CAAD-What Do I Know

Student: Perez, Kirby P.
Date Submitted: August 30, 2020

Course: Child and Adolescent Development
What do you know?
Why is it important to study how children grow, learn and change? This is what the
course elaborated and presented to me. Full understanding of this course allows me, as an
aspiring teacher to be knowledgeable of children which in the future I will teach. Also an
understanding of child development is essential because it allows us to fully appreciate
growth and development that children go through from birth and into adulthood. It is clear
that educating children goes way beyond letters and numbers. Whether I will be teaching
young ones, keeping them safe and busy in schools, or even raising one of my own in the
future, understanding childhood development can make a great impact on how I relate with
children.
It is important to understand that children have to grow and develop in many

different areas in order to become healthy, happy, productive members of adult society.
There are four domains presented in our course in which children grow: physical, cognitive,
social and emotional. The physical development is most obvious. Children's bodies grow in
height and weight over the years and change appearance during puberty. Children also
develop certain physical abilities during their progression towards adulthood. They develop
cognitively as their brains absorb more information and they learn how to use that
information. Literally, children have to learn how to think on purpose and to process or
organize all the information that comes to them from the environment. They must learn
how to solve problems, to talk, and to complete mental tasks. Children grow socially and
emotionally. They learn how to interact, play, work, and live with other people such as
family, friends, teachers, and employers. They learn how to understand both their own
feelings and others' emotions. They also learn ways of dealing with strong emotions. In
order to function well as independent adults, children must develop a sense of self-esteem
as they go through the long process of figuring out what shape their identity, or who they
are, will take. They develop a sense of morality as they learn the difference between right
and wrong.
The nature versus nurture debate, one of the oldest philosophical issues within
psychology is also presented. The concept seeks to understand how our personalities and
traits are produced by our genetic makeup and biological factors, and how they are shaped
by our environment, including our parents, peers, and culture. For instance, why do
biological children sometimes act like their parents? Is it because of genetic similarity, or the
result of the early childhood environment and what children learn from their parents? My
opinion is that both factors play a critical role in child development and special to each one
of us. And that nature and nurture interact in important ways all throughout our life. Next
presented were the contexts of child development. These are family, peers, culture and
community, ethnicity and race, social and socioeconomic status, and the society and policy.
The contexts of children’s development can be thought of as nested, interacting
ecosystems. Each context can provide resources for positive growth or present significant
challenges towards children’s health and well-being.
Though many scientists and researchers have approached the study of child
development over the last hundred or so years, only a few of the theories that have resulted
have stood the test of time and have proven to be widely influential. While these theorists
realize that every child is special and grow in his or her unique way, they also have
recognized that there are general patterns children tend to follow as they grow up, and they
have documented these patterns in their theories. First is Sigmund Freud's view, of which
each stage focused on sexual activity and the pleasure received from a particular area of the
body. In the oral phase, children are focused on the pleasures that they receive from
sucking and biting with their mouth. In the Anal phase, this focus shifts to the anus as they
begin toilet training and attempt to control their bowels. In the Phallic stage, the focus
moves to genital stimulation and the sexual identification that comes with having or not
having a penis. The Phallic/Oedipus stage was thought to be followed by a period of Latency
during which sexual urges and interest were temporarily nonexistent. Finally, children were
thought to enter and remain in a final Genital stage in which adult sexual interests and
activities come to dominate. Second theorist is Erik Erickson. Erickson saw the world as a
series of age-matched developmental crises, and he conceptualized these crises as binary
and competing values. He didn’t think of the crises as bad things, rather, each crisis
represented an opportunity to move forward. Infancy, for example, is characterized
by trust versus mistrust. Adolescence is a battle between identity formation versus role
diffusion. If these binary crises are not successfully negotiated, for instance an infant who
can’t trust the adults of the world to keep him warm and fed and held, then that infant will
grow up with a fundamental lack of trust, and at some point, will have to actively address
this issue. Next is Jean Piaget. Piaget's theory has four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete operational, and formal operational. During the sensorimotor stage, which often
lasts from birth to age two, children are just beginning to learn how to learn. During the
preoperational stage, which often lasts from ages two though seven, children start to use
mental symbols to understand and to interact with the world, and they begin to learn
language and to engage in pretend play. In the concrete operational stage that follows,
lasting from ages seven through eleven, children gain the ability to think logically to solve
problems and to organize information they learn. However, they remain limited to
considering only concrete, not abstract, information because at this stage the capability for
abstract thought isn't well developed yet. Finally, during the formal operational stage, which
often lasts from age eleven on, adolescents learn how to think more abstractly to solve
problems and to think symbolically.
We also explored the early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence

development in this course. Early childhood is a time of tremendous growth across all areas
of development. The dependent newborn grows into a young person who can take care of
his or her own body and interact effectively with others. For these reasons, the primary
developmental task of this stage is skill development. During middle childhood children
learn the values of their societies. Thus, the primary developmental task of middle
childhood could be called integration, both in terms of development within the individual
and of the individual within the social context. It is a time when children develop
competence in interpersonal and social relationships. Children have a growing peer
orientation, yet they are strongly influenced by their family. The social skills learned through
peer and family relationships, and children's increasing ability to participate in meaningful
interpersonal communication, provide a necessary foundation for the challenges of
adolescence. The primary developmental task of adolescence is identity formation. As
individuals enter adolescence, they are confronted by a diverse number of changes all at
one time. Not only are they undergoing significant physical and cognitive growth, but they
are also encountering new situations, responsibilities, and people.
Furthermore, as I go along with this course, I reflected on why this course is

important to take as an aspiring teacher. I believed that teachers who work with children
are much better equipped to help them learn if they understand how they grow. Fostering
the right environment can help children develop self-esteem as well as explain some of their
behaviours. Understanding early childhood development helps teachers more effectively
manage their classroom, but more importantly, it helps children develop a strong sense of
confidence and determination. When I have a strong foundation for what is going on in
those little minds, I’ll have a much better idea of what they need to flourish. There is also a
benefit to catching any development trouble early on.

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Student: Perez, Kirby P.

Date Submitted: August 30, 2020

What do you know?

It is important to understand that children have to grow and develop in many

We also explored the early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence

Furthermore, as I go along with this course, I reflected on why this course is

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