Lecture_12_Life Cycle II_Childhood_School-age (5-12): Kindergarten-6th Grade

Question 1

describe key psychosocial and developmental tasks for children at this stage:

Childhood Major Tasks:

• What are the major tasks of childhood?
• What is the child challenged to do?

Answer 1

• What are the major tasks of childhood?
  
  • to become capable & competent
    
    • _​_consolidate developmental gains
    • learn a body of knowledge & skills and how to apply the w/competence
      
      • industry vs. inferiority (Erikson)
      • apply self to tasks and skill development
    • develop a core of same-sex peer relationships
• What is the child challenged to do?
  
  • move away from parents and security of home
  • learn, achieve and compete in the wider world

Question 2

describe key psychosocial and developmental tasks for children at this stage:

describe the basic parental tasks associated with this period of development:

recognize common behavioral concenrs of this period of development, including red flags

Adjusting To School/Changes in Childhood:

• What are the challenges for children regarding adjusting to school?
• What are the major developmental tasks of this stage?
• What are the parental challenges during this stage?
• What developmental achievements are attained at this stage?
• How does self-development facilitate learning?
• How does cognition develop?
• How does social cognition develop? Friendships?
• Personal Competence?
• Moral development?
• Gender identity & sex role development?
• What concerns surface during this stage?

Answer 2

• What are the challenges for children regarding adjusting to school?
  
  • ​extended separation from parents
    
    • ​requires more autonomous functioning and self-reliance
  • new set of authority figures
  • greater variety of people
    
    • different attitudes and behaviors
  • structured school environment
  • emphasis on cognitive development
• ​What are the major developmental tasks of this stage?
  
  • learn new physical skills
  • develop a positive self concept
  • language development, vocabulary expression
  • get alaong w/others the same age
  • learn gender roles
  • develop fundamental skills like reading/writing
  • learn habits needed for daily living
  • conscience development
  • management of personal independence
• What are the parental challenges during this stage?
  
  • to let go, be supportive, and be neither too involved or under-involved
  • meet basic needs
  • encourage learning-education
  • facilitate development of healthy self-eseem
    
    • competent, loved, appreciated
  • nurture peer relationships
  • harmony & stability –safe & secure
    
    • routine & rituals = add predicatability
• What developmental achievements are attained at this stage?
  
  • better able to differentiate between fantasy and reality
    
    • shifting out of pre-operational stage
  • shifting into stage of concrete operations
    
    • need to establish and follow rules
    • thinking becomes more logical and organized
  • accomplishment becomes important
  • compare their performance to that of other children
  • begins to look to other adults for prase and guidance
  • memory ability increases
  • concentration gets better
  • better control of mental processes
    
    • e.g. selective attention
  • automatization
    
    • well-practiced mental activities become routine and automatic; e.g. riding bike, playing instrument
• How does self-development facilitate learning?
  
  • self development facilitates learning by:
    
    • able to maintain self-regulation and periods of calmness
    • conscious control over impulses and verbalizations
    • attention span increases
      
      • focused intense practice and repetition
• How does cognition develop?
  
  • able to classify objects
  • able to consider more than one characteristic of an object at the same time
    
    • these are still tied to concrete or physical aspects, not abstractions
  • early problem-solving skills develop
    
    • facilitated by complex fantasy play
• How does social cognition develop? Friendships?
  
  • Social cognition:
    
    • sense of self in relation to others
      
      • early emphasis on comparing self to others via physical attributes, e.g. speed, height, skill in counting
      • later emphasis on psychological and character attributes, e.g. fairness, generosity, kindness
      • ego-centrism begins to fade
      • increased ability to take another’s perspective, e.g. adult’s attitude toward rule-breaking behavior
      • emphasis on same-sex peer groups
  • Friendships:
    
    • based on shared values, loyalty and mutual support vs. similar interests
    • friends provide support network outside of the family of origin
    • social reputation & self-esteem are important
      
      • can lead to dislike of those different and cruelty
• Personal Competence?
  
  • ​goal = personal sense of accomplishment
  • mastering new skills–cognitive, physical, and social
    
    • ​facilitated by school attendance
  • ​​​learning and attention problems may lead to social rejection
  • chlldren look for ways to get peer acceptance–healthy & unhealthy
• Moral development?
  • ​​sequential model:
    
    • ​consequences of an act = emphasis on rules = consideration of intent = seek social approval
  • ​more recent research = moral judgements are influenced by a child’s social interactions & circumstances of a situation
  • emotional responses and social judgements influence moral decisions
• Gender identity & sex role development?
  
  • ​establishment of gender-related behavioral patterns
    
    • ​claer about “boy” and “girl” behaviors
  • ​modesty increases
  • some same-sex sexual play is not unusual
    
    • ​tends to be covert
    • curiosity vs. malevolent
  • ​intuitive sense of one’s own sexual orientation may begin to evolve
• What concerns surface during this stage?
  
  • ​chief concerns:
    
    • ​​school failure & peer rejection
  • ​problem areas become more visible​
    
    • child moves more away from the protective environment of the home
    • more adults have expectations of the child
  • behavioral problems
  • learning disabilities
  • social disabilities​

Question 3

apply general assessment guidelines to a case scenario:

Key areas of health risk:

• What are the key areas of risk to look for in this stage?
• What are some key things to be aware of for the childhood assessment?
• What behavior assessment considerations should you make?
• What are some factors precipitating behavioral “disorders”?
• What are some areas for potential parental misunderstanding?

Answer 3

• What are the key areas of risk to look for in this stage?
  
  • chronic medical conditions
  • injuries
  • learning and/or attention problems
  • anxiety related issues
    
    • often related to developmental issues related to areas previously discusses

Risk = child will be defined by family and others in terms of his/her medical or behavioral needs/issues

• What are some key things to be aware of for the childhood assessment?
  
  • pay attention to functioning at school/home, and the parenting style
  • school achivements are a good means of assessing success w/developmental tasks
    
    • often better than developmental rating scales
  • period of latency (Frued)
    
    • normally this is a calm period
    • if there are emotional disturbances here, take notice
• What behavior assessment considerations should you make?
  
  • age and sex of child
  • persistance of behavior (singular vs. repetitive)
  • special circumstances
  • sociocultural environment
  • scope (generalized or focused)
  • type of behavior
  • frequency and severity
  • uniqueness for the child
  • specifics for the situation
• What are some factors precipitating behavioral “disorders”?
  
  • behavior may be “normal”
    
    • i.e. age appropriate
  • behavior may be stress induced
    
    • stress induced behavior is often regressive
  • behavior may reflect parent-child conflict
    
    • can be related to having different temperaments–style of relating, activity level, intensity, approach/avoidance preferences
  • maturation changes can precipitate behavioral changes
• What are some areas for potential parental misunderstanding?
  
  • information (lack/misinformation)
  • misinterpretation
    
    • attributing inaccurate meaning to behavior/events
      
      • delusions, over-identification, probjection, altered states of consciousness
    • taking child’s behavior personally
      
      • see child’s behavior as a refelction on parent
      • may feel “my child has it in for me”
    • can lead to unjust punishment, over-control, and even abuse
  • behavior of the child can refelct the emotional state of a parent or the parental subsystem

Question 4

apply general assessment guidelines to a case scenario:

Common Medical Concerns:

• What are some common medical concerns from infancy to childhood?

Answer 4

• What are some common medical concerns from infancy to childhood?
  
  • SIDS: sudden infant dealth syndrome
    
    • risk factors:
      
      • smoking, drinking & drug use during pregnancy
        
        • exposure to second-hand smoke after birth
      • premature birth/low birth weight
        
        • poor prenatal care
      • teenage mother (<20 years old)
      • sleeping on stomach
    • preventative actions:
      
      • place child on back to sleep
      • remove soft bedding
        
        • firm matress, nothing but baby in bed
      • sleep in same room w/parents till 6 months, but not in same bed
      • prolong breast feeding
        
        • provide a pacifier
      • keep at least 12 months between births
  • Challenging children:
    
    • characteristics:
      
      • intense negative reactions to new situations
      • slow transition and adjustment to chage
      • predominant negative mood
      • resistant to easy and comfortable participation in activities parents and children typically enjoy together
        
        • common areas affected: feeding, bedtime, cuddling, playful interaction
        • often leads to significant parental distress (grief)
  • other common concerns:
    
    • sleep difficulties
      
      • 1-3 year old child is hesitant to go to sleep = separation anxiety, over-indulgence
      • 4-6 years = nightmares and monsters
        
        • usually transient, requires parental assurance and responsiveness
    • masturbation:
      
      • normal if not excessive or compulsively driven, and does not interfere w/other activities
      • can be used by child as a source of soothing or stimulation
      • *imitation of adult sexual behavior or excessive masturbation may be an indicator of sexual abuse
    • toilet traning:
      
      • success requires:
        
        • regularity in bowel and bladder
        • sphincter control
        • psychological ability to delay gratification
        • desire to please adults
          
          • problems can relate to: constipation and/or painful stools, starting tarining too early, parent-child conflict
      • usually successful around 30 months
    • enuresis (bed wetting/wetting self)
      
      • primary: child never attained sustained dryness
      • secondary: wetting after achieving sustained dryness
      • ages 3-8
      • most common at night
      • daytime may be more severe
    • encopresis
      
      • bowel incontinence after control has been achieved
      • more serious than enuresis
      • may have medical origin vs. behavioral
      • more common in boys
    • school phobia:
      
      • are parents cooperating or is child refusing?
      • unresolved separation issues
      • fear of something at school
      • is problem @ home or school-based in origin
      • does it generalize to social relationships in general?
      • truant – out of school and away from home – parents may be unaware
    • learning disorders – when child of average intelligence fails to achieve at expected levels
      
      • ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
        
        • persistent hyperactivity, distractibility, impulsivity, excitability, learning difficulties
        • diagnosis rests on complete history of signs/symptoms
    • bullying
      
      • indicators to watch for:
        
        • dread related to going to school
        • anxiety symptoms (heachaches, stomach aches)
        • change in academic performance
        • depressive symptoms
      • make it a normal part of the assessments of school age children
        
        • ask whether she/he has been the target of any significant bullying behavior
        • evaluate characteristics that may predispose a child to bullying by others
  • special concerns of infancy & childhood:
    
    • overeating:
      
      • watch for: lack of activity, boredom, unhappiness, excessive anxiety, or parental use of food as a reinforcement for desired behavior
    • pica–a medical disorder:
      
      • an appetite for injecting items w/no nutritional value in children > 18-24 months old. e.g. metal, dirt, feces, chalk (often starts around 2)
      • further evaluation needed if persists after age 3
      • severity increases w/level of mental retardation
      • can lead to death by poisoning
    • autism-spectrum disorders:
      
      • usually occur before age 3
      • persistent deficits in:
        
        • social communication and interaction across contexts
      • restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, activities
  • Red flags:
    
    • presence of any of these indicates a serious problem for which the parents and child need to seek professional exptertise:
      
      • setting fires
      • violent behavior
      • cruelty to animals