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This article throws light upon the six main stages of development of a child, i.e, 1. Babyhood and Early Childhood 2. Late Childhood 3. Adolescence 4. Early Adulthood 5. Middle Age 6. Old Age.
Development of Individual Stage # 1. Babyhood and Early Childhood:
1. Learning to take solid foods
2. Learning to walk
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3. Learning to talk
4. Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
6. Getting ready to read
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7. Learning to distinguish right and wrong and beginning to develop a conscience.
Development of Individual Stage # 2. Late Childhood:
1. Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games.
2. Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself as a growing organism.
3. Learning to get along with age-mates.
4. Beginning to develop appropriate masculine or feminine social roles.
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing and calculating’.
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living.
7. Developing a conscience, a sense of morality and a scale of values.
8. Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions.
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9. Achieving personal independence.
Development of Individual Stage # 3. Adolescence:
1. Achieving new and more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes.
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role.
3. Accepting one’s physique and using one’s body effectively.
4. Desiring, accepting and achieving socially responsible behaviour.
5. Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults.
6. Preparing for an economic career.
7. Preparing for marriage and family life.
8. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behaviour- developing an ideology.
Development of Individual Stage # 4. Early Adulthood:
1. Getting started in an occupation
2. Selecting a mate
3. Learning to live with a marriage partner
4. Starting a family
5. Rearing children
6. Managing a home
7. Taking on civic responsibility
8. Finding a congenial social group
Development of Individual Stage # 5. Middle Age:
1. Achieving adult civic and social responsibility
2. Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults
3. Developing adult leisure-time activities
4. Relating oneself to one’s spouse as a person
5. Accepting and adjusting to the physiological changes of middle age
6. Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one’s occupational career
7. Adjusting to aging parents
Development of Individual Stage # 6. Old Age:
1. Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health
2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
3. Adjusting to death of spouse
4. Establishing an explicit affiliation with members of one’s age-group
5. Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements. Adapting to social roles in a flexible way
6. However, one must always remember that these goals are averages, and there may be many deviations.