What is Adolescence?
Adolescence can be simply defined as the period of a persons life between puberty and
maturity (adulthood) generally the teenage years. For humans, it is not merely something
discussed in scientific terms, but rather an important social phase in a persons life.
Sooner or later after puberty, a person will be expected to take on adult responsibilities.
The time that this occurs will depend on the culture in which he/she lives. Adolescence is
a universally recognised phase often marked by instruction and ceremony throughout the
world.
Formal ceremonies tend to be rarer today, but they still occur. For example,
certificates for leaving school.
In Western society, pre-adolescent children expected to be cared for by their parents or
caregivers, whilst post-adolescent children are expected to be more responsible for their
own physical, emotional, intellectual health and their own legal responsibilities.
Adolescence is often a period of crisis for the young person and his/her family.
Adolescence and the idea of teenagers is a relatively new concept. Prior to education for
all, people were adults or children. However, since the 1950s, the idea of a teenager has
developed.
Adolescence is a time of great transition, physically, mentally and emotionally
for a child, as they move from childhood to adulthood. We will consider more on these
changes in future lessons. In this lesson, we will consider the different theories in relation
to human development, particularly focussing on adolescence.
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget was a Swiss biologist and psychologist who developed a highly influential model of
child development and learning.
His theory was based around the idea that children build
mental maps or cognitive structures, schemes or networked concepts for understanding
and responding to their environments.
Schemes are the patterns of behaviour which children and adults use when interacting
with objects. Schemes may be behavioural or cognitive. These schemes are used for
dealing with the world. All behaviour patterns are considered to be schemes.
He argued that as a child develops; their cognitive structures become more sophisticated,
moving from innate reflexes, such as sucking and crying to complex mental activities.
Using cognitive games and mental exercises, he was able to infer certain patterns
concerning the way that children think at different ages, or different cognitive stages.
He believed that children pass through four distinct stages, each one with new abilities.
Piagets Stages of Development
Briefly, the first three stages of his theory are –
Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
Emergence of the concept of object permanence i.e. knowledge of the existence of an
object when it is out of sight. Change from reflexive to goal directed behaviour.
During this stage, there is a close interplay between the baby’s motor activity and its
sensory perception.
During the Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years), play is primarily “exploratory”. Some basic
symbolic acts also occur after the first year. It is however mainly half way into the second
year before symbolic play becomes prevalent.
During symbolic play, a child learns that one thing can represent another (e.g. sitting
on a log, a child can pretend that they are riding a horse).
After the second birthday, a child becomes like an “actor” in his own theatre. This is called
“pretend play”, and it is largely through such play that a child moves towards becoming
socialised. For instance, a girl may begin to play nurse with her doll. Later on she might
act as the doctor and her friend as the patient.
It is not surprising that at the age of two, the child begins to understand social relationships
a little more, instead of being self involved and egocentric like the younger infant.
Egocentrism (Egocentric) is the sense of being the centre of everything, that our own
view is the most important.
Play is not an idle pass time for children; in fact, it is essential to a full and balanced
development of the person. Moreover, child therapists claim that play can be a very
healthful way for children to deal with stress, which explains the use of dolls and toys
during remedial therapy.
Play can represent a kind of language that the child uses, in place of verbal language that has not
fully developed. Anyone who frequently deals with children should encourage a variety of play,
and should be receptive to what the child is learning through play; or even what message the
child is trying to convey though play…..
