Developmental Difficulties

Developmental Difficulties
Name
Institution
Developmental Difficulties
A well-intentioned, but meddling, a relative comes to visit the weekend before your child’s first birthday, in April. She cautions you that you must be spoiling the child, because he hides behind your leg and clings to you when she tries to give him a hug, and he did not do this when she visited at New Years. How will you explain what is happening with your child?
I would give an explanation that it has been a long time since the child saw her. Therefore, the reason she is clinging to me is that she does not see her regularly and may have forgotten her. The child is not ready to approach her and may even take time to get used to her again. Regarding Erickson’s developmental stages, the child is going through trust vs. mistrust stage. At this point, the child is uncertain about many things. To eliminate the feeling of uncertainty the infant clings to the primary caregiver for stability and continued care. More so, according to Erickson, children feel attached to specific people, and they handle life with a certain level of trust, their sense of trust is more intense with sensitive and loving caregivers (Newman, B. & Newman, P. 2017). If a child has a sense of mistrust towards someone, it results in heightened insecurity or even anxiety. Your three-year-old constantly drives you nuts with attention-seeking behaviours while you are on the phone.
In this situation, the child is undergoing the autonomy vs.

shame and doubt phase according to Erikson’s theory. In this stage, children learn to take control over their environment in order to get the type of results they want. Therefore, the three-year-old seems to have realized that if she acts in a certain manner, the parent will give her attention. As such, the parent is required to teach the child the importance of patience, and if the child continues with the behaviour, the parent may decide to ignore the child by failing to respond until the baby forgets about it.Your infant daughter puts everything in her mouth, including the dog’s food.
According to Piaget’s developmental stages, the sensorimotor stage is the initial phase of development where a child experiences the world through motor movements and senses (Cherry, 2015). This phase lasts from birth to around two years. Since the infant’s knowledge of the environment is limited to his or her senses and motor activities, the child makes use of the skills and abilities that they are born with such as sucking, grasping and looking to learn more about their surroundings (Cherry, 2014). Hence, the reason why the child puts everything in her mouth is that she wants to see if they are edible. Feeding is part of human nature and therefore if a parent does not want their child to eat everything they come across, they need to scold the child to eliminate the behaviour.Your eight-year-old son is failing math; all he cares about is baseball.
Industry vs. inferiority is the fourth stage in Erickson’s theory. This phase occurs between the ages of 6-11, it is at this point that children learn how to read and write and even do things by themselves (Newman, B. & Newman, P. 2017). As such, teachers play a critical role in the life of a child as they teach them various skills. More so, at the same stage, the peer group of a child acquires a lot of significance and becomes the basis of a child’s self-confidence. Children tend to feel that they need to gain approval by displaying particular abilities that are highly valued in the society. Hence, if a child is constantly complimented for their efforts, they start gaining confidence following their capability to achieve certain goals. Thus, in this case, it is possible that the son feels better in baseball than in maths and therefore shifts all his attention in baseball. The son needs to be taught that he can learn maths to eliminate the feeling of inferiority in the subject. He just needs a tutor or putting more effort by spending extra time practicing math.Your eight-year-old son is failing P.E. and growing obese; all he cares about is Nintendo.
The fourth stage of Erikson’s theory known is industry vs. inferiority applies to this case as children acquire a sense of inferiority when they are not competent and gain self-confidence when they become outstanding. In this case, the child might have felt inadequate in sports and therefore mitigates towards what he believes he is good at which is playing video games. This behaviour may be rectified by limiting video games to a small amount of time and encouraging the child to engage in active games.
Your teenager has decided not to attend college in favour of joining the stage crew for a touring rock band.
The fifth stage in Erikson’s model is known as identity vs. role confusion, during this phase, young people try to gain a sense of self-identity by exploring their personal beliefs, goals, and values (Newman, B. & Newman, P. 2017). It is at this stage that they transition from childhood to adulthood and become more independent. As such, they begin looking at the future in terms of relationships, and career among other essentials of life. This is the critical stage where teenagers learn the role they will occupy as adults. Failure to acquire a sense of identity at this particular stage may result in role confusion, which is a state where an individual is not sure about their place in the society. As a result, an individual may start exploring different lifestyles education, work or even other activities. In this case, it might be that the teenager is going through an identity crisis and is not sure about his or her role in the society. The teenager needs to be counselled about the importance of education and that he/she can always join the stage crew during their free time. Your nine-year-old son is being victimized by the class bully.
Victimization is mostly as a result of a sense of inferiority, according to Erickson’s fourth developmental stage industry vs. inferiority, children gain self-confidence at this stage. During this phase, children’s peer groups have a lot of significance and are a major source of self-esteem. A child tends to feel inferior when his or her activities are not approved by others and may be a subject of victimization following the incompetencies that have been demonstrated. Being bullied can be damaging to the child as he or she may feel inadequate, unaccepted and inferior.
Your nine-year-old son IS the class bully.
According to Erickson’s psychosocial developmental stages, the child is going through the industry vs. inferiority stage; the child feels that he is stronger or better than all the other children in the class are. This can be as a result of the peer group that encourages him to do bully others due to his physic.Your two-year-old daughter refuses to wear the clothes you pick for her every morning; making getting dressed a twenty-minute pitched battle.
Based on Erickson’s developmental stages, autonomy vs. shame and doubt applies to this case. At this stage, children develop a sense of autonomy and hence feel that they are in control of their environment. At this point, they begin walking away from their caregivers, choosing toys to play with, making choices of what to wear and eat (Newman, B. & Newman, P. 2017). The child discovers that he or she has abilities such as putting on shoes and clothes among others, such skills and abilities signify that the child is having a sense of independence. Erickson argues that it is important that the caregiver allows a child to explore their abilities within a conducive environment. Therefore, the two-year-old may feel that the outfit choices are not good and therefore responds by rejecting them. Thus, allowing the child to exercise her ability to make decisions will enable her to acquire as sense if independence as she will see that she is able to do a thing on her own. Fighting a child at that stage may result in a feeling of incapability, which may result in self-doubtYour thirty-six-year old friend is showing symptoms of the classic “mid-life crisis,” buying a trendy new sports car, flirting dangerously, and alluding to leaving his wife.
In this case, the individual seems to be going through the generativity vs. stagnation stage as illustrated by Erickson. This is a phase where people look back on their lives and feel that they have to look for ways to give back to the society, whereas those who fail to accomplish in life experience stagnation. Stagnation prompts an individual to be more egotistical and less productive in the society (Malone et al., 2016). As such, those individuals become self-centered as they no longer mind about other people’s needs. In this situation, the thirty-six-year-old may be experiencing a midlife crisis because when they looked at their accomplishments, they might have regretted not taking advantage of certain opportunities or may have had doubts on their achievements. More so, following the confusion that comes with mid-life crises, the individual fails to see the importance of a wife and even thinks of leaving her. In order to hide his crises, he adopts a flashy lifestyle such as buying a new sports car.Your sixty-eight-year old neighbour is chronically depressed, feeling she has wasted her life.
Based on Eriksson’s developmental stages, the individual is undergoing the integrity vs. despair stage. Just like the stagnation vs. generativity stage, this is the phase where most individuals look back on their life and evaluate it; this gives rise to a sense of either regret or accomplishment depending on the stage of success (Newman, B. & Newman, P. 2017). As such, the neighbour may be depressed due to a sense of regret while looking back on their life, which means that they are not getting along as required. Those who have successfully gone through the stage look at their accomplishments and experience a sense of satisfaction.

References
Cherry, K. (2015). Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
Cherry, K. (2014). Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development. Background and Key Concepts of Piaget’s Theory.
Malone, J. C., Liu, S. R., Vaillant, G. E., Rentz, D. M., & Waldinger, R. J. (2016). Midlife Eriksonian psychosocial development: Setting the stage for late-life cognitive and emotional health. Developmental psychology, 52(3), 496.
Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2017). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.