Developmental Stages

A. Prenatal Development
Begins with fertilization
The prenatal stage is divided into 3 stages: germinal, embryonic, and fetal stage
i. Germinal
- Zygote divides into several cells
- 10 to 14 days after conception: zygote implants itself in the uterus wall of the mother
- Successfully implanted zygote embryo
ii. Embryonic
- 2 to 8 weeks after conception
- Major parts (heart, spinal cord, stomach, esophagus, etc.) begin to develop
- Other body parts (arms, toes, hands, etc.) are taking shape
- Sex of the baby can be determined
iii. Fetal
- Lasts approximately 7 months
- Vital organs and other body parts are now starting to develop and function
B. Infancy and Childhood Development
i. Physical
- First two years of life
- Different physical systems (ex. digestive, circulatory, ganern) begin to function, making the infant
capable of adapting to his new surroundings
- Reflexes: indicate that the infants neurological functions are normal at birth
o Rooting: infant is looking away touch infants cheek with a feeding bottle = the infant will turn
towards you
o Sucking: if you put something in the infants mouth = he will automatically suck it
o Grasping: if you place a ball into a newborns hand = his fingers will automatically grasp the toy
ball
o Startle/Moro: infants who are startled will instinctively open their arms widely and then
immediately brings them back together to their chest
- Weight increases tremendously
- Sensory abilities will be fully developed
- Brain continues to grow (birth = 25% 2 years old = 75% growth)
- The growth from toddlerhood to childhood will be at a much slower pace
o Increase in weight will be 6 to 7 pounds annually
o In early childhood, parts of the brain (specifically the frontal lobe reasoning, decision-making,
other higher mental functioning) will make a dramatic growth and will continue all throughout
the lifespan
ii. Motor
- Involves the childs ability to raise his head, stand, sit, crawl, walk, etc.
- 2 general principles:
o Cephalocaudal principle: motor skills are developed from the head downward
o Proximodistal: motor skills are developed from the inside (center of the body) to the outside (ex.
an infant can move his trunk before his arms and hands)
- Motor development is universal it develops in the same sequence and approximately at the same age
iii. Cognitive
- Jean Piagets Cognitive Stages of Development
o Children have the ability to organize what they have learned from experience, as a result of their
interaction with the environment
 o Learned information organized to form a schema (ex. baby learns how to grasp a bottle
will use this grasping scheme to every object he will touch)
Assimilation: children learn to handle new experience based on their existing schemata
(ex. child learns that a 4-wheel vehicle is a car will apply this schema and will call a
truck a car
Accommodation: child knows how to modify or totally change his existing schema to
have room for new information and experience (ex. child now knows the difference
between the truck and car)
Cognitive Stage Age Description
Sensorimotor stage Birth to 2 years Involves the exploration of the infants world
using their sense and motor abilities
Children interpret their surrounding using their
senses and motor abilities
They acquire object permanence (the knowledge
that the object continues to exist even when it
can no long be seen latter part of their first
year) and symbolic thought (the ability to
represent objects and events using symbols end
of this stage)
Preoperational stage 2 to 7 years Children use language to interact with their
environment
Symbolic thinking: children learn how to pretend
play (ex. child uses pencil case as his phone
displays his capacity to understand simple mental
thoughts)
Children make use of symbolic thoughts to
understand their environment
They exhibit egocentrism the tendency to
perceive events and experiences based on ones
own perspective and interpretation, and have no
concept of conservation the ability to
understand that basic properties of an object will
not change and remain the same even with the
transformation of its external appearance (ex. tall
but thin glass = wide but short glass but children
will think that there is more milk in the tall but
thin glass); cannot think logically and rationally
Centration: children tend to focus their attention
to one part of the object only, hence the tall but
narrow glass contains more milk
Children are not capable of reversible mental
operations or they exhibit irreversibility in their
way of thinking (ex. child will not think there will
be the same amount of milk if you transfer from
the tall glass to the short glass)
Concrete operations 7 to 12 years Children at this stage know now how to use logic
in their thinking or real and tangible experiences
They are capable of conservation
They can now focus their attention on more than
one part of the object or event and understand
the idea of reversibility
 Children learn basic math operations but not
abstract concepts yet
Formal operations 12 years to adulthood Adolescents, aside from thinking logically, can
now think abstractly
Children entering this stage are flexible in the
way they integrate even with the absence of
tangible objects or events

iv. Personality
- Sigmund Freuds Psychosexual Stages of Development:
o Personality is developed during the first five years of life
o Personality functions based on the psychic energy or libido, the driving force or motivating
factor behind the individuals behavior
o Fixation: if a child fails to resolve the conflicts or crises of a particular stage, he has the tendency
to be stuck in that period and will not be able to move on to the next developmental stage
Stage Age Erogenous Zone Crisis
Oral Birth 18 months Mouth, lips, and tongue Weaning or feeding
(sucking) problems oral fixation
(strong need for oral
satisfaction. Ex. adult who
smokes and drinks
excessively, or talks or eats
enormously)
Anal 18 months 3 years Anus (toddlers find Toilet training conflict
retention and expulsion of between controlling bowel
feces pleasurable) movement produces anal
fixation (anal personality =
control issues, problems
with letting go, being
stingy, and stubborn)
Phallic 3 6 years Penis or clitoris the most Oedipus Complex or Electra
crucial stage Complex fixation in this
stage will result to issues
concerning gender role
identification, authority
figures, and homosexuality
(read book nalang pls ang
haba ng explanation for
Oedipus and Electra pero
alam niyo naman cos of the
hw hikhikhik)
Latency 6 years (before) puberty libidinal energies will
subside and there will be a
decrease in sexual desire;
boys and girls are more
interested in interacting
with the same sex than
with the oppositve
Genital Puberty adulthood Adult genital regions This stage will have no
characterized by a healthy fixation if the child was
and satisfying sexual able to resolve past
 relationship with the conflicts from the previous
opposite sex stages
v. Social
- Erik Ericksons Psychosocial Theory of Development: personality development persists throughout the
individuals lifetime life-span approach to development
o There are 8 psychosocial life stages; each life stage involves a crisis that needs to be resolved to
be psychologically healthy and establish a strong sense of identity. Failure to resolve crisis =
impairment of personality development
Psychosocial Crisis Age Healthy Resolution Unhealthy Resolution
Trust vs. Mistrust Infancy (birth to 1 year) Needs babies are met = Not met = they learn that
develop sense of basic some people cannot be
trust; perceive their world trusted
as loving
Autonomy vs. Shame and Toddler (1 to 3 years) Toddlers explore = Not allowed to
Doubt independent and confident explore/make their own
choices = shame and
doubt; unsure of
themselves
Initiative vs. Guilt Early Childhood (3 to 5 Learn to plan and take Fail to carry out plans or
years) responsibility = initiative take responsibility = feeling
of guilt from being
irresponsible
Industry vs. Inferiority Elementary school Age (5 Complete tasks or learn Fail to produce output
years to puberty) new skills that will make quality = inferior,
them feel competent = incompetent, inadequate
industry
Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescence (teen years to Can answer the question Fail to identify their true
early 20s) who are you? confidently identity and role in society
= strong sense of identity; = confusion
they know and understand
who they are
Intimacy vs. Isolation Young adulthood (20s to Intimate relationship = Fail to establish close
40s) emotional growth relationships = self-
absorbed and experience
emotional isolation
Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle adulthood (40s to Strong sense of Fail to develop this task =
60s) generativity by guiding the Stagnation; they feel that
future generation = they did not contribute to
satisfaction with the the improvement of the
degree of influence they next generation
have on their family,
society, and future
generations
Integrity vs. Despair Late adulthood (60s and Live life with acceptance Dissatisfaction and the
beyond) and satisfaction = integrity feeling of emptiness in
their lives = failure to
develop sense of integrity