Module 2

The Stages of development and Developmental Tasks

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
1. Define developmental tasks in your own words.
2. Identify developmental stages of stages of learners in different
curriculum year levels.
3. Describe the developmental tasks in each stage
4. State to yourself how these developmental tasks affect your role
as a facilitator of learning.
INTRODUCTION
For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental
task. What happens when the expected developmental task are not
achieved at the corresponding developmental stage? How can you help
children achieved these developmental tasks?
ACTIVITY
Study the pictures and the descriptions below each set of pictures,
then answer the following questions.
1. Do the picture suggest the respective developmental stage?
2. Symbolized each developmental stage. Give a symbol that stands
foe the developmental task for each stage.
3. If you were given a chance. Which developmental stage would
you like to be in? Why? Share your answers with your small
group.
 4-Week Human Embryo 7-8 Week Human Embryo

Source: http:/www/webmd.com/baby/
Slideshow. Conception

:Santrock, J.W. life-Span development, 8th Edition, 2002.

Pre-natal period
Referring to pre-natal developmental, Santrock (2002) asked the
following questions succinctly:
“ How from so simple a beginning do endless forms develop and
grow and mature? What was this organism, what is it now, and what
will it become? Birth’s fragile moment arrives, when the new-born is on
a threshold between two worlds.”
 Photos by Socrates Paclibar and Peter Mauris Dicang

Infancy (from birth to 2 years)

As newborns, we were not empty-headed organisms. 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 conformed, others
conformed to us Our development was a continuous creation of
complex forms, and our helpless kind demanded the meeting eyes of
love . We split the universe into two halves: “me and not me.” And we
juggled the need to curb our own will with becoming what we could
will freely. ( Santrock, 2002)
 Photos by Gloria C. Oldham, lovely and Socrates paclibar

Early Childhood (3 to 5 years)

In early childhood, our greatest untold poem was being only four
years old. We skipped, played and ran all day long, never in our lives so
busy, busy becoming something we had not quite grasped yet. Who
knew our thoughts, which worked up into small mythologies all our
own. Our thoughts and images and drawings took wings. The blossoms
of our heart, no wind could touch. Our small world widened as we
discovered new refuges and new people. When we said “ I we meant
something totally unique, not to be confused with any other.”
(Santrock, 2002)
 Photos by Socrates Paclibar and Emma A. Nicolas

Middle and Late Childhood (6-12 Years)

“ In middle and late childhood, we were on a different plane,
belonging to a generation and a feeling properly our own. It is the
wisdom of human development that at no other time we are more
ready to learn than at the end of early childhood’s period of expansive
imagination. Our thirst was to know and to understand Our parents
continued to cradle our lives but our growth was also being shaped by
successive choirs of friends. We did not think much about the future or
the past, but enjoyed the present.”(Except for a few words, the
paragraph is taken from Santrock, 2002)
 Photos by Socrates and lovelyn C. Paclibar and Emma A. Nicolas

Adolescence (13-18 years)

“In no order of things was adolescence , the simple time of life for
us. We clothed ourselves with rainbows and went ‘brave as the zodiac’,
flashing from one end of the world to the other. We tried on one face
after another. Searching for a face of our own. We wanted our parents
to understand us and hoped they would give up the priiviledge of
understanding them. We wanted to fly but found that first we had to
learn to stand and walk and climb and dance. In our most pimply and
awkward moments we become acquainted with sex. We played
furiously at adult games but were confined to a society of our own
peers. Our generation was the fragile cable by which the best and the
worst of our parents’ generation was transmitted to the present. In the
end, there were two but lasting bequests our parents could leave us –
one being roots, the other wings. (Santrock, 2002)
 Photos by L. Ruth C. Taylor, Lovelyn C. Paclibar and Emma A. Nicolas

Early Adulthood (19-29 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 than we
imagine. We still ask ourselves who we are and wonder if it isn’t
enough just to be. Our dreams continue and our thoughts are bold but
at some point we become more pragmatic Sex and love are powerful
passions in our lives – at times angels of light, at the other times of
torment. And we possibly will never know the love of our parents until
we parents ourselves. (Santrock, 2002).
 Photos by Sac & Lovelyn Paclibar, L. Ruth C. Taylor, lilian Marie C. Dicang

Middle adulthood (30-60 years)

In middle adulthood what we have been forms what we will be.
For some of us. Middle age is such a foggy place, a time when we need
to discover what we are running from and to and why. We compared
our life with what we vowed to make it . In middle age, more time
stretches before us and some evaluations have to be made, however
reluctantly. As the young/old polarity greets us with a special force, we
need to join the daring of youth with the discipline of age in a way that
does justice to both. As middle-age adults we come to sense that the
generations of living things pass in shorts while and like runners hand
on the torch of life. (Santrock, 2002).
 Photos by Rodel B. Carpio, gloria C. Oldham, lovelyn C. Paclibar, Emma A. Nicolas

Late adulthood (61 years and above)

The rhythm and meaning of human development eventually wend
their way to late adulthood when each of 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. We learn that
life is lived forward but understood backward. We trace the
connection between the end and the beginning of life and try to figure
out what this whole show is about before it is over. Ultimately we come
to know that we are what survives of us. (Santrock. 2002).
ANALYSIS
1. How many developmental stages were described?

2. How do these stages compare to Havighurst’s developmental stages given
below?
Havighurst has identified six major age periods:
1. Infancy and early childhood (0-5 years),
2. Middle childhood (6-12 years),
3. Adolescence (13-18 years),
 4. Early adulthood (19-29 years),
5. Middle adulthood (30-60), and
6. Later maturity (61+).

3. What is an outstanding trait or behavior of each stage?

4. What task/s is /are expected of each developmental stage?

5. Does a developmental task in a higher level require accomplishment of the
lower-level developmental task?

6. Refer to Havighurt’s developmental Tasks given in the table on the next
page. Match the descriptions given in the table on the next page. Match the
descriptions given by Santrock. Are Havighurst and Santrock saying the
same things?
ABSTRACTION
Concept of developmental tasks
In each stage of development a certain task or tasks are expected
of every individual, Robert Havigrahurst developmental task as one
that “arises at a certain period in our life, the successful achievement of
which leads to happiness and success with later task while failure leads
to unhappiness. Social disapproval, and diffulty with later tasks.”
(Havighurst, 1972).

Developmental stages
The eight (8) developmental stages cited by Santrock are the
same with Havighurst’s six(6) developmental stages only that
Havighurst did not include prenatal period. Havighurst combined
infancy and early childhood while Santrock mentioned them as two (2)
separate stages. These developmental stages are described more in
detail in the next paragraphs.
The developmental tasks (Santrock, 2002)
Let’s describe the developmental tasks as described by Santrock
and compare them to those listed by Havighurt himself.
1. Prenatal period ( (from conception to birth) – It involves
tremendous growth- from a single cell to an organism complete
with brain behavioral capabilities.
2. Infancy (from birth to 18-24 moths) – A time of extreme
dependence on adults. Many psychological activities are just
biggening – Language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor
coordination and social learning.
3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years ( Grade I) – These are
the preschool years. Young children learn to become more self-
sufficient and to care for themselves, develop school readiness
skills and spend many hours in play with peers.
4. Middle and late childhood (6-11 years of age, the elementary
school years) – 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 world’s world and self-control increases.
5. Adolescence – (10 - 12 years of age ending up to 18 – 22 years of
age) Begins rapid physical changes – dramatic gains in height and
weight, changes in body contour, and the development of sexual
characteristics such as enlargement of the breasts, development
of pubic and facial hair, and deepening of the voice. Pursuit of
independence and identity are prominent. Thought is more
logical, abstract and idealistic. More time is spent outside of the
family.
6. Early adulthood (from late teens or early 20s lasting throughthe
30s) – It is the time of establishing personal and economic
independence, career development, selecting a mate, learning to
live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family and
rearing children.
7. Middle adulthood (40 – 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 (60 and above) it is a time for adjustment to
decreasing strength and health life, review, retirement, and
adjustment to new social roles.
APPLICATION

1. Answer this question with a learning partner. What are the

implication of these developmental task to your role as a
facilitator of learning? Let’s pay particular attention to the
stages that correspond to schooling – early childhood, middle
and late childhood and adolescence.

Let’s do #1. Early childhood – What are preschool teachers

supposed to do with preschools? Help them develop readiness
for school and not to be too academic in teaching approach.
They ought to give much time for preschoolers to play. Or
perhaps help preschoolers develop school readiness by
integrating children’s games in school activities.

# 2 – Middle and Late childhood

Elementary school teachers ought to help their pupils by
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
# 3 – Adolescence
High school teachers ought to help their student by
_________________________________________________
 _________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

2. Allow small groups to do each of the following.

a. Come up with an object to symbolize each period or stage of
development.
b. Do a multimedia presentation of the outstanding
characteristic and developmental tasks of each
developmental stage. You may use the text of Santrock
found under each collage of pictures in ACTIVITITY PHASE of
this lesson.
c. Sing an appropriate song for each developmental stage.

3. Discuss the meaning of the quotation beneath the title of the

lesson. Relate it to the stage of development.

BIG IDEAS

1. Complete this unfinished sentence.

Developmental tasks are _______________________

2. Show the developmental stages by means of a diagram inclusive
of the ages. Write also the outstanding characteristics traits and
developmental task of each developmental stage.