What is Normal Development?
- by Diane Clark Johnson

Development is given in a range of years. Each child develops as an individual. Ask yourself, are you expecting too much or too little?

Your child's behavior "problem" may be just one of his/her important and normal developmental tasks. Awareness of these tasks should reassure you that your child's development is normal and likely to change again soon. A behavior "problem" often lasts more than 6 months, happens in more than one place consistently, and appears as a pattern.

Normal Expectations:

During the past 15-20 years intrauterine development has become very important. Prior to this time, environmental effects on fetal development were not considered important.

Piaget's Sensorimotor Period (Birth to 2 years)

0-1 years

Trust of caregiver/parent
Forming a secure attachment now is critical for later years
World view is expanding

1-3 years

Focus Oriented, can now experience outrage
Self-control/self-management are key
Impulses are out of control
Parallel play normal
Peers are competitors or providers
Perspective taking is just beginning
Able to learn cause and effect
Thinking is relatively concrete

Piaget's Preoperational Period (2-7 years)2-5 years

During the first five years of life, children are egocentric -- they can only see their own perspective
Increasing ability to tolerate frustration and to delay gratification
Important for them to say NO, allows them to have feeling of control
Normal to have focused aggression
Play is critical, imaginary friends are useful and normal
External to internal control begins to develop/ more able to self-regulate
Socialization learned; learning what is socially appropriate
Language development
Gender identity

5-7 years

A very sensitive time for child when making mistakes
Parent needs to allow mistakes and help teach that mistakes are opportunities to learn
Parents can have influences setting cultural bias
Parent can begin to plants seeds for empathy, through modeling
Piaget's Period of Concrete Operations (7-11 years)

6-12 years

Latency, this period sexual and aggressive drives diminish
Generally a stable period
Beginning of our continuous memory/Can begin to develop expectations
Most memories are happy
Adaptive functions solidified, habits and patterns develop now
Child is often able to organize and get along on their own
Social skills and ego functions develop now
Peer relationships are key
Develop "social markers" or labels i.e.: fat, left-handed
Mastery is important, being good at something is critical
Interest in the outside world

Important tasks during latency

Friendships
Self control (body, emotions)
Mastery of environment
Clear distinction between public and private life (secrets)
External and internal life (fantasy)
Reassuring during this period to know there is a "Higher Authority"
Hobbies and organized collections offer opportunity for control, organization and order
Personality traits develop now

8-9 years

Competition enables self evaluation
Peer rivalry
Clear gender barriers in spite of efforts to avoid
Able to be both caring and mean
Teasing between sexes important -- helps set boundaries

Piaget's Period of Formal Operations (12 and On)

12-18 years

Social and moral development
Rebellion, self identity or expression
They want to be trusted
When considering your child's behavior it is important to consider:

normal developmental tasks, listed above
external factors; family stress, parenting style, environment
internal factors; temperament, biological vulnerability
If you suspect a behavior problem, it is important to get a thorough diagnosis. Only through a psychological evaluation can you rule out learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD, perceptual problems or genetic disorders.

Diane Clark Johnson is a Family Life Educator and director of A Family Resource in Oakland, California and co-author of Temperament Tools: Working with your Child's Inborn Temperament Traits.