Robert Havighurst’s

Task Development Theory

and

Arnold Gesell’s
Maturation Theory

Prepared by
Dr. Ng Pei Fern
Robert
Havighurst’s
Developmental
Tasks Theory

Prepared by Dr. Ng Pei Fern

Developmental Task Theory

■ Infancy - Early Childhood (birth to

5 years)
■ Middle Childhood (6 to 12 years )
■ Adolescence (13 to 18 years)
■ Early adulthood (19 to 29 years)
■ Middle Adulthood (30-60 years)
■ Later Maturity (60>)
Concept

■ Havighurst (1972) defines a

developmental task as one that
arises at a certain period in our
lives, the successful
achievement of which leads to
happiness and success with
later tasks; while failure leads to
unhappiness, social disapproval,
and difficulty with later tasks.
Three sources of developmental
tasks (Havighurst, 1972)
■ Tasks that arise from physical maturation. For
example, learning to walk, talk, and behave
acceptably with the opposite sex during
adolescence; adjusting to menopause during middle
age.

■ Tasks that arise from personal sources. For

example, those that emerge from the maturing
personality and take the form of personal values
and aspirations, such as learning the necessary
skills for job success.

■ Tasks that have their source in the pressures of

society. For example, learning to read or learning
the role of a responsible citizen.
Developmental Tasks of Infancy
and Early Childhood:
Ages birth to 6
1. Learning to walk.
2. Learning to take solid foods
3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control the elimination of body
wastes
5. Learning sex differences and sexual
modesty
6. Forming concepts and learning language to
describe social and physical reality.
7. Getting ready to read
Middle Childhood:Ages 6 to 12
■ Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary
games.
■ Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a
growing organism
■ Learning to get along with age-mates
■ Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine
social role
■ Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing,
and calculating
■ Developing concepts necessary for everyday
living.
■ Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of
values
■ Achieving personal independence
■ Developing attitudes toward social groups and
institutions
Adolescence: Ages 12 to 18
■ Achieving new and more mature relations
with age-mates of both sexes
■ Achieving a masculine or feminine social
role
■ Accepting one's physique and using the
body effectively
■ Achieving emotional independence of
parents and other adults
■ Preparing for marriage and family life
Preparing for an economic career
■ Acquiring a set of values and an ethical
system as a guide to behavior; developing
an ideology
■ Desiring and achieving socially responsible
behavior
Early Adulthood: Ages18-30

■ Selecting a mate
■ Achieving a masculine or feminine social
role
■ Learning to live with a marriage partner
■ Starting a family
■ Rearing children
■ Managing a home
■ Getting started in an occupation
■ Taking on civic responsibility
■ Finding a congenial social group
Middle adulthood:Ages 30-60
■ Assisting teenage children to become
responsible and happy adults.
■ Achieving adult social and civic
responsibility.
■ Reaching and maintaining satisfactory
performance in one’s occupational career.
■ Developing adult leisure time activities.
■ Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a
person.
■ To accept and adjust to the physiological
changes of middle age.
■ Adjusting to aging parents.
Later Maturity (>60)
■ Adjusting to decreasing physical
strength and health.
■ Adjusting to retirement and reduced
income.
■ Adjusting to death of a spouse.
■ Establishing an explicit affiliation with
one’s age group.
■ Adopting and adapting social roles in
a flexible way.
■ Establishing satisfactory physical
living arrangements.
Arnold Gesell

■ found that the growing child's

behaviour seems to follow a
set developmental pattern.
■ He described in detail the
ways in which behaviour
changes with age.
■ Gesell believed that
differences among people
result more from heredity than
from environment.
Arnold Gesell

■ "The child’s personality is a product of slow

gradual growth. His nervous system
matures by stages and natural sequences.
He sits before he stands; he babbles
before he talks; he fabricates before he
tells the truth; he draws a circle before he
draws a square; he is selfish before he is
altruistic; he is dependent on others before
he achieves dependence on self. All of his
abilities, including his morals, are subject to
laws of growth. The task of child care is not
to force him into a predetermined pattern
but to guide his growth."
Arnold Gesell
■ Arnold Gesell's theory is concerned with
the physical development of children.
■ Gesell observed hundreds of children and
came up with the physical developmental
age norms.
■ He determined the normal sequence of
development and at what age children
should be able to do certain things, like sit
up, roll over, crawl, walk, grasp objects,
etc.
■ These age-norms are still used today by
the medical profession, the psychology
professions, and child related fields.
■ These age norms give us a standard by
which to monitor a child's development.
Purpose of Gesell’s
Developmental Assessment
■ to observe a child's overall
behaviour in order to compare
the child's developmental level
in relation to his or her
chronological age. This helps in
understanding the child's overall
growth pattern.
Gesell’s findings
■ Heredity and maturity are 2 important
factors that determine the dev of c/r
■ The dev of c/r is unique & differ
among one another
■ C/r will exhibit unstable emotion as
they enter each stage of dev
because of new adjustment &
adaptation
■ The first 5 yrs of dev are very
important for the child’s edu in sch.
 Gesell’s 5 developmental stages
Stages Characteristics

0-1yr ■Emotional dev begins: crying, smiling

■Physical dev begins: eye-balls
movement
■Mechanical dev for control & balance

1-2yrs ■Able to use simple words to speak

■Walking & running

2-3yrs ■Eating, drinking

■Simple sentences for comm

3-4yrs ■Playing
■Doing daily activities

4-5yrs ■Interaction in peer group

■Asking question
Reflection:

What have you learnt from the

theories?

How can you apply the theories in

the teaching and learning in the
classroom?

Think, pair and share.