Child

Developme
nt

Wan Nada Marhamah, MScSoc, KBPA

Development could be
defined as

1. Physical
2. Cognitive
3. Psychosocial
Physical Development
 Physical Development
Brain and Nervous System
The infant’s experiences help to fine-tune the brains responses to stimulations.
1) Neuroplasticity
2) Sensory Experieinces
3) Sypnatic Development
4) Critical Periods

Motor Abilities

Brain maturation allows the development of motor skills from reflexes to

coordinated motor abilities, including grasping, and walking.
Neuroplasticity in
Child's brain
Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive
Development
Cognitive Development
(Piaget’s)
● Four stages of Cognitive Development

1) The Sensorimotor Stage (0 – 2 years old)

○ Infants learned to use their senses and motor abilities to
learn about world around them
○ They develop a sense of object permanence – the
knowledge that an object exists even when it is not in sight.
○ Game of peek-a-boo is important to teach infant that
mommy/daddy’s smiling face is always going to be behind
her hands.
○ Help to develop symbolic thoughts eventually abstract
thoughts
Cognitive
Development
(Piaget’s)
2) The Preoperational Stage (2 – 7
years old)
● The time where children developing
● Centration – tendency to focus on
language and concepts. No longer have
one features of some object.
to rely on senses and motor skills but
● Inability for conservation – ability
now can ask questions and exploit their
to understand that altering the
surroundings more fully. (play period)
appearance of something that not
● Not yet capable of logical thoughts –
change its amount
they can use mental concepts but not
● Has irreversibility, the inability to
able to use those concepts in a more
mentally reverse and action.
rational, logical sense.
● This is when, teaching maths can
● Has egocentrism, the inability to see
help a child to develop the cognitive
the world through anyone’s else but
skills.
one’s own.
video
● The Return of Superman - The Triplets Special
Ep.29 [ENG/CHN/2017.12.08] (13:36)

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSbZJcyLqPM&list=PL
Mf7VY8La5RHd68iGxkzjJk_kgJ8soP66&index=1

● Unable to think more abstractly, problem solving skills not

yet develop (has irreversibility)
Cognitive
Development
(Piaget’s)
3) The Concrete Operations Stage
(7 – 12 years old)

● For example, “freedom”, “respect”

● The Children become capable of
is an abstract construct
conservation and reversible thinking.
● Can define, but no “thing” that can
● They are able to come their more rational
be pointed to define “freedom”
conclusions about the fantasies of early
childhood.
● Able to learn science and maths
● Major limitation is inability to deal
effectively with abstract constructs
● Rigid understanding of right or wrong
Cognitive
Development
(Piaget’s)
4) Formal Operations (12 to
adulthood)
● The adolescent becomes capable of
● Sutherland (1992) indicated that
abstract thinking
only half of all adults in the
● They can deeply involve in
US, reach formal operations.
hypothetical thinking, like thinking
● Usually, these adults will tend to
about possibilities, and impossibilities.
use more practical, down-to-earth
● For example, “what if everyone just got
kind of intelligence to suit their
along?” “If women were in charge of
lifestyle.
countries, would there be fewer wars?”
● Piaget reported that not everyone
would reach to this formal operations
stage.
Psychosocial Development?
 Jerome Kagan’s Temperament
● Temperaments are the behavioral and emotional characters that fairly established at
birth.
● A “ difficult child” will be perceived as such when parents’ personalities are
mismatched.
● “Goodness of fit” when both parents’ temperaments and child match
● “Poor fit” is for the situation that is vice versa
Slow to warm
Easy Difficult
up
● Regular in waking, ● Irregular in their ● Less grumpy, quitter,
sleeping schedules schedules slow to adapt to
● Easily sooth when ● Loud, active, tend change
distressed to be irritable ● Need to warm up to
new people/situations
Attachment in infants (Mary
Ainsworth and John Bowlby)
The emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver

Secure Avoidant
● Willing to explore when
● Willing to explore, but
caregiver is around
no interest or concern
● Will go back to care giver
when caregiver is
● Has a sense of object
absent
Permanence with parents
Ambivalent Disorganised
● Mixed feeling about
● Unable to react when
something
caregiver returns
● Protest behaviour when
● Has fearful and distressed
caregiver come returns
Video
● Secure, Insecure, Avoidant Ambivalent Attachment in
Mothers Babies

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRejV6f-Y3c

● 4.20 (twins’ attachments)

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjGt5XDaQRQ
Attachment in Adult (Philip Shaver and Cindy
Hazan)

0 0 0 0
1 2 3 4

Secure Avoidant
Anxious/Ambivalent Anxious-Avoidant
Attachment Attachment
Attachment (Fearful Avoidant/
(Dismissal
(Preoccupied Disorganised)
Avoidant
Attachment)
Attachment)
Test
● http://www.web-research-design.n
et/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl
.)
 Secure Attachment

● Great conflict busters—During a fight they don’t feel the need to act
defensively or to injure or punish their partner, and so prevent the situation
from escalating

● Mentally flexible—They are not threatened by criticism. They’re willing to

reconsider their ways, and if necessary, revise their beliefs and strategies.

● Effective communicators—They expect others to be understanding and

responsive, so expressing their feelings freely and accurately to their partners
comes naturally to them.

● Not game players—They want closeness and believe others want the same,
so why play games?
 Secure Attachment
● Comfortable with closeness, unconcerned about boundaries—They seek
intimacy and aren’t afraid of being “enmeshed.” Because they aren’t
overwhelmed by a fear of being slighted (as are the anxious) or the need to
deactivate (as are the avoidants), they find it easy to enjoy closeness, whether
physical or emotional.

● Quick to forgive—They assume their partners’ intentions are good and are
therefore likely to forgive them when they do something hurtful

● Inclined to view sex and emotional intimacy as one—They don’t need to

create distance by separating the two (by being close either emotionally or
sexually but not both).

● Treat their partners like royalty—When you’ve become part of their inner
circle, they treat you with love and respect.

● Responsible for their partners’ well-being—They expect others to be

responsive and loving toward them and so are responsive to others’ needs.
 Anxious Attachment
● Thinking about your mate, difficulty concentrating on other things.

● Remembering only their good qualities.

● Putting them on a pedestal: underestimating your talents and abilities and

overestimating theirs.

● An anxious feeling that goes away only when you are in contact with them.

● Believing this is your only chance for love, as in: “I’m only compatible with very few
people—what are the chances I’ll find another person like them?” “It takes years to
meet someone new; I’ll end up alone.”

● Believing that even though you’re unhappy, you’d better not let go, as in: “If she
leaves me, she’ll turn into a great partner—for someone else.” “He can change.” “All
couples have problems—we’re not special in that regard.”
 Anxious Attachment (Protest behaviour)

● Excessive attempts to reestablish contact: Calling, texting, or e-mailing many

times, waiting for a phone call, loitering by your partner’s workplace in hopes of
running into them.

● Withdrawing: Sitting silently “engrossed” in the paper, literally turning your back on
your partner, not speaking, talking with other people on the phone and ignoring
them.

● Keeping score: Paying attention to how long it took them to return your phone call
and waiting just as long to return theirs; waiting for them to make the first “make-up”
move and acting distant until such time. When Ryan decided not to leave a message
for Shauna after she screened his calls, he was keeping score (“If she’s not
answering my calls, I won’t leave her a message”).
 Anxious Attachment (Protest behaviour)

● Acting hostile: Rolling your eyes when they speak, looking away, getting up and
leaving the room while they’re talking (acting hostile can transgress to outright
violence at times).

● Threatening to leave: Making threats—“We’re not getting along, I don’t think I can
do this anymore,” “I knew we weren’t really right for each other,” “I’ll be better off
without you”—all the while hoping they will stop you from leaving.

● Manipulations: Acting busy or unapproachable. Ignoring phone calls, saying you

have plans when you don’t.

● Making them feel jealous: Making plans to get together with an ex for lunch,
going out with friends to a singles bar, telling your partner about someone who hit on
you today.
 Avoidant Attachment Style

● Saying (or thinking) “I’m not ready to commit”—but staying together

nonetheless, sometimes for years.

● Focusing on small imperfections in your partner: the way they talk, dress,
eats, or (fill in the blank) and allowing it to get in the way of your romantic
feelings.

● Pining after an ex-partner—(the “phantom ex”—more on this later).

● Flirting with others—a hurtful way to introduce insecurity into the

relationship.

● Not saying “I love you”—while implying that you do have feelings toward the
other person.
 Avoidant Attachment Style

● Pulling away when things are going well (e.g., not calling for several days
after an intimate date).

● Forming relationships with an impossible future, such as with someone

who is married.

● “Checking out mentally” when your partner is talking to you.

● Keeping secrets and leaving things foggy—to maintain your feeling of

independence.

● Avoiding physical closeness—e.g., not wanting to share the same bed, not
wanting to have sex, walking several strides ahead of your partner.
 Video

● Avoidant and Secure

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOynq
TO_LUI
● Anxious and Secure
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR1Krz
OzqYo
● Anxious and Avoidant
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=FDFdroN7d0w
Erik-Erikson Psychosocial
Development