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Social work developmental theory
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Practicing is a stage that occurs from ten to sixteen months of age where the baby continues to develop away from their mother but always having their mother when needed. Their mobility increases, which help them, explore more of the world around them. As they begin to walk, the child won’t fully separate from their mother but will take a few steps forward then scurry back into their mother’s arms. A concept that goes with this stage is dependency, where the child can always rely on going back to their parent when necessary. Having this constant access to their mother will provide stable emotional support to the child. Weinberg touches on, “for Mahler, the essential feature of this phase is the “elated investment in exercise of autonomous functions- …show more content…
Mahler’s developmental theory was just a concrete idea in my head from class and to expand on those stages, I needed to be able to understand it on a detailed level. The readings had real life situations that I could relate to my own life. By reading those articles I had an “ah-ha!” moment, where I understood why children act certain ways as they are developing. Conducting research on this topic had answered a lot of questions I had outside of the classroom. The credible sources also helped me understand what are high-quality articles compared to other information you are able to find on the Internet. With the concepts we had learned in class, I was able to apply them to my paper and research how they’re related to my topic as a whole. Using these sources has definitely given me a credible …show more content…
Being a criminal justice major and working in community and state services I need to know how the environment affects people. In all honesty because of this class I wish I had taken additional social work classes in my undergraduate career, but you can always make a negative out of a positive. I have planned to go on and obtain my masters in either counseling or social work with how much I enjoyed this course. This class was personally valuable to me because I was able to piece together cases I worked on at my internships as to why juveniles or even adults lead the life that they live. I have also gained good counseling skills when approaching different cultural populations. Outside of my internship experience I have been able to better understand my upbringing, the life choices I make and the hardships that come with them. The coursework sometimes was a lot to take on but definitely worth it. I also enjoyed learning about particular theories and concepts that advance my knowledge in social work
From birth to about six months old, an infant doesnÂ’t seem to mind staying with an unfamiliar person (Brazelton, 1992), although the infant is able to distinguish his mother from other people (Slater, et al, 1998). As the infant gets a little older, at about eight to ten months, he/she begins to cry when his caregiver is not his mother or father; and again between eighteen and twenty-four months, when the infant finds out he/she has some control over what happens (Schuster, 1980). Separation anxiety could, and often does, make parents feel guilty for leaving their child and might make them wonder if they are causing their child undue stress.
An infant’s initial contact with the world and their exploration of life is directly through the parent/ primary caregiver. As the child grows, learns, and develops, a certain attachment relationship forms between them and the principle adult present in this process. Moreover, this attachment holds huge implications concerning the child’s future relationships and social successes. Children trust that their parental figure will be there; as a result, children whom form proper attachments internalize an image of their world as stable, safe, and secure. These children will grow independent while at the same time maintaining a connection with their caregivers. (Day, 2006). However, when a child f...
Attachments are formed with parents; this contributes to give a sense of who we are and who we will become in later life. However where these attachments are broken the child needs to have a secure attachment established with an alternative adult care giver,...
I never realized when I played Peek-A-Boo with different infants in my family, that I was teaching them one of the most valuable lessons in their life. I just thought it was a game that infants liked to play and it made them laugh. I didn’t know that this was so funny to them because they were fascinated with the fact that for one moment I wasn’t there and a moment later I popped back up. Little did I know I was teaching them one of their most important accomplishments.
To begin, my observation was at Webster Elementary School, a school placed in the city surrounded by houses and other schools. The specific classroom I am observing is full of Kindergarten students who seem to very advanced than I had imagined. The classroom walls are brick and white, but the classroom teacher Mrs. O'Brien does an amazing job keeping the space use for both an upbeat and educational vibe, especially for environmental print. Everywhere you look there are educational posters, numbers, and mental state vocabulary words, as well as, students completed work. To add, students sit in medium sized tables with 4-6 other students when they aren’t having whole group instruction on either
The attachment style that a child endures with their mother initially begins before the child is even born. In the mother’s womb, the infant becomes aware of their mother and father’s voices, where they begin to develop a bond with them and feel nurtured and comforted by the things they hear their parents sing and speak to them. According to Bowlby, the development of attachment takes place in four different phases and are reinforced as they grow older from the Preattachment (birth to age 6 weeks), attachment-in-the-making (age 6 weeks to 8 months), clear cut attachment (between 8 months to 1 ½ years of age) and the reciprocal relationship (from 1 ½ or 2 and on). As the child grows older, then begin to understand their parent’s feelings and motives and are able to organize their efforts and reciprocate the same i...
As the child matures during the first two years of life, he or she creates a specific internal working model (BOOK). The working model of self is founded on the expectations the child develops based on experiences with the mother (BOOK). According to Bowlby (1979, p. 117), "the conce...
Connection, according to Curt Thompson (2010), is the most crucial determinant of our long-term welfare. The degree to which we are attached to significant others in our lives, affects not only our interpersonal dynamics throughout life, but impacts our neural networks as well as those of our children (Thompson, 2010). This attachment begins during the first moment of life, and is nurtured and shaped by a child’s relationship with his or her parents, or lack thereof.
Erikson believes a person’s personality changes throughout their lifespan and primarily focuses on ego. Furthermore, ego is a person’s sense of self-importance or self- acceptance. This is a major factor when discussing personality because how we perceive ourselves, reflects onto others. Erikson’s eight stages of psychological development consist of infancy, early childhood, preschool, middle school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and old age. He indicates that during each stage of life a person experiences a psychological crisis, which could aid in a negative or positive result. During the infancy stage, the psychological crisis is trust vs. mistrust, meaning total dependence on the mother or father. If either or both parents show love and attention, then the child will develop trust, or otherwise mistrust if neglected. Early childhood, around the ages two to three years old a child becomes more mobile and shows signs of independence. The caregivers will either assist the child in all their needs or wait patiently as they figure them out on their own. Erikson distinguishes the importance of allowing children to face their own challenges with the tolerance of failure. This will provide the willingness to push through hard times and overcome adversity. Stage 3, initiative vs. guilt describes the interaction between other children and their ability to make decisions. A child will initiate activity with others continuously when he or she feels secure. Nevertheless, when children are told ‘no’ they react with feelings of guilt. The fourth stage of Erikson’s theory begins to explain inferiority. In this stage, a student will be introduced to teachers who become a major part of a child’s psychological development. With encouragement, children will feel confident in themselves, whereas negative reinforcement may cause self-doubt. Identity vs.
At a stage like this, and feeling this way can be dangerous for a young child’s development. For example, On the ABC show called “The Family”, young Adam was kidnapped during his mother’s rally to promote becoming the mayor. In this situation, his kidnapping affected the whole family in traumatic ways. It effected Adam tremendously because he was only 8-years-old during the kidnapping. Adam would hope that his family would find him. But, as time went on he realized he would never be found (“Sweet Jane” The Family, ABC, Television). Adam was never found because he got sick and passed while he was being held captive. There was another child with him, named Ben, which was also being held captive. Ben was finally able to escape from his captor. When a child loses hope, as Adam did, they never develop a healthy level of hopeful thinking (Wilner, 2011). Another example of a child feeling helpless after a traumatic event is myself. After my aunt passed away, I felt like there was no one to explain or help me with the pain I had and saw (Julien, 2016). My mother, sister, and I would always go to my aunt’s house, in Miami, for the summer. My mother, sister, and I always had a fantastic time with her. Then when I found out she passed, I could not help but to think what her children were going through. When your own mother dies, and you are at a young
Erikson believes that during this stage, children will seek approval from others by displaying skills that are valued by others. Additionally, he believes that if this initiative continues, the child will develop confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. During the first few stages of both theories, we see challenges in the development of the child and we also see challenges that a child might face during some, if not all, forms of attachment theory. For example, a parent ignoring the child and speaking to them in a negative manner during insecure-avoidant attachment can be challenging for a child and lead to insecurities and the feeling of not being loved and/or wanted.
One of the first sub phases is differentiation that occurs within the five to ten month old age block. In this stage the infant is now able to separate themselves from their mother but still rely on them heavily. The concept in this stage is separation. Separation is the process where the child emerges from a symbiotic state with the caregiver. A child in this stage will have separation anxiety and will continue to “look back” if the mother is out of site. In differentiation the child, “checking back to look at a mother is not about sharing the experience, but about safety/anxiety issues, “refueling”. It is a phase in which Mahler sees the mother not as contacting the child’s mind, but giving him a push from the next”, (Benjamin, 1990, pg.6). The presence of a mother is huge because the child needs to know that there is consistent access to their aid and wellbeing. An infant will again rely on their caregiver until object permanence has been achieved. Object permanence is where there is an understanding that objects continue to exist even when they aren’t observed. When babysitting a seven month old named Brady, I had quickly noticed that when his mother left for an appointment and was put into my care for a couple of hours, his anxiety wasn’t good. As I was holding him he kept trying to tilt his head over my shoulder to see where his mother and avid caregiver had gone. Since I was an unfamiliar person, Brady had started to cry worrying if the absence and separation of his mom would be fulfilled. The article and previously discussed concept had assisted me in better understanding differentiation. The experience I had with Brady was him making sure a reliable person would fulfill the same duties his mother had performed and at the adequate speed he was use
Children’s growth and development start at a very early age. Every child develops at their own pace. Through the stages of development, people are able to see the changes in their emotional, cognitive, and physical growth. A child may grow up to be loud and very outgoing while another may grow up to be quiet and reserved. Some may have more social, emotional, and behavioral problems than others. We know every child, every person is different. Some could have inherited characteristics from their parents. Or some may have picked up these “ways” by observing. Some children may not be in the best of places growing up such as being in a family where physical abuse is present, alcohol and drugs, or family issues between parents leading to divorces. Parents being divorced or having a parent walk out in the family and never returning could negatively impact a growing child especially witnessing the leave.
She first studied mothers with their infants in a home setting for the child’s first six months of life. Six months later, Ainsworth observed these now one year old in a laboratory playroom, which would be a strange situation to the child. The entire experiment was put on to see how many children would display secure attachment. In this experiment, secure attachment was labeled when a child showed some distress when the mother left but yet able to compose themselves when their mother returned. This experiment lead to the understanding of different temperaments of attachment. It was also concluded that a mother’s own history has an effect on if the child will be securely attached or not (Myers). For an example, Bruce D. Perry, in his book, discusses his case with an eighteen-year-old male who had be placed in prison for the rape and murder of two teenage girls. According to this young male’s files, his family was stable, he had never been placed in a foster care system, and his older brother was a successful worker. This puzzled Perry, but in a later interview with the young man’s family, Perry came to realize that the eighteen year old’s mother was mentally impaired. The father explained to Perry that when their eldest son was born, they lived in a house that was close to family, so if the mother ever got overwhelmed, family would just come over and babysit. Before the mother got pregnant with their second son,
Young children, up to age five or six, are the most confused and the most disoriented by their parents’ separation. They often fear they are going to be abandoned by their parents, which causes great anxiety. The loss of a parent is extremely sad to a child of this age because they feel that their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their family was together. Many of the children in this group are worried that they will be left without a family or their parents might have money troubles and they will be deprived of food and toys. These thoughts that children of this age have cause them to have feelings of guilt, being unloved and fear of being alone. Some children will be extremely sad and show signs of depression and even sleeplessness. They might feel rejected by the parent who left and think that it is all their fault, that they weren’t good children and their parents stopped loving them. They also sometimes have increased tantrums, or may cry more easily than usual. Children at this age may develop physical complaints, like headaches, or stomachaches due to this depressing situation and time they are going thr...