difficult words which are not found in the Glossary page of this module, take some time to locate the meaning of these words in a dictionary. You will fully understand your lesson if you exert extra effort in understanding it. There is no room for laziness and complacency. College students are expected to be independent learners. - If there is anything in the lesson which you need clarifications on, do not hesitate to contact your instructor or professor at the appropriate time. - You will be evaluated by your instructor or professor to check how much knowledge and skills you have gained. The result of this evaluation will form a big chunk of your grade. So please do well and do not waste time. - Lastly, you are the learner; hence, you do the module on your own. Your family members and friends at home will support you but the activities must be done by you. As Students of this university, you must always be guided by our core values, Love of God; Social Responsibility; Commitment/ Dedication to the Service; and Accountability. ## Suggested Study Schedule | Week | Module | Topic | Activities | | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | First Week | 1 | Basic Concepts and Issues on Human Development | Introduction VGMO/ Orientation/Familiarization | | First Week | 1 | Understand your own childhood and adolescent development through your own developmental experience (s) | Individual Tasks compilation for individual submission at the Google Classroom: Write your own Childhood and Adolescent Stories. Make a critique on the Stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and Alice Walker. | | | 1 | Historical Views of Child Development | Video Recoded Study hub discussion | | | 1 | Concerns and Issues of today's Children and the Developmental Processes and Periods | Submit Via Google classroom #3 and #4 | | | 1 | Learner Centered Psychological Principles | Video recorded group discussion by study hub with individual Tasks submission at the Google Classroom | | | 1 | Explain the 14 Learner Centered Psychological Principles a. Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors b. Motivational and Affective Factors c. Developmental and Social Factors d. Individual Differences Factors | Individual Tasks compilation for individual submission at the Google Classroom: Reflections on how to relate these principles to the concept you will learn in the succeeding modules. | | | 2 | Learning Principles categorizes the psychological principles into four areas: (1) cognitive and metacognitive (2) motivational and affective (3) developme ntal and social and (4) individual difference factors that influence learners | Video Recoded Study hub discussion for group Output & Individual Tasks compilation for individual submission at the Google Classroom: | | | 3 | 1. Psychoanalytic and Psychosexual Theory of Sigmund Freud 2. Cognitive Theory by Jean Paiget 3. Psycho-Social Theory of Development by Eric Ercikson 4. Socio_Cultural Theory by Liv Vygotsky 5. Ecological Theory by Bronbenfrener 6. Classical Conditioning by Ivan Pavlov 7. Operant Conditioning by BF Skinner 8.Multiple Intelligences Theory by Howard Gardner 9.Metacognitive by John Flavel 10. Laws of Learning by Edward Thorndike | Video Recoded Study hub discussion for group Output & Individual Tasks compilation for individual submission at the Google Classroom: 1. Summarize each Learning Theory by identifying Some terms that they feel they need to define to understand the theory better, fill up the blanks in the given advance organizer format and identify an application through a personal life event or a script taken from a filipino or American movies regarding families or reflective of how to deal with children and adolescents. 2. Google meet for discussion, | ## Evaluation To pass the course, you must: 1. Read all course readings and answer the pre assessment quizzes, self-assessment activities and reflection questions. 2. Participate on the online oral tests and topic reports 3. Answer the print-based discussion activities 4. Submit the final project (Portfolio) and module ### Evaluative Assessment Activities - **Oral examinations and Individual reports on Specific Topics** Instruction: Graded recitation shall be done during on-line meetings and presentation of short topic reports shall be conducted through on-line meetings only - **Assignment and Projects** Instruction: There will be modules which consists of Activities, Analysis Application, Short quizzes to test your understanding of the topic and a Research Connection and Reflection. This will considered as one among the assessment tool to evaluate your performance. ## Grading System | | CRITERIA | PERCENTAGE (%) | | :---: | :---: | :---: | | 1. | Submission of Portfolio /Modules | 50 | | 2. | Learning Outcome Validation | 20 | | 3. | Summative Assessment | 30 | | | **Total** | **100%** | ## Table of Contents - **Introduction :** - **Study Guide Study** - **Schedule Module I** - **Unit 1** - **Unit 2** - **Unit 3** - **Module II** - **Unit 1** - **Unit 2** - **Unit 3** - **Module III** - **Unit 1** - **Unit 2** - **Unit3** - **Rubrics for Process/Performance/Product Based Assessment Key** - **Answer Key** - **Terms** - **References** ## Module 1 : Basic Concept and Issues on Human Development ### Lesson 1: Meaning, Concepts and Historical Views in Child Development #### **Intended Learning Outcomes** After studying this module, you are expected to: - Define human development and other terms related in the study of the child and adolescent - Recognize the role played by the early practices in understanding children and determine the different approaches in understanding human development - Experience to get a glimpse of your personal journey as a child and an adolescent and understand yourself better as an individual **Introduction** *In every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances, and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again* -James Agee American Writer, 20th Century Child development is about the rhythm and meaning of children's lives, about turning mystery into understanding and about weaving together a portrait of who each of us, was - is and will be. The modern era of studying children has a history that spans a little more than a century (Caines, 1998). This era began with some important developments that evolved into a sophisticated science. In fact, a number of psychological theories along with techniques and methods of the study help organize our thinking about children's development according to Lerner (2002). New knowledge about children based on direct observation and testing is accumulating in a breathtaking pace. In this unit, you will be acquainted with the basic concepts and issues of human development. It will include the reasons on why we need to study and understand the child and adolescent through the historical views on how understanding the children started and its influences therein. ### Activity 1. Write down in a composition about your childhood and adolescent experiences using pictures and interviews from your parents or caregivers as well as your how you remembered events, places and people that were significant to you while you were growing as a child and adolescent and discern how those experiences affects your behavior or perception of life today. Make particular mention of the following developments: pre-natal factors (you can interview your parents about your mothers' pregnancy or if you were a planned child etc), your cognitive or intellectual development, language, social, emotional and moral development from pre-school to the present. 2. Oral discussion on why we need or why is it important to study and understand about children and adolescents. The teacher shall facilitate this discussion during the google meet. 3. Critique the Stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and Alice Walker. Identify what factors that lead to their peculiar behaviors as adult or failure to make progress or live normally in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer and to have a high sense of survivorship in times of adversity in the case of Alice Walker. Write your opinion on how heredity and environment might have played a role in their personality development. 4. Thru a Dyad (among classmates) discuss these three activities and compare your answers. After doing the three activities, answer the following questions. ### Analysis 1. Identify the reasons why do we have to study and understand the developmental process of the child and the adolescent? 2. Based on the composition you made about your experiences in childhood and adolescence, identify those significant events, place or people that has great effect or influence in your life today. Given the chance to change the past events that were not beneficial to you today, what recommendations can you give in case we need to include them in our parenting or teaching approaches towards the child and the adolescent to become better individuals in the light of better parenting approaches or styles or methods of teaching them. 3. From the story of Jeffrey Dahmer and Alice Walker, identify what could be the factors that makes one become as serial killer or a successful script writer (as reflected in the lives of the two characters). Conclude the effects of heredity versus environment that played the roles in their lives and associate this knowledge in our study of the child and the adolescent. ### Abstraction - **Why study about Children and Adolescents?** Perhaps most if not all of you are going to be future educators or future parents that will be responsible looking after children and adolescents as your clientele or students or even children and you will always be a part of their daily lives. The more you have the chance to learn and understand them in the light of their developmental stages, the better you can guide them correctly. From birth through infancy and into adulthood we constantly develop and learn from genetic and learned factors. “As children grow into adolescents and then into adults, individual and innate characteristics (hereditary) and life experience (environment) play an increasing role as children adapt to internal and external conditions. During the first five to ten years of a child's life, there is almost unimaginable physical, social, cognitive and emotional and moral change and growth which takes place. Growth and development obviously continue during the child's early life until maturity at adulthood. In these early years, children work out their place in world. They are part of a family, a community, a social system. They are also an individual being and their foundations of personality are well and truly formed. Children go through different stages of development. Some child-development experts have called the various stages of development different names over decades of research. Some well-known child-development theories evolved from the work of Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Eric Erickson, Liv Vygostky, Bronfenbrenner, BF Skinner, Ivan Pavlov and many other psychologists. By studying children, we can learn more about why they develop the way they do and also the most effective ways to help them to develop as responsible citizens with positive contributions to make. An example in how adults work in this is: by understanding more about how children learn to read, we can develop programs that are more effective in helping children to read. With our knowledge of children's development, we can also understand why some children have difficulties and delays, and how to help them overcome challenges and what we need to do. According to J. Rinker (2018), understanding child and the adolescent development will help teachers present material that the students are physically and mentally ready for. It will help them understand why students behave in certain ways. Children who are ahead or behind the expected development for their age raise concerns. Overly sexual behavior in young children might be an indication of sexual abuse or a hormonal imbalance. Children who are behind their developmental age may have intellectual disabilities or psychological problems. Understanding how parenting styles might be affecting children, and who they look up to at a certain age can help you be an effective and empathetic teacher. Having students do work that is developmentally inappropriate will be frustrating for both teacher and students. If the work is too advanced, students will not really understand it. If the work is too juvenile, students will not take it seriously. By studying children, we can also understand environmental factors that influence how a child grows physically, cognitively, emotionally, socially and morally. The child's language development will also reveal to some extent the influence of his past experiences. For example, children who hears curse, obscenity cussword earlier in their lives will eventually adapt them in his emotional expressions when he gets older. That were raised born from toxic and dysfunctional family set ups have higher tendencies to become delinquent juveniles. But children raised in a normal, gentle and peaceful family and community environment have greater chances to be more adjustable to changes, obedient to rules and regulations and make rational decisions. Perhaps most importantly, studying human development makes it easier to spot possible signs of trouble. From problems with cognitive, social, or emotional development in early childhood to struggles later in life, being able to identify potential problems is important. It is important for teachers to study child development because they must understand the minds of their students in order to educate them effectively. Understanding the students can help educators be more empathetic to their students. The same holds true in studying and understanding the adolescents today. Everyone knows that when we involve ourselves in looking after children, there is only one constant and that is change. Children develops to become toddlers, go to preschool, eventually become preadolescents and the transition their transitions from one developmental stage to the next involves major changes. With adolescents, the sudden growth spurt, they start to display adult like characteristics across a wide range of emotional and behavioral reactions. Thus. Teachers or parents for that matter or anyone working with individuals under those ages should be able to understand that those radical changes are normal real and natural ad that we all go through that journey from childhood to adulthood. Finally, being able to understand the children and adolescent's life stages, our own personal journey from childhood to adolescents will provide rich and complimentary undertaking because we have discovered and learned the various points of view of experts approach to study children and adolescents in many different ways. Amidst the complexity and richness of ideas and practices in child and adolescent development, we need to understand how important our roles are in shaping the next generation of the world. ## The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer and Alice Walker Jeffrey Dahmer had a troubled childhood. His parents constantly bickered before they divorced. His mother has emotional problems and doted on his younger brother and he felt that his father neglected him. When he was right years old, Jeffrey was sexually abused by an older boy. But most individuals who suffer through such childhood pains never go on to commit Jeffrey’s grisly crimes. Alice Walker on the other hand was the eighth child of sharecroppers who earns only 300 dollars a year. When she was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her in the eye with a BB gun. By the time she reached the hospital, she was blind in that eye. But despite of that, Alice went on to become a essayist, poet and award meaning novelist. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her book the color Purple. This two stories makes us think, what could have led one child (as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer) to grow up and commit those brutal acts of violence or as in the case of Alice Walker, how was she able to pick up the pieces from poverty to rich literary harvest? In other cases, why is it that there are some children are whirlwinds, they are full of life and energy and grow successful in school and are able to get along with their peers while others stay on the sidelines as mere spectators of life? (watch https://youtu.be/fhfl_9cvfUQ and https://youtu.be/XiT-wDAmjB8) ### Historical Views of Childhood Throughout childhood, philosophers have speculated at length about the nature of children and how they should be reared. Some influential philosophers' views portray children in terms of ORIGINAL SIN, TABUA RASA and INNATE GOODNESS. - **The Original Sin View:** This was advocated during the middle ages. Children were perceived being born as basically BAD or as EVIL BEINGS. The goal therefore was that child rearing should provide salvation to remove the sins from the child's life. - **Tabula Rasa View:** (17th century) It was proposed by English Philosopher John Locke that children are not innately bad but instead they are like “BLANK TABLETS”. Locke believed that childhood experiences are important in determining adult characteristics and he advised parent to spend time with their children and to help them become contributing members of the society. - **Innate Goodness View:** (18th century) It was presented by a French Philosopher in the name of Jean Jacque Rousseau. He emphasized that children are inherently good because they are basically good. The only role of caregivers is for the children to be permitted to grow naturally with little monitoring or constraint. Our view of children has dramatically changed. Our perception of childhood rests as highly eventful and a unique period of life that lays the foundation for the adult years. Thus, most modern approaches in understanding the children and adolescents today depends on the fact that we approach our understanding of them through identifying which skills they master and how they confront new life tasks. Our introduction to several influential and diverse theories of child and adolescent development will substantiate what we already know about it. ### Current Concerns about Today’s Children The topics and news that we read and hear every day whether in newspapers, magazines and on the internet are mostly centered about children's welfare. What many child development researchers are discovering in each of these area has direct and significant consequences for understanding children and improving their lives. It is important for us to provide up to date coverage of the roles of the following modern day concerns of today's children. - **Health and Wellbeing:** Although we have become obsessed with health and wellbeing brought about by the COVID 19 World Pandemic and many other factors, we are still jeopardized by many interrelated factors such as > - Poverty > - Starvation > - Loss of livelihood > - Poor quality health care > - Inadequate nutrition > - Alcohol and drug abuse. > - Violence against women and children > - Mental health - **Education:** Education like parenting is an extremely important dimension children's life (Sadker and Sadker 2003). Education takes place in many places. Children learn from the environment at home, from their parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, peers, school, church aside from books, watching televisions, social media and the internet. We might look back at our own learning experiences and say that today is much easier due to the advent of technology yet to some individuals, the new technology has an adverse effect on the learning styles of children today. To be more specific, the online classes and learning through modules takes a toll on children and parents with limited access to technology and literacy. It is also stressful on the part of teachers, educators and school administrators in implementing such approach due to a short notice of preparation and training. With the adoption of the “new normal”, it may take more time to see the difference it makes just like how we reacted when the K12 program was implemented. We realized that being relevant is about embracing the new no matter how difficult it is. ### Socio - cultural contexts such as Culture, Ethnicity and Gender and Gender and Development These concepts are central in the discussion of children and adolescent’s development. By context we mean, settings in which development occurs and wherein it is influenced by historical economic and socio-cultural factors. For a researcher, it is like finding out if the children today are tolerant about cultural differences among other children. **Culture** encompasses the behavioral patterns, belief, and other products of a particular group of people that are passed on from generation to generation. For example, for Filipinos, we show respect to our elders by practicing “mano po”. **Ethnicity** is rooted in the cultural heritage, nationality, race, characteristics, religion, and language. **Ethnic Identity** refers to the sense of membership in an ethnic group based on shared language, religion customs and values, history, race such as for example Cebuano’s, Bicolano’s, Ilocanos and Muslims. **Gender** involves the psychological and sociocultural dimensions of being male and female. **Sex** refers to the biological dimensions of being male and female. Our society today has a changing view and attitude about gender sensitivity. **Gender and Development** developed in the early 1980s as an alternative to the Woman in Development approach. It was specifically focused with the way in which a society assigns roles, responsibilities, and expectations to both men and women. The Philippine Commission on Women defined Gender and Development as the development perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self- determination and actualization of human potentials. **Gender and Development (GAD)** – refers to the development perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self-determination and actualization of human potentials. The purpose of GAD is to ensure that both men and women can participate in, and benefit from, development in a way that is equitable. In view of widespread disparities, it is a process comprising both short-term and long-term objectives - “practical and strategic needs”(Molyneux from Moser, 1993). **Social Policy** refers to the national government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens. The shape and scope of our policy related to children's welfare are tied to our political system. Specific examples of Social Policies are: - **K to 12 (also K-12)** is an education system under the Department of Education that aims to enhance learners' basic skills, produce more competent citizens, and prepare graduates for lifelong learning and employment. “K” stands for Kindergarten and “12” refers to the succeeding 12 years of basic education (6 years of elementary education, 4 years of junior high school, and 2 years of senior high school). At present, the Philippines is the last country in Asia and one of only three countries in the world with a 10-year pre-university program - **The Bayanihan to Heal as One Act**, also known as the Bayanihan Act, and officially designated as Republic Act No. 11469, is a law in the Philippines that was enacted in March 2020 granting the President additional authority to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. - **Republic Act 9262** an act defining violence against women and their children. Charmaine G. Ramos (2020) explored the social policies under the current President Rodolfo Duterte (from the time he assumed office in 2016 to date) as a case for examining the transformative potential of social policy expansion under rising new right-wing and authoritarian leaders. The author though offers a critique of current tendencies in global development discourses to treat all forms of social policy expansion as progressive. She further claimed though that in the case of the Philippines Philippines, there is no progressive ideology guiding the reforms, nor are there political movements overseeing the expansion of social rights now inscribed in law. Rather, the reforms institutionally entrench a minimalist approach to universalism and strengthen the foothold of poverty targeting as an organizing principle of social provisioning. Social policy expansion under President Duterte manifests aspects of the ‘dark side' of social policy reforms during the current global political moment, including the use of such policy reforms to legitimize a conservative and authoritarian political order, and the functionality, across the political spectrum, of ‘narrow universalism' — the type championed by international development agencies — which serves to deepen segmentation in social provisioning. On the other hand, Duterte's rise to power is seen by Bello (2017) and Juego (2017) as a holding to account for the failure of liberal democratic institutions that were established during this period to deliver broader economic empowerment and wealth redistribution. These are social policies such as: - Republic Act 10931, Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, signed into law in August 2017. - Republic Act 11223, Universal Health Care Act, signed into law in February 2019.7. A series of popular demonstrations in the capital city of Manila in February 1986, which led to the end of Marcos' strongman rule in the Philippines. - The Philippine Constitution of 1987 mandates that education gets the highest budgetary allocation (Art XIV, Section 5.5) and that a system of free public elementary and high school education is established and maintained (Art XIV, Section 2.1). - This was implemented via the passage of Republic Act 10351, signed into law in December2012, which allocates 80 per cent of the incremental increase in revenues from excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco to the national health insurance programmed, which in turn was used to subsidize premiums of ‘indigents'. - Republic Act 9995, signed into law in July 2009, expands benefits from the non-contributory pension system for the elderly, including providing a monthly social pension of 500 Philip-pine pesos (about US$ 10) for 'indigent' senior citizens - Republic Act 11310, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program — Bridging Programme for the Filipino Family also known as the 4Ps Act, signed into law in April 2019.12. Details can be found in the review of social protection expenditure and performance in the Philippines, undertaken by the ILO Subregional Office for South- East Asia and the Pacific (ILO, 2007). - Republic Act 10963, the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, signed into law in December 2017 Out of the concern that our policy makers are doing so little to protect the well-being of our children, we still hope the undertakings of the government will eventually to wise an effective decisions in making the social policies effective in the nearby future. ### Developmental Processes and Periods - **A. Biological, Cognitive and Social-Emotional Processes** Each of us develop in certain ways like other individuals, yet most of the time our focus is directed to an individual's uniqueness. However, (Santrock 2002) who is an expert on in life span development suggests the following idea about human development. 1. **Development is lifelong.** It does not end in adulthood. 2. **Development is plastic.** Plasticity refers to the potential for change. There are no such things as “I am too old for that” so even if aging is associated with declines in certain intellectual abilities, these declines can be prevented or reduced. It can be improved through retraining such as training adult learners on technology. 3. **Development is multidimensional.** Developing consist of biological, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions. - **Biological Processes** - produces changes in an individual's body. Genes are inherited from the parents, the development of the brain, height, weight, motor skills, hormonal changes of puberty reflect the role of biological processes in development. - **Cognitive Processes** - refers to changes in the individual's thoughts, intelligence, and language. The task of putting together a two-word sentence, memorizing a poem, solving a math problem all involves cognitive processes - **Socio-Emotional Processes** - involves changes in a n individual's relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. For example, a girl's development of assertiveness involves social – emotional process. 4. Development is relatively orderly - during infancy, the greatest growth is always occurring at the top, the head and with physical growth in size and weight, the future differentiation gradual work on its way down from top to bottom. (for example, neck, shoulders, middle trunk which is called the cephalo caudal pattern. 5. Development takes place gradually -it takes years to mature and that's the way of nature. While some developments occur in the flash of insight, more often it takes weeks, months, years for a person to undergo changes that result to a display of characteristics. 6. Development is contextual - individuals respond to and act on contexts. These contexts include the individual's biological make up, physical environment, cognitive process, historical and cultural contexts. 7. Development involves growth, maintenance and regulation - growth, maintenance and regulation are three goals of human development. The goals vary among developmental stages. ### Periods of Development Development is commonly described in terms of periods and the most classification of developmental periods involves the following sequence: - **Pre-natal period** - is the time from conception to birth (9 months) - **Infancy** – is the developmental period that extends from birth to about 24 months. It is a time of extreme dependence on adults. Many psychological activities are just starting such as language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination, and social learning. - **Childhood** (early, middle, and late) –Early childhood is between five to six years. During this time, children learn to become more self - sufficient and care for themselves. They develop school readiness skills. Middle and late Childhood is about 6 to 12 years old and is referred to as the "elementary years”. Children at this stage masters the fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and they are also formally exposed to a larger world and its culture. Achievement is also the most central theme of the child's world. - **Adolescence** (early, middle and late) – this is the developmental period of transition from childhood to adulthood.( from 13 to approximately 24 years old) It begins with rapid physical changes, dramatic gaining of weight and height and the development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of breasts (female) and penis (males), development of secondary hairs and deepening of the voice(males) The most common theme in this stage is Identity Crises. - **Adulthood** (early, middle, and late) – is the last stage of life that is between 24 to death) ### Developmental Issues The most important issues in the study of children's development includes the role of nature versus nurture, continuity versus discontinuity and early versus later development - **Nature Versus Nurture** - is commonly known as the controversial role between heredity versus environment. It involves the debate whether development is influence by nature or by nurture (Rutter (2002). **Nature** refers to an individual's biological inheritance and **nurture** refers to its environmental experiences. The range of environment can be vast, but the nature approach argues that a genetic blueprint produces more commonalities in growth and development. We walk before we talk; we speak one word before two words. Nature proponents acknowledge that extreme environments (such as barren or hostile environments) can depress development however some believe that basic growth tendencies are genetically wired into humans. In contrast, others emphasize both the importance of nurture and nature. - **Continuity Versus Discontinuity Issue -** it focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) and distinct stages (discontinuity) Puberty is seen as an abrupt discontinuous event, and a gradual process occurring over the years. In terms of discontinuity, everyone is described as passing through a sequence of stages in which change is qualitative rather than quantitatively different. - **Early and Later Experience** - it focuses on the degree in which early experiences (infancy to wit) or later experiences are they key determinants of the child’s development. This issue has a long history and continues to be debated among developmentalists (Gottlieb, 2002). The emphasis on the importance of early experience rest on the belief that each life is an unbroken trail on which the psychological quality can be traced back to its origin (Kagan, 2000). The later experience advocates in the meantime argue that children are malleable throughout development and that later sensitive caregiving is just as important as earlier sensitive caregiving. # Application 1. Why is it important for you to study the child and the adolescent? State some reasons and explain why? 2. Mention a developmental event in your childhood and in your early adolescent years that has significantly influence or affected your current behavior. 3. What conclusion can you derive from the story of Jeffrey Dahmer and Alice Walker in the light of your learnings or new information or knowledge on the approaches in understanding human development? ### Reflections Based on the activities undertaken, what have you learned from this activity and lessons. ## Assessment 1. State the three historical views about children. | View | Authored | Suggestion | | :---: | :---: | :---: | | Original Sin | | | | | John Locke | | | | | Parenting monitoring and restraint | 2. Differentiate the three Developmental Processes | Developmental Processes | Description | | :---: | :---: | | Social-Emotional Process | | | Biological Process | | | Cognitive Process | | 3. Identify the