Gesell & Havighurst

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Gesell's Stages Of Development

18 Months

1. Period of disequilibrium. This refers to emotional instability - not physical imbalance. Child may have tantrums, laugh one minute, cry the next, get angry and frustrated easily.
2. Seems to walk down one-way street the wrong way from the adult point of view. Asked to "come here," either stands there or runs in opposite direction, may even walk backwards. Asked to put something in the wastebasket, more likely to empty out what is already in it. Hold out your hand to take the just emptied cup and he will drop it to the floor. Give him a second sock to put on and he will probably remove the one already on his foot. Seems to enjoy the opposite, but you can put this to work. If he is running away from you, say "Bye-bye" and walk away from him. He may come running.
3. Seldom obeys a verbal command. Pet word is "No."
4. There are so many abilities he has not yet mastered. He has not yet reached the place where he is easily motivated by words, not yet at the place where he can wait. Efforts to get him to wait are usually doomed to failure. "Now" is the one dimension of time important to him.
5. Interpersonal relations are all "take," and no "give." He may treat people except parents, especially children, as objects, even to the point of stepping on them. He has not begun the concept of sharing.
6. Understands more words than he can say, though that is extremely limited.

7. Can walk, run, sometimes climb, but balance is very unsteady.
8. Usually has a quick temper and needs to have something "Now." His emotions are as immature as any other part of him.
9. Suggestions for handling:
   a. Remember he is an extremely immature creature
   b. Do not call him. Lure, pick up, and carry.
   c. Physical barriers to prohibit things are much better than verbal.
   d. Any verbal commands should be short and simple: "Coat, hat, out."
   e. Keep demands at a minimum.
   f. Give close and constant physical supervision.
   g. Give him plenty of outlets for his energy.
   h. Use guile. Do something interesting to lure him.

2 Years

1. Marked equilibrium, particularly when viewed with preceding and following stages.
2. Added maturity and calm. Willingness to do what he can and not try too hard to do the things he cannot.
3. Surer of himself motor wise. Less likely to fall. Runs and climbs more surely.
4. Remarkable effectiveness. Able to make his wants known, which relieves much of his exasperation.
5. Life is easier emotionally. Demands not as strong, can wait a moment if necessary.
6. People mean more to him. Likes, on occasion, to please others and is often pleased by others.
7. Cannot share with other children, but can, if directed, find substitute toys.
8. Is often loving, affectionate, warmly responsive to others.

2 ½ Years

1. Watch out – peak age of disequilibrium.
2. Often seems to resist just as matter of principle.
3. Rigid and inflexible – cannot adapt. Everything has to be done just so, in what he considers the right place, follow a rigid sequence.
4. Extremely domineering and demanding. Must give orders, make the decisions. If he decides "Mommy do" there will be no substitutes. If he decides "Me do it myself," nobody else is allowed to help him, no matter how awkward or incapable he himself may be.
5. Violent emotions.
6. Age of opposite extremes. No ability to choose between alternatives. Almost impossible to make a clear – cut choice and stick to it. "I will, I won’t, I don’t want it." Go out – stay in.
7. Age of preservation. Wants to go on with whatever he is doing, not only at the moment, but also from day to day – play – stories. Difficult for him to accept new things, clothes, furniture, or things to eat.
8. Suggestions:
   a. Use great patience.
   b. Really understand difficulties of this age.
   c. Be willing to use endless techniques to get around rigidities and rituals and stubbornness.
   d. Make all the decisions yourself.

3 Years

1. Equilibrium
2. Almost every aspect of 2 ½ year old behavior, which made trouble for him and those about him, seems to have disappeared or at least lessened.
3. Two used "No," three uses "Yes" and goes forward positively to meet each new adventure.
4. Like to "give" as well as "take." Likes to share, both objects and experiences. Uses the word "we" frequently.
5. No longer seems to need the protection of rituals.
6. Greater maturity has led to feel much more secure within himself and in his relations to others.
7. People are important.
8. Increased motor abilities allow activities to be done with minimal difficulty.
9. Increased ability with, and interest in, language help him to be a delightful companion and interesting group member. Can not only be controlled by language, can be entertained and can entertain. Loves new words and they can often act like magic in influencing him to behave as we would wish. Such words as "help," "might," "could," are active motivators to get him to perform necessary tasks.

3 ½ Years

1. It seems as though in order to proceed from the equilibrium of the 3 – year old stage to that which is usually attained by 5 years of age, the child’s behavior needs to break up, loosen up, and go through a phase of new integration. All this comes to a head around 3 ½.
2. Period of marked insecurity, disequilibrium, in coordination.
3. Poor or new coordinator may express itself in any or all fields of behavior. It may express itself only temporarily and very lightly in some children or for a considerably longer period and much more markedly in others. This period often causes great concern, but it is so characteristic of this particular age period that though certain environmental factors may exaggerate it, in many cases we can fairly consider that it is caused by growth factors alone.
4. Motor incoordination may express itself in stumbling, falling, fear of heights. A child whose hand and arm movements have up to now been strong and firm may suddenly draw with a thin, wavy line, may build (such as blocks) with a noticeable hand tremor.
5. Language may be involved. Stuttering very often comes in at this period in children who have never stuttered before.
6. Eyes and ears may be involved. Parents are often worried by the temporary (or more persistent) crossing of the eyes, which comes in here. The child may complain that he "can’t see."
7. Tensional outlets are often exaggerated – blinking of eyes, biting nails, picking nose, exhibiting facial or other tics, masturbating, and sucking thumb excessively.
8. Emotionally insecure – crying, whining, frequent questioning, especially of this mother: "Do you love me?" complains: "You don’t love me." Extremely demanding with adults: "Don’t look," "Don’t talk," "Don’t laugh." May demand that all attention is focused on himself and thus becomes extremely jealous of any attention shared by members of the family to each other. Shows insecurity with his friends and demands their exclusive attention. Very shy one minute – over boisterous the next.
9. Suggestions:
   a. Try to keep from blaming various aspects of the environment for any or all of the difference in coordination.
   b. Show the child extra affection and understanding which is so desperately needed at this age.

4 Years

1. Disequilibrium.
2. Key words "out of bounds" so in every direction.
3. Where 3 ½ is too insecure, 4 is overly secure and brashly confident in his own abilities.
4. Motor wise, bites, kicks, throws, runs away.
5. Emotionally loud silly laughter. Alternates with fits of rage, "You make me so mad."
6. Verbally more out of bounds than in any other way. Language can almost be guaranteed to shock anybody except the most hardened. Profanity rampant. You wonder where in the world he ever heard such awful language. Bathroom and elimination words come into common use. Uses them not only incidentally, or where they might be appropriate, but may dwell on them and rhyme with them, accompanying his rhyming with such silly laughter, showing he fully appreciates their inappropriateness.
7. In interpersonal relations, out of bounds. Loves to defy parental commands. Seems to thrive on being just as defiant as he can manage. Even severe punishment may have little chastening effect. A terrible toughness has seemed to come over him. He swaggers, swears, boasts, and defies.
8. Imagination seems to have no "reasonable" limits. This new – found flight through imagination, which often begins at 3 ½ may be a high point for the enjoyment of imaginary companions. Parents accept these fairly well. Less well accepted by parents are the 4’s tall tales which often strike adults as being just plain lies. To the 4, the line between fact and fiction is very thin and flexible. May not actually be telling falsehood, it’s just more interesting that way, and his own imaginings become real to him.
9. Firmness of stand you take toward out – of – bounds behavior is up to you. Certainly there are limits. Very simple social situation of a nursery – school group require even more.
10. Needs to be allowed to test himself out – allowed to go up and down the sidewalk with expanding limits – run ahead on a walk and wait at the next corner. Perhaps there are understanding neighbors he can visit.
11. Reins of control can be held loosely, but there are always moments when they need to be pulled up short and sharp.

4 ½ Years

1. Uphill side to equilibrium.
2. Beginning to pull in from out – of – bounds ways.
3. Trying to sort out what is real from what is make – believe.
4. Constant question, "Is it real?"
5. When drawing a real car may put on long electric cord with plug.
6. Can become quite confused as he tries to straighten out what he pretends, what happens on TV, and what is real.
7. Desire for realism sometimes too stark for adults – seems almost too frank, as they demand the details about death, for example, or God.
8. Confusion of reality and imagination can be quite exasperating to parents. One mother, completely out of patience, threatened that the sandman would come and get her son. This is not recommended. The 4 ½ year old considered and replied, "O.K., well, I think I better take my cowboy boots and a shirt. Will you get my suitcase?"
9. Little more self – motivating than earlier. Can start a job and stay on track with less need of adult control. Will start to build a form and does so, not letting it become a fort, truck, train, or gas station.
10. Great discussers. Reading a book about fires might lead to a long discussion about the pros and cons of fires. Often have surprising wealth of material and experiences to draw on and seem to be prompted by an intellectual, philosophizing sort of interest.
11. Improving their control and perfecting skills in many ways.
12. Play less wild than at 4 years of age.
13. Better able to accept frustrations.
14. Fine motor control as expressed in drawing markedly improved. Will often draw on and on.
15. Shows a beginning interest in letters and numbers. May count quite well, though skipping certain numbers.
16. Shows a beginning interest in seeing several sides of the picture. Aware of front and back, inside and outside. May catch them backing up to mirror. May draw a man on one side of the paper, turn it over and draw the back of his head there.
17. "Catching up" time with some children, especially boys who have been slow in motor or language development.
18. May be a period of rapid intellectual growth.

5 Years

1. "He’s an angel," say some mothers. "He’s almost too good," worry others.
2. Time of extreme and delightful equilibrium.
3. Tends to be reliable, stable, and well – adjusted.
4. Secure within himself, he is calm, friendly, and not too demanding in relations with others.
5. Content to stay on or near home base. Does not seem to feel the need to thrust out into the unknown. Tries only that which he can accomplish, therefore accomplishes that what he tries.
6. Mother is center of his world and he likes to be near her, to do things with and for her, obeys her commands, to be instructed and to get permission. To be a good boy is not only his intention, but also it is something that he usually can accomplish. Therefore, he is satisfied with himself, and others are satisfied with him.
7. When the break-up of this behavior comes around 5 ½ to 6, many parents wish for their docile 5-year old. Sort of like wishing 18 months was in the pre-creeping stage. This is fruitless, of course.
8. Growing child needs more than 5-year old equipment to meet the world. He needs to branch out and there he often thrusts into areas which cause a great deal of difficulty for all concerned.

6 Years

1. Equable 5 – tumultuous 6, break up actually begins around 5 ½ and by 6 ½ smoothes out again. In this six-month period the child is extremely difficult to deal with.
2. Behavior reminiscent of 2 ½ -- violently emotional, loves one minute, hates the next.
3. Mother is no longer center of his world. He wants to be the center of his world, even though he hasn’t yet developed a secure sense of himself. He wants to come first, be loved the best, have the most of everything. Mother is now in second place, and gets blamed for whatever is wrong at the moment.
4. Six, like 2 ½, is very demanding of others and very rigid in his demands – has to have things just so. He cannot adapt – others must do the adapting.
5. Extremely negative in his response to others. That he has been asked to do something is in his eyes sufficient reason for refusing to do it.
6. Is rather delightful in his vigor, energy and in his readiness for anything new. Appetite for new experiences is prodigious.
7. This leads him to wanting all of everything. Difficult for him to choose between any two alternatives because he wants both.
8. It is difficult for him to accept criticism, blame, and punishment. He has to be right, be praised, and win.
9. As rigid and unadaptable in relations with others as he was at 2 ½, things have to be done his way. Others have to give in to him. If he is winning, everything is fine. If others win, tears and accusations that others are cheating.
10. If all goes well, he can be warm, enthusiastic, eager, and ready for anything. But, if things go badly, tears and tantrums follow.
11. Suggestions:
    a. Respect the fact he is having a difficult time within himself as well as in his relations with others.
    b. Use techniques when you can.
    c. Bypass as many unhappy incidents as you can.
    d. Mothers, since the child is at worst with them, should get others to help carry through daily routines where they can.

7 Years

1. Withdraws from the world.
2. Has calmed down in many ways and is easier to live with.
3. More likely to complain than to rejoice – will retreat from a scene, muttering more than stay and demand his way.
4. Has been described as morose, mopey, and moody.
5. Withdraws from other people – likes to be alone. Wants a room of his own to which he can retreat and protect his own things.
6. Likes to watch, listen, and stay on the edge of any scene. Great TV watcher and video game player, possibly a reader. Almost as if he is building up a sense of self by watching, observing, ruminating.
7. Hands are very busy exploring, feeling everything he comes in contact with.
8. Loves pencils, and prefers the sharp, defined strokes of lead rather than the loose, sloppy stroke of color.
9. Intellect is on the ascendancy. More discriminating and refined in what he sees and does.
10. Often demands too much of himself. Is aware of task, but not always able to complete it. Apt to go on too long and then becomes suddenly exhausted.
11. Has good days and bad days – high learning days and forgetting everything days.
12. Often tends to feel people are against him, don’t like him, and are picking on him. Other kids cheat. Teachers at school pick on him. Even his parents are unfair. Some even figure they are adopted. If family is too "mean," threaten to run away from the intolerable persecution, which he thinks is a lot.
13. Facial expression of some may express dissatisfaction with life. Lips may curl downward in a permanent pout.
14. Good days will steadily increase in 7, fatigue lessens, and he will be ready for most anything by 8 years of age 4.
15. Suggestions:
    a. Need to steer delicate course between being reasonably sympathetic with children many complaints, yet not take them too seriously.
    b. Help him to define stopping points in tasks before he reaches utter exhaustion.
    c. Teacher may need to shift intellectual fare on different days.
    d. Wise mother will keep child at home if his bad day starts the minute he gets out of bed, as it so often does.

8 Years

1. Goes out to meet the world often described as expansive and speedy.
2. Nothing too difficult for him, in his own estimation, no task too formidable to be undertaken, no distance too great for him to cover.
3. The new and difficult are exciting challenges which he tends to meet with great zest.
4. Seems to find it difficult to stay out of touch with any part of his environment. Is constantly busy and active, enjoying new experiences, trying out new things, making new friends.
5. Often overestimates his own ability. Will not always follow through in his activities. The burst of energy and enthusiasm with which he tackles each new task may be followed by failure and discouragement. With his newly increased powers of evaluation he may recognize his all –to – frequent failures. Then, tears and disparagement. "I always do it wrong," "I never get anything right." With his tendency to dramatize everything, we sometimes suspect that he, in a way, realizes even his failures, or he at least makes use of them.
6. Failures today will not stop him from starting something else new tomorrow.
7. Ready for, and wants, a good two – way relationship with people. Not just what people do concerns him but also what they think.
8. Has more to say to other people than he did earlier, but he expects more of them as well. With his mother, especially, the 8 year old wants and demands a close understanding relationship.
9. For all his seeming brashness and bravado, much more sensitive than one might expect. Needs protection both from trying to do too much and from too excessive self-criticism when he meets failure. We need to plan with him toward a future time when he will carry through better or will not set himself an almost impossible task.
10. Gives us more than a hint of the person he will be later on.

9 Years

1. Lives more within himself. Is surer in his contacts with the outside world, more self-contained and self-sufficient than adventurous 8, who just cold’t keep to himself.
2. Can be, and often insists on being, extremely independent. In his own eyes he is quite the man of the world – tends to resist too much "bossing" by his parents.
3. Much more interested in friends than in family. Many like to withdraw as much as they can from the family circle. Opinions of friends are much more important to most of them than the opinions of their families.
4. May be interested in adults from the point of view of what they can do with him –expeditions, excursions, shared interests. Much less interested than earlier in the relationship itself.
5. Important not to impose yourself upon a child of this age who wants and needs to have his maturity, independence, and his separateness respected.
6. If treated as the mature creature he considers himself, usually gets along pretty well and does display a remarkable amount of self-reliance and capability.
7. Can be age of perfecting skills and of real, solid accomplishment.
8. Does tend to worry. Takes things hard and can be extremely anxious. May tend to go to pieces over something which would have brought only brief tears a year earlier.
9. Some people consider 9 a potentially rather neurotic age.
10. Not only worries but complains. May be simply that tasks imposed at home and at school are "too hard" and may take form of more serious physical complaints (eyes smart, hands hurt, stomach aches).
11. Though complaints nearly always do represent real physical feelings of discomfort, interesting to note how often the occur in relation to some disliked task (eyes hurt when it is time to study, hands hurt when he practices piano, stomach aches if he has to sweep floor or rake the yard, has to go to the bathroom as soon as it’s time to wash dishes).
12. All complaints should be respected within reason, but recognized for what most of them are, -9’s way of meeting an unpleasant situation.
13. This may be in some children an age of considerable rebellion against authority.
14. Some merely rebel by withdrawing. Can look right through you as you give them a command.
15. May rebel by complaining but actually do carry out your commands.
16. Gradually the complaints, rebellions, worries diminish at 9.

10 Years

1. Most parents say this is the nicest age there is.
2. Parent’s word is law.
3. Seems to expect to obey and gains status in his own eyes –his obedience. Will tell you honestly, "I try to be a good boy."
4. Satisfied with the world in general. Is pleased with life as he finds it and he finds it easy to enjoy himself.
5. Nice and friendly to other people and expects them to be friendly to him.
6. Matter of fact, straight forward, and flexible.
7. Ten, more than any age which follows until you get to 16, is an age of predictable comfortable equilibrium. Never again after 10 will a parent get quite the same wholehearted and unreserved acceptance of the child, their actions, and their motives.

Brief schemata tabular presentation of age changes:

2 years 5 years 10 years Smooth, consolidates
2 ½ 5 ½ -6 11 Breaking up
3 6 ½ 12 Rounded – balanced
3 ½ 7 13 Inwardized
4 8 14 Vigorous, expansive
4 ½ 9 15 Inwardized, outwardized, troubled
5 10 16 Smooth, consolidated

Havighurst's Developmental Tasks from Infancy Through Later Life

1. Infancy And Early Childhood (Birth to 6 Years)
   Learning to walk
   Learning to take solid foods
   Learning to talk
   Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
   Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
   Achieving physiological stability
   Forming simple concepts of social and physical reality
   Learning to relate oneself emotionally to parents, siblings, & other people
   Learning to distinguish right & wrong, developing a conscience
   
   
2. Middle Childhood (6-12)
   Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games
   Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism
   Learning to get along with age – mates
   Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role
   Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
   Developing conscience, morality, and scale of values
   Developing concepts necessary for everyday living
   Achieving personal independence
   Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions
   
   
3. Pre-Adolescence And Adolescence (12-18)
   Achieving new & more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes
   Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
   Accepting one’s physique and using the body effectively
   Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults
   Selecting and preparing for an occupation
   Preparing for marriage and family life
   Developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence
   Desiring & achieving socially responsible behavior
   Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior
   
   
4. Early Adulthood (18-35)
   Selecting a mate
   Learning to live with a marriage partner
   Starting a family
   Rearing Children
   Managing a home
   Getting started in an occupation
   Taking on civic responsibility
   Finding a congenial social group
   
   
5. Middle Age (35 – 60)
   Achieving adult, civic, and social responsibility
   Establishing & maintaining an economic standard of living
   Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults
   Developing adult leisure – time activities
   Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person
   Learning to accept and adjust to the physiological changes of age
   Adjusting to aging parents
   
   
6. Later Life (60)
   Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and retirement
   Adjusting to death of a spouse
   Establishing an explicit affiliations with one’s age group
   Meeting social and civic obligation