MODULE 1: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: MEANING,

CONCEPTS, AND APPROACHES III. Socioemotional processes include changes in the

individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions,
Meaning of Human Development  and changes in personality. As infants, they would respond with a
Human development is the pattern of movement or change that sweet smile when affectionately touched and frowned when
begins at conception and continues through life span. Development includes displeased and even showed temper tantrum when they could not
growth and decline. This means that development can be positive or get or do what they wanted.  
negative (Santrock, 2002). 
Two Approaches to Human Development 
Major principles of Human Development  1. Traditional Approach
1. Development is relatively order.   – if you believe that an individual would show extensive changes from
– Proximodistal pattern – the muscular control of the trunk and birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood and decline
the arms comes earlier as compared to the hands and fingers.  in late old age.
– Cephalocaudal pattern – during infancy, the greatest growth always 2. Life Span Approach
occurs at the top – the head with physical growth in size, weight, – if you believe that even in adulthood developmental change takes
and future differentiation.  place as it does during childhood. 

2. Outcomes of developmental processes and the rate of development

are likely to vary among individuals. Characteristics of Life Span Approach
a. Development is lifelong – it does not end in adulthood; no
Heredity and environment are different for people, it seems obvious that developmental stage dominates development; encompasses lifetime;
individuals will encounter factors that make them different from other conception to death 
individuals.  b. Development is multidimensional – it consists of biological,
3. Development takes place gradually. Development does not happen cognitive, and socio emotional dimensions. 
overnight.  c. Development is plastic – development is possible throughout
4. Development as a process of is complex it is because the product of lifetime; characteristics is malleable or changeable 
biological, cognitive, and socio-economical processes.   d. Development is contextual – individuals are changing beings in a
I. Biological processes involve changes in the individual’s physical changing world. 
nature.   e. Development involved growth, maintenance, and regulation –
– An individual would gain height and weight as well as growth, maintenance, and regulation are three (3) goals of human
experiencing hormonal changes when they reach the period of development. The goals of individuals vary among developmental
puberty, and cardiovascular decline as they approach late stages. For instance, as individuals reach  
adulthood.  f. middle and late adulthood, concern with growth gets into the back
II. Cognitive processes involve changes in the individual’s stage while maintenance and regulation take the center stage. 
thought, intelligence, and language. A child developed from mere
sounds to a word becoming two words, and two words becoming a Principles of child development and learning that inform practice
sentence.
1. All the domains of development and learning-physical, social and Module 2: The Stages of Development and Developmental
emotional, and cognitive are important, they are closely interrelated. Tasks
Children’s development and learning in one domain influence and
are influenced by what takes place in other domains.  PRE-NATAL PERIOD
2. Many aspects of children’s learning and development follow well – “How from so simple a beginning do endless forms develop and
documented sequences, with later abilities, skills, and knowledge grow and mature? What was this organism, what is it now, and what
building on those already acquired.  it will become? Birth’s fragile moment arrives, when the new born
3. Development and learning proceed at varying rates from child to in on a threshold between two worlds.”
child, as well as at uneven rates across different areas of a child’s
individual functioning.   INFANCY (from birth to 2 years)
4. Development and learning result from a dynamic and continuous
– As newborns, we were not empty-headed organisms. We cried,
interaction of biological maturation and experience. 
kicked, coughed, sucked, saw, heard, and tasted.
5. Early experiences have profound effects, both cumulative and
– We slept a lot and occasionally we smiled, although the meaning of
delayed, on a child’s development and learning; and optimal periods
our smiles was not entirely clear. We crawled and then we walked, a
exist for a certain type of development and learning to occur.  
journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single step. Sometimes
6. Development proceeds toward greater complexity, self-regulation,
we conformed, sometimes other conformed to us.
and symbolic or representational capacities. 
7. Children develop best when they have secure, consistent – Our development was a continuous creation of complex forms, and
relationships with responsive adults and opportunities for positive our helpless kind demanded the meeting eyes of love. We split the
relationship with peers.   universe into two halves: me and not me and we juggled the need to
8. Development and learning occur in and are influenced by multiple curb our own will with becoming what we could will freely.
social and cultural contexts. 
9. Always mentally active in seeking to understand the world around EARLY CHILDHOOD (3-5 years)
– In early childhood, our greatest untold poem was being only four years
them, children learn in a variety of ways; a wide range of teaching
old. We skipped, played, and ran all day long, never in our lives so busy,
strategies and interactions are effective in supporting all these kinds busy becoming something we had not quite grasped yet.
of learning.
– Who knew our thoughts, which worked up into small mythologies
10. Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as
all our own. Our thoughts and images and drawings took wings. The
promoting language, cognition, and social competence. 
blossom of our hearts, no wind could touch. Our small world
11. Development and learning advance when children are challenged to
widened as we discovered new refuges and new people.
achieve at a level just beyond their current mastery, and also when
When we said “I” we meant something totally unique, not to be confused
they have many opportunities to practice newly acquired skills. 
with any other.
12. Children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to
learning, such as  
MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD (6-12 years)
13. persistence, initiative, and flexibility; and in turn, these dispositions
– In the middle and late childhood, we were on a different plane,
and behaviors affect their learning and development. 
belonging to a generation and 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 possible will never know the love of our parents until we become
expansive imagination. parents ourselves.
– Our thirst was to know and to understand. Our parents continued to
cradle our lives but our growth was also being shaped by successive LATE ADULTHOOD (61 years and above)
choirs of friends. We did not think much about the future or the past, – The rhythm and meaning of human development eventually wend
but enjoyed the present. 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
ADOLESCENCE (13-18 years) and are stripped by the winds of time down to the truth. We learn
– In no order of things was adolescence, the simple time of life for us. that life is lived forward but understood backward. We trace the
We clothed ourselves with rainbows and went brave as zodiac, connection between the end and the beginning of life and try to
flashing from one end of the world to the other. We tried on one face figure out what this whole show is about before it is over.
after another, searching a face of our own. We wanted our parents to Ultimately, we come to know that we are what survives of us.
understand us and hoped they would give up the privilege 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 became 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 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.

EARLY ADULTHOOD (19-29 years)

– Early adulthood is a time for work and a time for love, sometimes
leaving a 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 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 other times of torment. And we
 Developmental Tasks
(Robert J. Havighurst, 1972)
Infancy and Early Middle Childhood Adolescence Early Adulthood Middle Adulthood Late Adulthood
Childhood (0-5) (6-12) (13-18) (19-29) (30-60) (61 and over)
1. Learning to walk 1. Learning physical 1. Achieving mature 1. Selecting a mate 1. Helping teenage 1. Adjusting and
2. Learning to take skills necessary for relations with both 2. Learning to live children to decreasing
solid foods ordinary games sexes
3. Learning to talk 2. Building a 2. Achieving
with a become happy strength and
4. Learning to control wholesome masculine or 3. partner and responsible health
the elimination of 3. attitude toward feminine social role 4. Starting a family adults 2. Adjusting to
body wastes oneself. 3. Accepting one’s 5. Rearing children 2. Achieving adult retirement and
5. Learning sex 4. Learning to get physique 6. Managing a and 1. reduced income
differences and along with 4. Achieving
sexual modesty agemates emotional
home 1. civic 2. Adjusting to
6. Acquiring concepts 5. Learning an independence of 7. Starting an responsibility death f spouse
and language to appropriate sex role adults occupation 2. Satisfactory 3. Establishing
describe social and 6. Developing 5. Preparing for 8. Assuming civic career relations with
physical reality Fundamental skills marriage and family 9. responsibility 3. achievement 4. one’s own age
7. Learning to in reading, writing, life
distinguish right and calculating 6. Preparing for an
4. Developing group
from wrong and 7. Developing economic career adult leisure 5. Meeting social
developing a concepts necessary 7. Acquiring values 5. time activities and civic
conscience. for everyday living and an ethical 6. Relating to 6. obligations
8. Developing system to guide one’s spouse 7. Establishing
conscience behavior
7. as a person satisfactory
morality, and a 8. Desiring and
scale of values achieving socially 8. 6. Accepting the 8. living quarters
9. Achieving personal responsible 9. physiological
independence behavior changes of
Developing 10. middle age
acceptable attitudes
8. Adjusting to
toward society
aging
11. parent

In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of
every individual. Robert Havighurst defines 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 difficulty with later tasks”.
Developmental Stages
 The eight (8) 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
childhood while Santrock mentioned them as two separate stages.

The Developmental Tasks (John Santrock, 2012)
1) Prenatal Period (from conception to birth) – it involves tremendous
growth from a single cell to an organism complete with brain and
behavioral capabilities
2) Infancy (from birth to 18-24 months) – a time of extreme
dependence on adults. Many psychological activities are just
beginning – language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination,
and social learning.
3) Early Childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years [Grade 1]) – these are
the pre-school 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, 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’s world and self-control increases.
5) Adolescence (10-12 years ending up to 18-22 years) – begins with
rapid physical changes – dramatic gains in height and weight,
MODULE 3: ISSUES ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Each of us has his/her own informal way of looking at our own and other
people’s development. These paradigms of human development while
obviously lacking in scholastic vigor, provide us with a conceptual
framework for understanding ourselves and others. Scholars have come up
with their own models of human development. Back up by solid research,
they take stand on issues on human development.
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 to
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 20’s lasting through the
30’s) – it is a time of establishing personal and economic
independence, career development, selecting a mate, learning to live
with someone in an intimate way, staring a family and bearing
children.
7) Middle adulthood (40-60 years) – 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’s and above) – it is a time for adjustment to
decreasing strength and health, life review, retirement, and
adjustment to new social roles.
Nature vs. Nurture – which has more significant influence on human
development? Nature or nurture? Nature refers to an individual’s biological
inheritance. Nurture refers to environmental experiences.
Continuity vs. Discontinuity – does development involve gradual,
cumulative change (continuity) or distinct changes (discontinuity). To make
it more concrete, here is a question: is our development like that of a
seedling gradually growing into an acacia tree? Or is it more like that of a
caterpillar becoming a butterfly?
Stability vs. Stage – is development best described as involving stability or
as involving change? Are we what our first experiences have made of us or
do we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point
in development?
 Both genes and environment are necessary for a person even to
exist. Without genes, there is no person; without environment, there
is no person (Scarr and Weinberg, 1980 cited by Santrock 2002). 
 Heredity and environment operate together or cooperate and interact
to produce a person’s intelligence, temperament, height, weight,
ability to read, and so on. 

ABSTRACTION
 For children who experienced a world of poverty, neglect by
parents, and poor schooling in childhood, can enrich experiences in
adolescence remove the ‘deficits’ that they encounter earlier in their
development (Santrock, 2012).
 The key to development is the interaction of nature and nurture
rather than one factor alone. 

Cognitive Development of Infants and Toddlers
Trace cognitive development as infants and toddlers
Draw implications of cognitive development concepts to learning
Cognitive Development in Infancy
Refers to development in the way a baby thinks. This includes
his/her language, communication, and exploration skills.  4. Two word utterances and telegraphic speech
Examples: paying attention, remembering, learning to talk, interacting with
toys and identifying faces.
 Within the first years of life, we humans seem to progress through
the following stages in producing language (Sternberg, 2003):
1. Cooing which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds;
2. Babbling, which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds; to
most people’s ears, the babbling of infants growing up among
speakers from different language groups sounds very similar
3. One-word utterances; these utterances are limited in both the vowels
and the consonants they utilize
5. Basic adult sentence structure (present by about age 4) with
continuing vocabulary acquisition.

Sensorimotor Stage Language Acquisition Device

 Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating Noam Chomsky (1965, 1972)
sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical, - claims that humans have an innate Language Acquisition Device
motoric actions.  (LAD), a metaphorical organ that is responsible for language
 Infants gain knowledge of the world from the physical actions they learning. Just as heart is designed to pump blood, this language
perform on it.  acquisition device is preprogrammed to learn language, whatever the
 Infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the language community children find themselves in.  
beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage. 
 By the end of the sensorimotor period, objects are both separate
from the self and permanent. Object permanence is the
understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot
be seen, heard, or touched. 
 Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Skinner’s Operant
Conditioning have been proven to apply to infants.
 Everyone have experienced infantile amnesia, the inability to recall
events when we were very young (Spear, 1979). Generally, we can
remember little or nothing that has happened to us before the age of
about 5 years, and it is extremely rare for someone to recall many
memories before age 3.

Language Development
 Infants clearly have remarkably acute language learning disabilities
even from an early age (Marcus, Vijayan, Bandi Rao and Vishton,
1999; Pinker, 1997, 1999 cited by Sternberg, Robert 2003).
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLY
CHILDHOOD
REVERSIBILITY
JEAN PIAGET – One of the most important development in this stage is an
– foremost theorist when it comes to cognitive development. understanding of reversibility, or awareness that action can be
– intelligence is the basic mechanism of ensuring balance in the reversed.
relations between the person and the environment.
– Everything that a person’s experiences is a continuous process of COGNITIVE MILESTONE
assimilations and accommodations. – Elementary - aged children encounter developmental milestone.
– Intellectual ability is not the same at different ages. – They develop certain skills within a particular time frame.
– The skills they learn is in sequential manner, they need to
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE understand numbers before they can perform a mathematical
– Third stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. equation.
– It spans from ages 7 to approximately 11 years. – Each milestone develop is dependent upon the previous milestone
– In this stage children have better understanding of their thinking they achieved.
skills. – Age 8, a child learns new skills at a rapid pace.
– Children begin to think logically about concrete events, particularly – Once they reached the age 8, the skills they learn start to level off
their own experiences but difficult to understand abstract or and it usually is a steady increase of new skills. 
hypothetical concepts, thus most of them still have a hard time at
problem solving. YOUNG PRIMARY SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN
– Can tell left from right
LOGIC Able to speak and express themselves develops rapidly.
Concrete operational thinkers, according to Piaget can already make use of – In school, they share about themselves and their family.
inductive logic. – During play, they practice using the word a and language they learn
Inductive Logic in school.
– involves in thinking from a specific experience to a general – Understand time and days of the week
principle. Enjoys rhymes, riddles and jokes.
Deductive Logic – Attention span is longer.
– using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific – Can follow more involved stories
event. – Learning letters and words.
– Children have great difficulty in using deductive logic – By six, most can read words or combination of words.
INFORMATION-PROCESSING SKILLS
– Several theorist, argue that like the computer, the human mind is a
system that can process information through the application of
logical rules and strategies.
– They also believe that the mind receives information, performs
operations to change its form and content, stores and locates it and
generates responses from it.
Subject: HE 125 Child and Adolescent Development  c. Real versus possible – examining a situation and exploring the
possible in terms of situations or solutions
Cognitive Development of the Adolescents 
Abstraction      One indication of the presence of formal operational thinking is the
ability of the adolescent thinker for combination analysis, which is his
     Changes in thinking patterns are similarly remarkable as the physical taking stock of the effects of several variables in a situation, testing one
changes in the transitional period of adolescence. These changes are marked variable at a time, and not randomly. 
by the acquisition of new skills sue to brains increasing weight and refining
synaptic connections (known as the corpus collosum) which join and      A new thought capacity, known as Hypothetico – Deductive Reasoning
coordinate the two hemispheres of the brain. Another brain development is emerges in the adolescent reasoning from general facts/ solution to a
the process of continuous concentration of the brain cells in the prefrontal particular conclusion. 
cortex and a related temporal and parietal area (known as myelination) that      Scientific evidence shows that while adolescents may obtain the capacity
covers the brain systems whose executive functions relate to attention, for formal operational thinking, only experience and education will allow
verbal fluency, language and planning.  them to actually practice it. 
     Three peaks in brain maturation have been identified by neurological      Outside formal operational thinking  can be developed by mathematical
scientists through brain scanning are at age 12, age 15, and age 18.5, and science students, upon which the adolescents enters into a new
coinciding with the operational thinking process of logical reasoning.  capability that makes him a Problem Solving Thinker that involves
Accompanying brain changes in cognitive capability, the adolescent begins identifying problems and seeking new and creative solution for them. 
to acquire spatial awareness and formulate abstract or general ideas
involving numbers, order, and cause/effect. 
Siegler's Information – Processing Skills 
Piaget’s Formal Operational Thinker
     As an information processing theorist, Robert Siegler views the
     Piaget’s formal operational thinker demonstrates how the cognitive influence of environment on thinking. He sees cognitive growth not as a
capacity of the adolescent allows his/her to go beyond the sensible and stage of development, but more of a sequential acquisition of specific
concrete to dwell on what is abstract, hypothetical, multidimensional, and knowledge and strategies for problem solving. 
possible. In this realm of thought, the adolescent begins to attain subtlety in
thinking, entering the sphere of possible and futuribles.      Siegler used rule models in relation to balance, weight, distance, conflict
– weight, conflict distance, and conflict – balance. In his experiment,
Formal Operational Thinking consists in :  adolescents may show:  
a.  Propositional thinking – making assertions outside visual a. speed in information processing, coupled with greater awareness and
evidence, and stating what may be possible in things not seen by the control and acquired knowledge base a more efficient kind of thinking
eyes. compared with that of the child
b.  Relativistic thinking –  subjectively making an opinion on facts –
involving one’s own bias, prejudice of distortion of facts which may b. complexity by way of considering longer term implications and
be either right or wrong  possibilities beyond the here – and – now 
c. increased volume of information processing, coupled with longer      In spite of possible potentials to learn and scores in the top quarter on
memory span.   measured academic ability, their grades are below their measured aptitudes
for academic achievement. Underachievement becomes more pronounced
with the beginning of adolescent year in high school when class work
Metacognition  becomes more demanding. 

     Among the developmental cognitive advances in adolescents is Types of underachievers

metacognition. It involves the ability to think about thinking, evidenced by 1. Withdrawn underachievers – are described as having a more pronounce
awareness of and capacity to identify one’s own thinking processes or tendency to be passive.  They follow the path of no – resistance, not
strategies – perception, comprehension, memory, and problem solving.  reacting against given assignments and actually following school
     Another important information processing trend is the adolescent’s regulations.
ability to acquire an increased amount of knowledge and skills along many 2. Aggressive underachievers – tend to be talkative, if not disruptive and
areas or domain. From novice, he/she becomes a near expert. Information is rebellious. 
processed more rapidly, while showing increased levels of memory
performance. 
Parental involvement
Overachievers  
    A summary of differences between parents of high achievers and
     Overachievers demonstrate superior work habits, greater interest in underachievers will help teacher educators understand the significance of
school work, more consistency in doing assignments, and more parental involvement in adolescent learning and involvement in school
grade/performance consciousness.  activities. 
Characteristics of overachievers are: High achievers parents demonstrate:
1. Positive self-value 1. Positive attitudes about learning, school, teachers, and intellectual activities,
such as by exposing their children to stimulating books, word games,
2. Openness to authority
wholesome sports, travel, etc.;
3. Positive interpersonal relations
2. Harmonious and supportive relationship, inclusive of open, free and
4. Less conflict on the issue of self – autonomy enjoyable interaction within the family;
5. Academic orientation 3. Their own capabilities for success, conflict management, independent
choice with which children can identify; 
6. Goal orientation
4. Encouragement and support for their children’s achievement without undue
7. Control over anxiety pressure;
5. Active involvement in the school program and in parent – teacher
Underachievers
community activities. 
      Meanwhile, parents of underachievers show little or none of the above
traits, while possibly showing:
1. Indifference and disinterestedness in academic and extracurricular
activities of their children;
2. Authoritarian, restrictive and rejecting attitudes or the opposite, namely
being excessively lax so as to leave their children on their own without any
involvement or support;
3. Excessive indulgence, solicitousness, and protectiveness, thus stifling their
children’s self-initiative.  to those of others, e.g. in office jobs.
Possible adolescent behavior during cognitive growth
1. Egocentrism – this is the tendency among adolescents to think too much of
themselves, such as to be too sensitive to social acceptance of their
appearance, actions, feelings, ideas, etc. 
2. Idealism – the adolescent opens thought on the possible, an avenue to
possibly imagining what is far-fetched and less ideal to situations at home,
in school, and in society. 
Developing occupation skills
     Generally, the high school curriculum tends to focus on cognitive
learning, neglecting attention to occupational skills. In the Philippines, there
is evidence that high school graduates lack skills to directly enter the labor
sector. Generally, college education is viewed as the path to occupation and
career in life. Unfortunately, even college graduates are viewed to lack
occupational skills needed for employment in the present day commercial
and industrial sectors. 
      Today, experts believe that high schools can go more along the area of
developing occupational skills than they are currently providing adolescent
students in high school. Theorist John Holland has identified basic
personality factors matched with attitude and work preferences. These
personality factors are as follows:
1. Realistic – this personality type prefers practical tasks, often requiring
physical labor and motor coordination, and less of interpersonal skills, e.g.
in construction.
2. Investigative – they prefer to think than act, being interested in tasks that
use conceptual skills e.g. in the field of the science and technology.
3. Social – they are social and tend to engage in interpersonal situations and
social interaction, e.g. in the social sciences. 
4. Conventional – they prefer structured tasks and can subject their needs
 
5. Enterprising – they are skilled and constructive in thoughts and actions,
and are capable of leading others, e.g. in business industries. 
6. Artistic – they prefer unstructured tasks and may show ability for self –
expression, e.g. in the arts. 
     High school students who work part time or full time can benefit by
acquiring the attitudes and abilities needed for gainful occupation. These
are:
1. Self – reliance
2. Ability to manage money
3. Social Responsibility
4. Mature work orientation
5. Personal Responsibility
6. Positive attitudes about work
Extracurricular Activities – activities outside the subject for classroom
study are mechanisms for further development of the adolescent student,
allowing the acquisition of new attitudes, knowledge, and skills.  It is an
avenue for leadership although there is need to caution students in devoting
more time than necessary to these tasks since there are more important
curricular or study work may suffer.