Child and Adolescent Development

Child and Adolescent Development

Our personal past Oldest memory Teenager Young child

Foundations of C & YP development

Biological predispositionsPrenatal development

Birth

Cognitive and Language development

Personality and Social development Context/Systems

Challenges for C & YP development

biological

cognitive

psychologicalsocial

moral andspiritual

Biological challenges

Physiological changesSexual Changes

Emotional changes

Cognitive challenges

Abstract thinkingEgocentric thinking

Ability to think about other peopleNew ways of processing information

Ability to think criticallyAbility to think creatively

Psychological challenges

Forming a new identityNew/emerging functions of personal identity

IndividuationEmotional responses

Ethnic /cultural identity

Social challenges

Society expectationsParental expectations

Adolescent expectations

Moral and spiritual challenges

Moral developmentSpiritual beliefs

Human Development Theories

Erikson Psychosocial developmentKlein Object Relations TheoryWinnicott Transitional objectBowlby Attachment Theory

Erikson (1902 – 1994)

• Born to a Jewish mum and a Danish dad (not her husband), he grew up as a tall, blond, blue eyed boy with a Jewish mum (the details of his birth were a secret from him) – His mum having fled to Germany during her pregnancy.

• In Temple he was labelled ‘Nordic’, in school he was labelled as a ‘Jew’.• He was not that academic, in late adolescence, he struggled with identity

(ethnic/religious/national)• When he was 25, he came into contact with Freud in Vienna. Encouraged by daughter, Anna

Freud (who noticed his sensitivity toward children) he began to study Psychoanalysis.• He studied Child Analysis alongside the Montessori method of Education (looking at child

development and sexual stages)• He left Germany in 1938 because of the Nazi rise to power, ending up in the US with his wife

and 2 sons.• 1st Psychoanalysist in Boston. Worked at Mass General, Harvard Med School & Yale University.• 1938 invited to observe education of native Sioux children in South Dakota. This was to prove

significant in the development of his thinking.

Erikson: Psychosocial developmentStage (age) Psychosocial

crisisSignificant relations

Psychosocial modalities

Psychosocial virtues

Maladaptations & malignancies

I (0-1)-- infant trust vs mistrust mother to get, to give in return hope, faith sensory distortion --

withdrawal

II (2-3)-- toddler

autonomy vs shame and doubt parents to hold on, to let go will,

determination impulsivity -- compulsion

III (3-6)-- preschooler initiative vs guilt family to go after, to play purpose, courage ruthlessness -- inhibition

IV (7-12 or so)-- school-age child

industry vs inferiority

neighbourhood and school

to complete, to make things together competence narrow virtuosity --

inertia

V (12-18 or so)-- adolescence

ego-identity vs role-confusion

peer groups, role models

to be oneself, to share oneself fidelity, loyalty fanaticism -- repudiation

Society should provide clear rites of passage - accomplishments and rituals.The distinction between the powerless, but irresponsible, time of childhood and the powerful & responsible time of adulthood, needs to be made clear.

VI (the 20’s)-- young adult intimacy vs isolation partners, friends to lose and find oneself in

a another love promiscuity -- exclusivity

VII (late 20’s to 50’s)-- middle adult

generativity vs self-absorption

household, workmates to make be, to take care of care overextension --

rejectivity

VIII (50’s & beyond)-- old adult integrity vs despair mankind or “my

kind”to be, through having been, to face not being wisdom presumption --

despair

Donald Winnicott (1896-1971)

• To the outside world, Winnicott appeared to have a happy childhood, but the reality was that he was oppressed by his mother’s depression. His father encouraged his creativity.

• During adolescence, he showed considerable self awareness, and described himself as a ‘disturbed adolescent’

• That insight formed the basis of his interest in troubled children & young people.• He trained in Medicine and became a paediatrician/psychoanalysist • He was a contemporary of Anna Freud & Melanie Klein• Became a member of the ‘middle’ group rather than a ‘Kleinian’ or a ‘Freudian’

of the BPS• He worked extensively with evacuees in WW2 as a consultant Psychaitrist• Key concepts ‘holding environment’ ‘transitional object’• Defined ‘Play’ as crucial for emotional/psychological wellbeing not just for

children but for adults too – Art/Hobbies/Sport etc

Winnicott’s Transitional Object

Winnicott’s concept of the ‘transitional object’ is important and the transitional object, or security blanket, “acts as a bridge which connects the inner world of phantasy to the outer world of reality”

The transitional object thus represents the mother ‘out there’ and the ‘inner world’ of self

Winnicott’s theory (1965) of the ‘good enough’ mother concluded that ‘the mother is the place that all other relationships develop from’. Winnicott observed that therapists recreate a ‘holding’ environment which resembles the mother and infant/child.

Pre or delinquent behaviour may be related to a sense of loss/ or a cry for help. A search for holding not previously found within the family itself.

What does Transitional Object mean to a child?

• Mother substitute:When a mother (or primary carer) leaves an infant, they can easily become upset by the disappearance of their primary care-giver. To compensate and comfort for this sense of loss, they imbue some object with the attributes of the mother.• Not-me:The transition object also supports the development of the self, as it is used to represent 'not me'. By looking at the object, the child knows that it is not the object and hence something individual and separate. In this way, it helps the child develop its sense of 'other' things (and self).

Transitional Object: Key attributes

Key attributes of the transition object include:• The infant has total rights over it.• The object may be cuddled, loved and mutilated (by the

infant).• It must never be changed, except by the infant.• It has warmth or some vitality that indicates it has a reality of

its own.• It exists independently of 'inside' or 'outside' and is not a

hallucination.• Over time, it loses meaning and becomes relegated to a kind

of limbo where it is neither forgotten nor mourned.

Melanie Klein (1882 – 1960) Object Relations Theory• Born in Vienna, of Jewish parentage – invited to London in 1926 by

British psychoanalyst Ernest Jones• 1st person to use psychoanalysis with children, she observed troubled

children play with objects – dolls, animals etc and attempted to interpret specific meaning of play. Like FREUD, she emphasised the significant role parents play in children’s fantasy life, but unlike Freud, she felt the SUPEREGO was present from birth.

• Klein felt that babies has no sense of ‘self’, that they are utterly dependant on their mother for sense of ‘self’ – that the mother is the baby’s ego.

• Klein had a difference of opinion with Anna Freud in London in 1938 which led to many controversies – referred to as CONTROVERSIAL DISCUSSIONS which split the British Psycho – Analytic society into 3.

Freud’s stages of development

John Bowlby (1907 – 1990)

• Born to an upper class British family, Bowlby rarely saw his mother and was cared for by a nanny who left him when he was 4, at 7 he went way to ‘board’ at school, which Bowlby observed was ‘emotionally impoverished’

• During WW2, after qualifying as psychoanalysist, he worked extensively with children who had been separated from their parents. This gained him significant evidence on which to base his theory.

• While working for the WHO in 1951, he wrote widely on maternal deprivation, in 1956, he began his defining work on ‘Attachment’. This 3 volume body of work was published between 1969 and 1974.

• Bowlby felt that the theory of Attachment is essentially an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect the vulnerable infant from predators.

• Along with Mary Ainsworth, he created the theory of the ‘secure base’ – a position of safety from which the infant can explore their world and return to their secure base ( generally their mother) for reassurance.

• Much of Bowlby’s work looked at the effects of poor Attachment, which is particularly noticeable when in crisis.

Bowlby’s cycle of arousal

In order to promote good attachment, the significant carer needs to be: • Accessible• Responsive• Consistent

Cycle of despair

Protest – crying, distress, pursuit of mother, searching

for mother, temper tantruming

Despair, Depression, quiet

withdrawal, refused to be comforted by

a stranger, disinterest in play

or exploration

Detachment – Lack of interaction with primary caregiver

after reunion, active avoidance of pcg,

failure to recognise pcg

Types of Attachment

• Type A – Insecure Avoidant (casually avoids, nonchalantly ignores caregiver on return)

• Type B – Secure (displays secure behaviour on return of parent)

• Type C – Insecure Ambivalent (distressed & inconsolable upon return of parent)

• Type D – Disorganised – Disorientated (conflicting, approach/flee, dazed, freezing on parent’s return – ‘frozen watchfulness’) (Fahlberg 1980)

Positive working model

• About him/herself:1. I am worthwhile/wanted2. I am safe3. I am capable• About his/her caregiver:1. They are available2. They are responsive3. They meet my needs

Negative working model

• About him/herself:1. I am worthless2. I am unsafe3. I am impotent• About his/her caregiver:1. He/she is unresponsive2. He/she is unreliable3. He/she is threatening/dangerous/rejecting