Developmental Stages and Tasks
Developmental Stages and Tasks
Developmental Stages and Tasks
Ever wondered why you weren't the same as when you were still a baby. We will find out
how it all happened by analyzing two different versions of the stages of development and
developmental tasks of the two famous Professor/Educator and Author Dr,Robert Havighurst
(1948-1953) and Dr,John Santrock(2002).
Development! It is the process of change or growth throughout one's life span. Let's take
a closer look at the stages of development and its developmental tasks.
Read the description of each stage and its developmental tasks below.
1. Infancy and early childhood (0-5 years old) - Learning to coordinate motor skills like
walking. instead of drinking milk for the only source of food it is now capable of eating solid
foods, starts to talk(baby talk), capable of controlling when to eliminate body wastes, and able to
differentiate sex differences and develop sexual modesty.
2. Middle childhood (6-12 years old) - Learning: physical skills necessary for ordinary games,
to get along with other children with the same age, getting to know appropriate sex role.
Developing: fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating, concepts necessary for every-
day living, conscience, morality, and values, building a wholesome attitude toward oneself and
achieving personal independence.
3. Adolescence (13-18 years old) Achieving: mature relations with both sexes, a masculine or
feminine social role, emotional independence of adults, preparing for: marriage and family life,
an economic career, accepting one’s physique, acquiring values and an ethical system to guide
behavior and desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior.
4. Early adulthood Late teens or early 20s to 30s. Time of establishing personal and economic
independence, career development, selecting a mate, and learning to live with someone in an
intimate way, starting a family and rearing children.
5. Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years old) Time of expanding personal and social involvement
& responsibility, assisting next generation in becoming competent and mature individuals,
reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career
6. Late adulthood (60s and above) Time for adjustment to decreasing strength and health, life
review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles.
Graphic representation
1. Pre-natal Period – It is the progress before birth. There are three phases of pre-natal
developmental.
Germinal stage- first two weeks, conception, implantation formation of
placenta.
Embryonic stage- 2 weeks to 2 months, formation of vital organs and
systems.
Fetal stage- 2 months to birth, bodily growth continues, movement
capability begins, braincells multiply age of viability.
Reference: Chinly Ruth Alberto (2018), Santrock and Havighurst's Developmental Stages,
https://www.slideshare.net.
Lea Sandra Fijo Baizon (2014), Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks,
https://www.slideshare.net/tin072787/module-2-the-stages-of-development-and-
developmental-tasks