Basics in Child Development

Prepared by Karen DeBord, Child Development & Parenting Specialist and Members of the CEMP 09 Planning Team

November, 1998 Department of Family and Consumer Sciences North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service North Carolina State University

Basics in Child Development

Program Description
This section can be used as a basic reference when teaching any other section. Use this section to supplement any other session in this notebook you are teaching, in order to provide parents with an overview of the developmental characteristics of thier children.

Objectives

To help parents understand basic child development concepts for children infant though age 12. To help parents understand basic developmental expectations of adolescents and teens.

Intended Audience (by age of child)

New parents Parents of preschoolers Parents of school-agers Parents of teens

Materials Needed

Easel paper, markers, tape Legos, paints, puppets, play doh, blocks and trucks Brain development video tape Prime time with Barbara Walters or I am your child produced by Rob Reiner. Overheads on brain development Overheads transparencies on child development video player

All Grown up and No Place to go by David Elkind

Icebreaker

Ask parents to list the characteristics of an ideal child (ideal school-ager or teen depending on audience). What do you want in a child? What do you want your child to be like as an adult? (You will refer to these later as you talk about child development). Write these on a blank overhead or a large piece of newsprint or easel paper with marker. Developmental stages: When we talk about children we talk about the "whole child" They have many facets: name those: cognitive or thinking, social or personality, physical or body, and emotional or feelings Each individual lives in a world too. People do not grow up in isolation

Visual
Easel or board (use overhead or draw 4 concentric circles in the board or easel- explain sociological systems theory- Bronfenbrenner) - child in a family in a community with work and school in a society with diversity, crime, democracy, etc.

Infancy
Brain development
Each person is born with 100 billion nerve cells. These don't continue to develop after birth. The capacity of the brain is enormous. All of these little nerve cells are just waiting to connect like wiring.

One misunderstanding of children is that they are just miniature adults. This is just not true. They are always in the process of developing. By age 3, the weight of the child's brain has almost tripled since birth. During the first year of life, the original neurons become covered with myelin which acts as insulation for the cell and provides substance for the brain. In newborns without the myelin, the brain is mushy. That's why shaken baby syndrome is of such concern. While the brain forms, the synapses are connecting. During the first three years of life, this rapidly developing brain is storing information and memories that will be the foundation for later learning. If this foundation is FLAWED, it can affect the entire life span of the individual. Scientists have charted brain scans with various ages of children. There is a dramatic upward climb during infancy and toddler years. From about age 4-10 there is enormous synaptic activity- lots of connections! During these years, children learn more rapidly and new concepts can be introduced most easily during this time. That is why a second language sticks with children during this period more readily that later in life The brain is USE dependent. You must use the sectors of the brain for them to connect and develop. Day by day, the brain changes its architecture. Early years are the time to maximize this. These teachable moments or teaching times are referred to as "windows" of opportunity for development. This activity is significantly reduced during teen years. So what you thought about teens may have some merit! There is a falling off of connections about age 11 and on. At age 16, there is a major drop off. This is the time for driver's licenses! The term is plastic or plasticity. That is the brain is most changeable- malleable during the first 10-12 years. It's never too late to learn, but the learning comes so much easier during this plasticity period. One section of the brain processes touch. Infant massage has been shown to stimulate growth in premature infants. Also related research has shown that office workers who receive 15-minute massages emit brain waves that stimulate alertness. Math test scores were higher after massages.

Language (See Overhead Transparency #1)

Hearing sound over and over again stimulates the connection of neurons in the temporal lobe. By 3 months old, a baby can distinguish several hundred spoken sounds. The auditory maps for different languages is different. The plasticity of the brain allows young children to learn new languages easily by 12 months.

Music, math, logic (See Overhead Transparency #2)

Music and spatial reasoning come from the same sector in the cortex. Listening to complex music strengthens circuits for math reasoning as well. This is not forcing music and practice (like I knew it with a timer) but exposing children to complex musical sounds. (Research about mice in mazes listening to Mozart vs. Hard rock-Mice ran the mazes in 10 minutes. After 30 days, the Mozart mice ran the mazes in 2.5 minutes and hard rock in 30 minutes (Newsweek 7-20-97).

Emotional development. (See Overhead Transparency #3)

The limbic system is the center for emotional development. The limbic system develops very early. This activates the fight or flight response system like an alarm system at the fire department. The more intense the emotional arousal, the stronger the connection (or imprint) in the brain. There is an area of the cortex that MODULATES and moderates responses. This prefrontal area organizes and helps us make rational decisions...when to attack, when to run, when to seek sympathy, when to provoke, whine or whatever. Sometimes emotional responses get in the way (Can't think straight). Continual emotional distress can create deficits in other learning abilities. In research with children experiencing post traumatic and prolonged stress, Dr. Bruce Perry (Baylor College of Medicine) has found that constant stress affects the development of the brain. Think about it. We can be exposed to calming touches and warm loving voices or we can be exposed to loud arguing, people ignoring you, slapped hands for exploring and violence. (The connections with children can be warm or they can be aggressive.) Then your fight response may be higher and since your brain connections are wired for people not meeting your needs, you may learn survival techniques that are not socially acceptable. That is why we meet the needs of children when they are young so they will learn that their requests are appropriate and can elicit an adult reaction.

Activity
Show video -I am your child produced by Rob Reiner (you may want to just use one or 2 sections of this video)

Activity
Use NC Extension Publication on Infancy FCS-459 to particularly address KEY POINTS in this section

Ask group What can infants do? What can they understand? (They may have picked up some ideas from the videotape which is definitely OK!) Infants learn about the world through touch, sight, sound, taste and smell. They learn about relationships from how people touch and hold them, and from the tones of voice and facial expressions people use when caring for them. When babies have their needs met--being fed when hungry, comforted when crying, held and touched gently, and kept warm and dry--they begin to trust the adults that care for them. This early sense of trust will help them develop positive relationships for the rest of their lives. If adults handle a baby roughly or if they always seem anxious and irritated when they feed and diaper an infant, that child may learn that being with other people is not a pleasant experience. A basic sense of trust will not develop and the child may have difficulty relating to others. Infants use all their senses to learn about the world. They "talk" with others through actions and sounds, and experiment with objects and noises. They enjoy watching the results of their actions. This is how children learn, make sense of the world, and learn to communicate. When babies coo, babble, and interact with others, they are developing language skills. Children quickly begin to understand the meanings of symbols -- that a smile and pleasant tone of voice mean the person speaking to them is happy, that dimming lights mean it is nap-time, and that putting on a coat means a trip outside. Young children think that when they cannot see someone or something, that it is gone forever. When important people in their lives leave, they do not understand that they will return. This period of development is hard on parents and children. Parents can make these times less stressful by letting a child hold and keep personal objects such as stuffed animals, blankets or a family photo. Around the second year of life, children begin to form mental pictures of objects, and that

makes it easier for them to say goodbye to moms, dads and other people they care about.

Preschoolers
Use FCS 454 for added information. Being able to wait their turn, not throwing a hard puzzle across the room in frustration, and staying in bed at night are all behaviors that children must learn. There are many factors that may affect a child's development and behaviors: Learning, remembering, deciding, planning, and organizing are taken for granted by adults. In young children, these complicated skills occur at different rates and follow a pattern. Children under age 2 have an incomplete and sometimes incorrect understanding of what is "real." This causes confusion when they try to make sense out of what they see and experience. For example, when a pet dies a young child may expect the pet to return. Children also combine words into what makes sense to them, such as calling a briefcase a "work purse" or a pancake a "flat cake." During this period, a child's thinking is extremely self-centered. Children see the world only from their own perspective, focusing on themselves and having difficulty understanding other points of view. They do not sympathize with the feelings or needs of others. - stress they are very ego-centric- This makes visits to the store and showing appreciation very tough!!! As they learn to talk, preschool children learn to name objects and identify pictures, labels and symbols; they combine words, discuss, negotiate and make decisions with playmates. These are very high order skills we want them to learn! We don't want to punish them for learning this but guide them during this critical time showing them how to DO it! As their thinking skills advance, preschoolers begin to use simple classification (putting similar items together by color, shape, etc.). More advanced classification and identification follow. An example might be: animals include cows, chickens and dogs; or birds include robins, eagles and blue jays. During infancy, early language consists of cooing, gurgling, babbling, and eventual repetitious letter combinations (ga-ga-ga). The first word marks a major milestone and is spoken sometime around 10 to 15 months. Children generally know 50 or more words by 16 to 20 months. By age 2, a child may know as many as 300

words. Parents who have awaited the first word now take pride in their child's ability to name things. Imitation is important to the child's ongoing language development. Children will repeat what they hear and apply voice tones used by others. They will repeat EVERYTHING! SO modeling is critical! Two-way conversation is important as language ability grows.

Key: -- Reading with children, patiently listening, and talking with them help children learn language. Key: - The use of open-ended "what if..." or "how does..." questions help to raise
a child's thinking and language abilities to higher levels. This builds decisionmaking and critical-thinking skills.

Social emotional development

Developing a personality and becoming socially adapted are perhaps among the most baffling aspects of child development. A child's development of self-esteem, self-control and personality depends greatly upon interactions from within the environment (the family, the neighborhood). Personal development begins with a basic sense of trust during infancy.(remember talking about this?!) During toddler-hood, children usually complete the stage of trust. Trust allows toddlers to explore their world independently. Toddlers begin to see themselves as individuals who are separate from their parents and able to explore freely. Independence is the primary emotional stage during the preschool years. During this stage, toilet training and language development usually occur. Being sensitive to the child's fragile sense of independence allows for healthy development as opposed to developing a sense of shame or doubt. Responding to acts of normal development with severe punishments or by making the child feel guilty can be harmful, particularly during this stage. This is critical! Stress it again! Developing a "sense of self" also follows a sequence. At about 18 months of age children realize that they are separate from their parents, but they are not aware that who they are will remain so throughout their lives. This recognition does not occur until between ages 5 and 7. This is why we hear young girls say, "When I'm a boy, I'll..." or children say, "When I'm a baby again, I'll..."

Developing a sense of self-control is also slow. Behaviors such as whining in check-out lines, physical outbursts against siblings, and inability to sit still when waiting are examples of loss of control. Although these actions try adult patience, this is normal and predictable behavior in young children. When children are able to begin talking about the reasons for their behaviors, they are better able to practice self-control; this does not happen until about 7 or 8 years of age. Mastering independence paves the way for the next stage - developing a healthy sense of ambition, drive or motivation. Children who learn to initiate activities by exploring, questioning and investigating develop skills that will be important for school activities. Children learn to make decisions when they are given chances to think and figure out simple problems. Giving children examples and chances to choose among options and possible solutions are ways to help children learn to make decisions. Skills in making decisions will prove valuable in the school years and adulthood.

Moral development
Moral development also follows a pattern. In the early stages, the child simply tries to avoid punishment. An older preschooler proceeds through a very self-centered stage with decisions based on self-satisfaction and "what's in it for me" actions. In later stages, children develop a greater concern for being "good" and doing what is socially acceptable.

The Importance of play

Sometimes parents of preschoolers question why all their children seem to do is play. Play is a child's work, and learning how to play is essential. Through play, children learn many important social skills while reducing tension and pressure. Children play for play's sake and focus on discovery. Adults can guide play, but must allow children to become involved in their play. Frequent interruptions and suggestions by adults are frustrating and discouraging to children, and they inhibit a child's creativity.

Activity
Gather toys to play with. Spread on the table and ask them to play and them to tell (when you ask) what developmental aspects these would be good to teach with children. Legos, paints, puppets, play doh, blocks and trucks are good items. Have them play and practice open-ended questions. Practice making choices, negotiation sharing. Can 2 year olds share?

Talk about characteristics of play: Safe secure environment, plenty of age appropriate playthings, few adult interruptions, well rested and fed.

Homework
Furnish each person with a notebook or a pad of paper or a folder of paper for this. You can either have blank paper or put a heading on each page with questions for a journal. This journal will be critical to the evaluation of this project. Tell them to write what is on their minds, but also that I would like to use them to see what they have learned along the way. Pages can be labeled with these questions:

Write down what you learned today. Tell a story from your childhood about what you remember related to anything we learned. Do you think that you established a good sense of trust with your parents? Were you allowed safe independence? Did your parents play with you? How? How do you play with your children?

What might you change as a parent of your child?

Middle childhood/Adolescents/School-age
Overview of 6-12 year old children
Between the time when children enter school and the time they reach adolescence is called middle childhood. This is about 6 to 12 years of age. Children's worlds are expanding from close family ties to outward relationships with friends, teachers, coaches, care-givers, and others outside the family.

Social and emotional development

During middle childhood (ages about 6-12) there are several characteristics that bug us as parents but that are very clear-cut with children.

Activity
Easel paper and markers Post several easel papers around the room and ask them to visit each paper and write something. Be sure there is a reader and a writer at each poster. On each poster have a question already printed:

What do kids do that bug adults? What are fun things that kids age 6-12 like? What is important to kids age 6-12? What is the best way to talk to or relate to kids age 6-12?

(See Overhead Transparency # 4 )

Powerful changes - accumulating knowledge Learning differentiation of sex roles Learning to take another person's point of view Impulsivity - "I don't know why I did it" Perceive themselves as defined through appearance, possessions, activities Mental changes which may be more stressful than physical changes Concrete thinkers Can grasp symbols and classify things Games with rules Rules are the basis for social exchange Challenges should be designed to practice rules Competitive vs cooperative activities Question authority and see adults are not always perfect Idolize sports stars, music stars, boy and girl friends Fragile sense of self

*(You may want to make this next section an overhead of bulleted items)

There are signs of growing independence. Children are becoming so "worldly" they typically test their growing knowledge with back talk and rebellion. Common fears include the unknown, failure, death, family problems, and non-acceptance. Friends may live in the same neighborhood and are most commonly same sex peers. Children have on the average five best friends and at least one "enemy" who often changes from day to day. Children act nurturing and commanding with younger children but follow and depend on older children. Children are beginning to see the point of view of others more clearly. Children define themselves in terms of their appearance, possessions, or activities There are fewer angry outbursts and more ability to endure frustration while accepting delays of getting things they "want." Children often resolve conflict through peer judges who accept or reject their actions.

Children are self-conscious and feel as if everyone notices even small differences (new hair cut, facial hair, a hug in public from a parent) Tattling is a common way to attract adult attention in the early years of middle childhood. Inner control is being formed and practiced each time decisions are made Around age 6-8, children may still be afraid of monsters and the dark, while these are replaced later by fears of school or disaster and confusion over social relationships. To win, lead, or to be first is valued. Children try to be the boss and are unhappy if they lose. Children often are attached to adults (teacher, club leader, caregiver) other than their parents and will quote their new "hero," or try to please him or her for their attention. Early in middle childhood "good" and "bad " days are defined as what is approved or disapproved by the family. Children's feelings get hurt easily. There are mood swings and often they don't know how to accept personal failure.

Mental Development

Children can begin to think about their own behavior and see consequences for actions. In the early stages of concrete thinking, they can group things together that belong together (for instance babies, fathers, mothers, aunts are all family members). As children near adolescence, they master sequencing and ordering which are needed for math skills. Children begin to read and write early in middle childhood and should be skillful in reading and writing by the end of middle childhood. They can think through their actions and trace back events that happened to explain situations, such as why they were late to school. Children learn best if they are active while they are learning. For example, children will learn traffic safety by moving cars, blocks and toy figures rather than sitting and listening to an adult explain the rules. Six to 8 year olds can rarely sit for longer than 15-20 minutes for an activity. Attention span gets longer with age. Toward the beginning of middle childhood, children may begin projects but finish few. Allow them to explore new materials. Nearing adolescence, children will focus more on completion. Teachers set the conditions for social interactions to occur in schools. Understand children need to experience various friendships while building esteem.

Children can talk through problems to solve them. This requires more adult time and more sustained attention by children. Children can focus attention and take time to search for needed information. They can develop a plan to meet a goal. There is greater memory capability because many routines (brushing teeth, tying shoes, bathing, etc.) are automatic now. Self-image as a "worker" emerges. If encouraged, this is positive in later development of career choices. Many children want to find a way to earn money.

Extended activity
Refer to Extension Publication FCS 470 - Make glerch or goop to play with and discuss how school-agers would like this and why.

Teenagers
Group Activity - easel:
List characteristics of adolescents you don't like (8-13 years) List characteristics that are strengths of this group

Refer to characteristics and explain each one developmentally

Argumentativeness Now that they have more intellect developed, there is not a clear demarcation of right and wrong, good and bad, but rather shades of gray. degrees of goodness and badness. Many teens will argue for the sake of arguing. Parents and other adults must understand the importance of eliminating emotionally charged subjects and leave personality out of the discussion. Arguing gives them practice and can be constructive and a learning technique.

Personhood (life) is always both an active state of being, and an ever-changing stage of becoming. It is a continual process of creating ourselves to meet the demands of the present and those of the future (Leo Bascaglia). A teen's major task is to bring all of the various facets of "self" into a working whole that can provide continuity with the past and focus and direction for the

future. There are various roles (son, daughter, student, athlete, musician, artist, and so on), various traits and abilities (quiet, outgoing, timid, generous, high strung), like and dislikes, social and political attitudes, religious orientations, and much more. Cognitively, not until the teen years are young people able to construct theories. Forming an identity is much like constructing a theory of oneself. It is a creative endeavor which take much time and concentration. Rather than concentrated time, teenagers are faced with pressures and burdens. There are mood swings - disequilibrium/confusion between what they know and new information. (Read PP. 29-30 of All Grown up and No Place to go) Teens need a framework of values against which to test other values. and discover on their own. But when important adults in their lives are unsure what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, the task is even more difficult and more time consuming.

Thinking about thinking - another cognitive step is the ability to think about
thinking. (see excerpt pp. 33 - All Grown up and No Place to Go)

Strategic manipulation - Strategic interactions are when we do something with

information - probe for information, withhold information, or provide information in order to win some personal advantage (like in Poker). To be able to do this, you must be able to "think about another person's thinking." That comes with cognitive development during the teen years.

When one or more persons, however, are being strategic and those interacting with them are not, then this is the basis for manipulation. One person is being cooperative and the other is being manipulative. (read example p. 76) manipulative acts described above. One teen is operating by one set of rules- free, honest sharing; while another is operating by another set of rules- obtaining, concealing, strategically conveying information for personal advantage. This often happens when someone of the opposite sex leads another on. teen admires - like an older brother or sister... likes someone the teen dislikes. On the other hand, when a teen makes a romantic choice, they expect others to see the same traits in that person as they do.

Betrayal - the shock of betrayal can occur which can be an outgrowth of the

Romantic disillusion - related to betrayal is disillusionment. When someone a

This can happen with physical encounters too. Physical encounters which aren't the magical "ringing of bells". The shock and disillusion can be very painful.

Imaginary audience - accounts for teens overwhelming self-consciousness. Everybody is looking. Always on stage. With age, this diminishes as teens gain broader experiences and expand social relationships. Decision making - decision making is a lengthy process. There is agony over
what to wear or say. This is because of the new cognition swelling up and the selfconsciousness thing interfering with the ability to speak. That is why fast food restaurants are so popular. Once there is a set menu suited to taste, then the decision is easy. Fewer choices. With experience and age, there are more strategies gained about decision making (clothing, for example, dress according to mood, to weather, wear blue on Mondays, etc.)

Once expressed, adolescents often do not realize that the actual actions are also up to the individual and blame is laid elsewhere. Only when they engage in meaningful work to accomplish a goal can they begin to become more than "just talk." a form of fad. They tend to arrange themselves in heirarchies. of social status and in this way provide a teenager with still another piece of information for his or her self-definition. All of these behaviors and activities are "tried on for fit."

Hypocrisy - the difference between expressing an idea and putting it into action.

Fads - participation in fads usually occur in early adolescence. Clubs or groups are

Family Contacts
More people outside the family have contact with the child than within the family - coaches, leaders, teachers, friends, etc. There is a natural decline in amount of time teens spend with parents In their search for their own identity, parents can just hope they have provided the valuable guidance and continued support to enable the child to find their identity in a positive manner using an inner voice to guide them. As they look, however, they will try on various personality traits and ways of "being" for "fit" They may emulate their coach, a peer, a drug pusher, an older school drop-out, a sibling or aunt. Remember a child is an individual within a family, within a community. All interact fluidly and dynamically. A push on one end affect the other end and reconfigures the whole (play doh)

In times of family change, there are aspects which affect the child. Some family changes remove the teen from their once privileged position within the family. The family issue at hand can preoccupy the teen and they can no longer concentrate on their "research project" - constructing a healthy identity. The given family has become part of their "self-definition" and with this disrupter, they must redefine or start over on this aspect.

Teacher/ Parent coping

Understanding the stress, anger, fright and developmental aspects of piecing together a "self" Growth can occur by integration

Saying no Consistency Clear expectations Use of energy, interest, love and persistence Constructive criticism - deal with remarks, verbalize feelings Don't interpret too much. Many acts are purely impulsive Talk (communication strategies often go out the window) Allow talk time

Recognize power vs authority. Power is force. Authority is wisdom and skill Schools advocate for reduced class size (fewer than 18 kids) for more time with students, more caring attitudes, individualization, which develops positive esteem, focus on readiness.

Developmental Tasks of Normal Adolescence

Some years ago, Professor Robert Havighurst of the University of Chicago proposed that stages in human development can best be thought of in terms of the developmental tasks that are part of the normal transition. He identified eleven developmental tasks associated with the adolescent transition. Each of the Havighurst tasks can also be seen as elements of the overall sense of self that adolescents carry with them as they move toward and into young adulthood.

The adolescent must adjust to a new physical sense of self. At no other time since birth does an individual undergo such rapid and profound physical changes as during early adolescence. Puberty is marked by sudden rapid growth in height and weight. Also, the young person experiences the emergence and accentuation of those physical traits that make him or her a

boy or girl. The young person looks less like a child and more like a physically and sexually mature adult. The effect of this rapid change is that the young adolescent often becomes focused on his or her body. The adolescent must adjust to new intellectual abilities. In addition to a sudden spurt in physical growth, adolescents experience a sudden increase in their ability to think about their world. A s a normal part of maturity, they are able to think about more things. However, they are also able to conceive of their world with a new level of awareness. Before adolescence, children's thinking is dominated by a need to have a concrete example for any problem that they solve. Their thinking is constrained to what is real and physical. During adolescence, young people begin to recognize and understand abstractions. The growth in ability to deal with abstractions accelerates during the middle stages of adolescence. The adolescent must adjust to increased cognitive demands at school. Adults see high school in part as a place where adolescents prepare for adult roles and responsibilities and in part as preparatory for further education. School curricula are frequently dominated by inclusion of more abstract, demanding material, regardless of whether the adolescents have achieved formal thought. Since not all adolescents make the intellectual transition at the same rate, demands for abstract thinking prior to achievement of that ability may be frustrating. The adolescent must develop expanded verbal skills. As adolescents mature intellectually, as they face increased school demands, and as they prepare for adult roles, they must develop new verbal skills to accommodate more complex concepts and tasks. Their limited language of childhood is no longer adequate. Adolescents may appear less competent because of their inability to express themselves meaningfully. The adolescent must develop a personal sense of identity. Prior to adolescence, one's identity is an extension of one's parents. During adolescence, a young person begins to recognize her or his uniqueness and separation from parents. As such, one must restructure the answer to the question "What does it mean to be me?" or "Who am I?" The adolescent must establish adult vocational goals. As part of the process of establishing a personal identity, the adolescent must also begin the process of focusing on the question "What do you plan to be when you grow up?" Adolescents must identify, at least at a preliminary level what are their adult vocational goals and how they intend to achieve those goals. The adolescent must establish emotional and psychological independence from his or her parents. Childhood is marked by strong dependence on one's parents. Adolescents may yearn to keep that safe, secure, supportive, dependent relationship. Yet, to be an adult implies a sense of independence, of autonomy, of being one's own person. Adolescents may

vacillate between their desire for dependence and their need to be independent. In an attempt to assert their need for independence and individuality, adolescents may respond with what appears to be hostility and lack of cooperation. The adolescent must develop stable and productive peer relationships. Although peer interaction is not unique to adolescence, peer interaction seems to hit a peak of importance during early and middle adolescence. The degree to which an adolescent is able to make friends and have an accepting peer group is a major indicator of how well the adolescent will successfully adjust in other areas of social and psychological development. The adolescent must learn to manage her or his sexuality. With their increased physical and sexual maturity, adolescents need to incorporate into their personal identity, a set of attitudes about what it means to be male or female. Their self-image must accommodate their personal sense of masculinity and femininity. Additionally, they must incorporate values about their sexual behavior. The adolescent must adopt a personal value system. During adolescence, as teens develop increasingly complex knowledge systems, they also adopt an integrated set of values and morals. During the early stages of moral development, parents provide their child with a structured set of rules of what is right and wrong, what is acceptable and unacceptable. Eventually the adolescent must assess the parents' values as they come into conflict with values expressed by peers and other segments of society. To reconcile differences, the adolescent restructures those beliefs into a personal ideology. The adolescent must develop increased impulse control and behavioral maturity. In their shift to adulthood, most young people engage in one or more behaviors that place them at physical, social, or educational risk. Risky behaviors are sufficiently pervasive among adolescents that risk taking may be a normal developmental process of adolescence. Risk taking is particularly evident during early and middle adolescence. Gradually adolescents develop a set of behavioral self-controls through which they assess which behaviors are acceptable and adult-like.

Adolescents do not progress through these multiple developmental tasks separately. At any given time, adolescents may be dealing with several. Further, the centrality of specific developmental tasks varies with early, middle, and late periods of the transition. During the early adolescent years young people make their first attempts to leave the dependent, secure role of a child and to establish themselves as unique individuals, independent of their parents. Early adolescence is marked by rapid physical growth and maturation. The focus of adolescents' selfconcepts are thus often on their physical self and their evaluation of their physical

acceptability. Early adolescence is also a period of intense conformity to peers. "Getting along," not being different, and being accepted seem somehow pressing to the early adolescent. The worst possibility, from the view of the early adolescent, is to be seen by peers as "different." Middle adolescence is marked by the emergence of new thinking skills. The intellectual world of the young person is suddenly greatly expanded. Although peers still play an important role in the life of middle adolescents, they are increasingly self-directed. Their concerns about peers are more directed toward their opposite sexed peers. It is also during this period that the move to establish psychological independence from one's parents accelerates. Much of their psychological energies are directed toward preparing for adult roles and making preliminary decisions about vocational goals. Despite some delinquent behavior, middle adolescence is a period during which young people are oriented toward what is right and proper. They are developing a sense of behavioral maturity and learning to control their impulsiveness. Late adolescence is marked be the final preparations for adult roles. The developmental demands of late adolescence often extend into the period that we think of as young adulthood. Late adolescents attempt to crystallize their vocational goals and to establish sense of personal identity. Their needs for peer approval are diminished and they are largely psychologically independent from their parents. The shift to adulthood is nearly complete.
Adapted from: Ingersoll, Gary M. (to be published). Normal adolescence. Bloomington, IN: Center for Adolescent Studies

Learning Caring
Kohlberg's work on Moral development implies that moral knowledge is sufficient for moral behavior. But coming from a an ecological approach, we also know that responses (including moral responses!) vary according to contexts in which the individual is placed at almost any age. (it is an "it depends..." sort of situation) Think about it. About the time Dan Quayle made such a public fuss over the choice of a fictional TV character (Murphy Brown), was among the turning points for Americans to question personal attributes that we define as values. As we

think about this, however, it fits with the challenges we face in personal understanding of bias and feelings we have toward others who act and think differently than we do. The body of literature about CARING contributes the personal journeys we all face. It also reinforces much of what we need to respond to questions we are asked about moral development and values education. The caring literature tells us that CARING relationships provide full receptivityone of another. Everyone wants to be received and to elicit a response. Caring is an encounter. It could be brief, or long term. There is an energy flow. For example when a child is tying his/her shoe and the adult wants to reach out and actually sympathetically moves her/his own hands in an understanding reaction. There are 4 components to moral education from the perspective of the ethics of caring:

Modeling - we must model caring behaviors to teach it to young children and others Dialogue - Dialogue is open-ended. It is practice in receiving others, attending fully, and openly. Neither party knows the outset of the outcome. There is a common search for understanding, empathy, appreciation. It can be playful, serious, imaginative, or goal oriented. Dialogue provides the opportunity to question WHY. It connects us to each other. It is the FOUNDATION for caring. Practice - Attitudes are shaped by experience (the Extension way, a business mind). If capacity to care is a mark of personhood, we need to find ways to increase that capacity. Schools don't grade or give credit for this work. Schools spend more time on quadratic equations than on existential questions. Confirmation - Confirmation is encouraging the best in others. Confirmation involves identifying something admirable and encouraging the development of that trait. This lifts us toward a vision of a better self. Trust most ground the confirmation and continuity is required.

(To confirm, but show disapproval, for example, a parent or teacher might say: " I know you were trying to help your friend,..." or "I know what you're trying to accomplish...") Love, caring and developing relations play central roles in ethics, moral education, and diversity work.

Audio-visual titles available through Agricultural Communications

Prenatal
Caring For Your Newborn - video, 111 minutes, 1985; Dr. Spock gives advice and guidance on baby care including birth and delivery, daily care and routines, health concerns and common fears in the first year of baby's life Take Charge of Your Pregnancy - video, 90 minutes, 1989; features insight and information from 22 doctors and experts on prenatal care, fetal development, genetic counseling, health and nutrition, labor, delivery and post delivery

Infants
Baby Comes Home - video, 1986; information on bonding, breast and bottle feeding, crying, seeing and hearing and baby's first teacher Save Your Child's Life - video, 50 minutes, 1988; emergency infant and child care-includes choking, mouth-to-mouth breathing and CPR; gives practical household safety tips and other valuable preventive measures Your Newborn Baby: Everything You Need to Know - video, 60 minutes, 1985; Joan Lunden narrates tape on baby care; includes choosing a doctor, equipping baby's room, labor, feeding, clothing and bathing baby, when to call the doctor, etc. Shaking Hitting Spanking: What To Do Instead:(Learning Seed) copyright, 1995. 30 minutes video. Crying: What can I do? (Never Shake a Baby). (1994). 7 minutes. Crying is how babies talk. This short tape offers coping strategies for parents, grandparents, and baby sitters. The tape explains WHY we don't shake babies. Parent Express: Newsletter series in both English and Spanish developed by California Extension. Focus on Prenatal through 1 year old

Preschoolers* (Some titles range in age up to teens)

Babies and Books:A Joyous Beginning - video, 8 minutes, magazine, Baby Talk, $29.00, 1991; ideas on sharing books with babies, selecting books for preschoolers and tips on using the library

Child Management: Practical Parenting Series - video, 30 minutes, 1987; a behavioral approach to discipline including practical techniques such as consequences, consistency, positive reinforcement, punishment, modeling, time out, and extinction; includes examples at all stages of development Early Childhood STEP - Video, 60 minutes, guidebook, 1989; teaching packets for parents of young children. Includes topics for seven sessions pertaining to understanding children, self esteem, communication, cooperation, discipline, and nurturing emotional development. You Can Be a Better Parent in 30 Minutes: A Survival Kit for Parents of the 90's video, 30 minutes, Family America Society, 1992; identifies 10 pressing problems facing parents and gives techniques to handle the problems: (1) child does not follow instructions, (2) parent yells at child, (3) inappropriate behavior in public, (4) poor school performance, (5) does not take "no" for an answer, (6) will not do chores, (7) parent's discipline causes more problems, (8) parents don't recognize good behavior, (9) parent expects too much from child, (10) parent compares child to other children Effective Black Parenting Book: (1990) - A Parent's Handbook; empowering Single Parent Families (1993). 23 minutes. Single parents talk about being single, the stigma, and how they manage. Strategies are shared. Men and women, various races depicted. Interactive Parenting, a hands-on Parenting Curriculum. (Disks). Building positive selfesteem, understanding children: ages and stages, positive discipline. Detroit Skillman Parenting Program. (1990) Although this is not a jazzy name, the Wayne State University Family project has tested this curriculum in health centers since 1990. The delivery mechanism is basically for clinic waiting rooms and workshop delivery. There are six units: Pregnancy and infancy (10 workshops), Self-esteem ( 3 workshops), Money Management (2 workshops), The 5-7 year old (5 workshops), the 8-12 year old (five workshops), Exploring male and female relationships (3 workshops), Grief and loss (3 workshops). There are teaching outlines and handouts. Parenting Preschoolers: Practical Approaches to Providing Balance and Self-Esteem - video, 58 minutes, 1989; a host of helpful proven approaches to parenting 2-5 year-olds with advice for single parents and dual career families; includes skills pertaining to sibling rivalry, temper tantrums, sleeping, toys, self-esteem, feelings and public behavior

Parenting Works (Blue Penguin Television) - series of five videos and a Parents' Handbook and Facilitators' Guide - Discusses ways to deal with problems faced by pre-schoolers and their parents. The videos are as follows: PlayLearn/Misbehaving/Work & Family/Television; Friends/Food/Family Ties/Television; Babysitting/Responsibility/Safety/Siblings/; Bedlam at Bedtime; Snapshots Principles of Parenting: Will you be my friend? Parents, Peers and Problem Solving. (1997) Wally Goodard with Auburn Extension uses a panel of experts and video footage to discuss developing pro-social characteristics in children. Rejection, shyness, friendship and cooperation are discussed. Raising Can - Do Kids (1997) Wally Goodard with Auburn Extension uses a panel of experts and video footage to discuss preschool children's development of physical, social, language domains, self-control, and the desire to learn. PEP (Parents Encouraging Parents) Parents' Book and Leaders' Manual. Produced by the Alabama Cooperative Extension in 1992. Focuses on preventing child abuse. Discusses coping, controlling anger, social support, alternatives to punishment. Positive Parenting - video, guidebook; covers topics including physical punishment, limits, consequences, listening, anger and challenging behaviors Successful Parenting (Richards & Taylor Productions), 1995. Facilitators guides, 8 videos, audio cassette, workbook, booklets and guides.

School-agers and Adolescents

Adolescence: video, 28 minutes, guide, 1988; examines causes of stress between parent and child during the teen years; discusses methods to balance freedom while teaching responsibility and strengthens the relationship between parent and adolescent. STEP: Systematic Training for Effective Parenting - video, guide, script, 1989; an education program for parents who want to raise responsible children and feel more adequate in their roles as parents; kit includes 2 videos, leader's manual, parent's handbook, 10 charts, certificates and publicity information How to Raise Happy, Confident Kids - video, 60 minutes, cassette, guide, Career Track Publications, $49.00, 1990; offers practical parenting and discipline techniques that work for parents of toddlers to teens

It Takes More than Love. (1997). This SEARCH Institute-based curriculum focuses on children's strengths rather that reactive strategies. SEARCH has completed research that indicates that there are assets that parents give youth and that youth develop for themselves. The kits includes: -The SEARCH research report called "Starting Out Right"- A Parent's video - this would be a good "general" parenting program for a large audience or to use as a check-out self-study for parents. Excerpts might work for use in teaching. There is a 'sappy' sort of music in the interludes between talking experts. - Four units on videotape - - Manual called "Just Watch us" that accompanies the 4-unit videotapes. The units include: -Intentional parenting - time, monitoring, communication -- Value-centered parenting - esteem, empathy, helping people, hope, sexual restraint -- Nurturecentered parenting - school-involvement, discipline, education, friendship -Inclusive parenting - community resources- Paperback book called "What kids need to succeed" that details the assets model with strategies to build each asset. There is a good checklist (page 16-19) that might be useful as a pre and post test. Parental Renewal: (Developed by Clemson University) (copyright 1989) Three notebooks for parent with children-infancy through grade school. To be delivered in a group setting Living With 10- to 15- Year Olds - Notebook; includes teaching units on the following topics: understanding Early adolescence, communicating with adolescents, risk-taking behaviors, and talking about sexuality. Evaluation forms and publicity materials are included in the notebook

Teenagers
Active Parenting of Teens - (Produced by Active Parenting in 1990) - Two videotapes, Leader's Guide and Marketing Materials. Based on Dreikurs work the program focuses on communication, self-esteem, decision-making and family strengths. Materials for six sections.

Overhead Files follow:

Language Repetition forms connections in auditory cortex

Ear infections can inhibit language By 12 months babbling in native language Learn a language before 10 to speak like a native
Overhead #1

Music, Math and Logic

Does Mozart make you smarter?

Neurons exercised by music strengthen the same circuits used for mathematical reasoning. Therefore, preschoolers taking piano or singing lessons improve spatial reasoning.
Overhead #2

Emotional Development
Emotions are set by the limbic system and prefrontal lobes. Limbic system forms an emotional blueprint for later use. Prefrontal lobes regulate emotional responses. Both lobes are developed and connected early in life (8 - 18 months).
Overhead #3

Development of 6-12 year olds Powerful changes Learning differentiation of sex roles Learning to take another person's point of view Impulsivity Perceive themselves as defined through appearance, possessions, activities Mental changes which may be more stressful than physical changes Concrete thinkers Can grasp symbols and classify things Games with rules Rules are the basis for social exchange Challenges should be designed to practice rules Competitive vs cooperative activities Question authority and see adults are not always perfect Idolize sports stars, music stars, boy and girl friends Fragile sense of self

Overhead #4