MODULE 2

The stages of Development

and Developmental Tasks
Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you

should be able to:

• Define developmental tasks in your own words.

• Describe developmental task in each developmental stage.
• Come up with research abstracts / summaries of
researches on developmental tasks.
Developmental stages
There are eight developmental stages given by Santrock. The eight
developmental stages cited by santrock are the same with Havighurst's six
developmental stages only that Havighurst did not include prenatal period.
Havighurst combined infancy and early childhood while Santrock mentioned them as
two separate stages. These developmental stages are described more in detail in thre
next paragraphs.
The Developmental task (Santrock, 2002)
Let's described the developmental tasks and outstanding trait of each stage
as described by Santrock and compare them to those listed by Havighurst himself.
1. Prenatal period (from conception to birth) - It involves tremendous growth- from
a single cell to an organism complete with brain and behavior capabilities.
2. Infancy (from birth to 18-24 months) -A time of extreme beginning - language,
symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination and social childhood.
3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years to become more self-sufficient and to
care for themselves, develop school readiness skills spend many hours in play
with peers.
4. Middle and late childhood (6-11 years of ages,
the elementary school year) -The fundamental skills
of reading, writing and arithmetic are mastered.
The child is formally exposed to the larger world
and its culture. Achievement becomes a more
central theme of the child's world and self-control
increases.
5. Adolescenc - (10-23 years of age ending up to
18-22 years of age) Begins with rapid physical
chnages - dramatic gains in height and weight,
changes in body contour, and the development of
sexual characteristics such as enlargement of the
breast development of public and facial hair, and
deepening of the voice. Pursuit of Independence
identify are prominent.
6. Early adulthood ( from late teens or early 20s
lasting through the 30s) - It is a time of establishing
personal and economic Independence, career
development, selecting a mate, learning to live with
someone in intimate way, starting a family and
rearing children
7. Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years of age) -it is a
time of expanding personal and social involvement
and responsibility: of assisting the next generation
in becoming competent and mature individuals: and
of reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
8. Late adulthood (60s and above) It is a time for
adjustment to decreasing strength and health, life
review, retirement, and adjustment to new social
roles.
PRE-NATAL PERIOD
"How from so simple a
beginning do endless
forms develop and grow
and mature? What was
this organisim, what is it
now, and what will it
become? Births fragile
moments arrives, when
the new born is on a
threshold between two
worlds."
- Santrock (2002)
Infancy
(from birth to 2
years)
As new borns, we were not
empty-headed organims we
cried, kicked coughed,
sucked, saw, heard and
tasted. We slept a lot and
occasionally we smiled,
although the meaning of our
smiles was not entirely clear.
We crawled and then we
walked, a journey of a
thousand miles beginning
with a single step.
...Sometimes we comfomed,
sometimes other comformed
to us.
Early childhood. ( 3
to 5 years)
In early childhood, our
greatest untold poem was
being 4 years old. We
skipped, played, and ran all
day long, never in our lives
so busy. Busy becoming
something we had quite
gasp. Who knew our
thoughts which work up
into small mythologies.
Our small world widened
as we discovered new
refuges and new people.
Middle and late
childhood
( 6 to 12 years)
In middle and childhood
we were on a different
plane, belonging to a
generation and a feeling
our own. It is the wisdom
of human development
that at no other time we
are more ready to learn at
the end of early
childhood period of
expansive imagination.
Adolescence
( 13 to 18 years)
In no order things was
adolescence, the simple
time life for us, we clothed
ourselves with rainbows
and went brave as the
zodiac. We wanted our
parents to understand us
and hope they would give
up the privilege of
understanding them our
generation was the fragile
cable by which the best
and the worst of our
parens generation was
transmitted to the present.
Early adulthood
( 19 to 29 years)
Early adulthood is a time for
work and a time for love,
sometimes leaving little time
for anything else. For some
of us finding our place in
adult society and committing
to a more stable life take
longer then we imagine. Our
dreams continue and our
thoughts are bold but at
some we become more
pragmatic. And we possibly
will never know the love of
our parents until we become
ourselves.
Middle adulthood
( 30-60 years)
In middle adulthood what
ee have been a foggy
place, a time when we
need to discover what we
are running from and to
and why. We compare our
life with what we vowed
to make it. As the
young/old polarity greets
us with a special force.
Late adulthood
( 61 years and
above)
The rhythm and meaning
of humans development
eventually wend their
way to late adulthood,
when each or us stands
alone at the heart of the
earth and "suddenly it is
evening." We shed the
leaves of youth and are
stripped by the winds of
time down to the truth.