Question

The exact point in time at which an individual transitions from one developmental phase to another (for example, middle childhood to adolescence) is often assigned somewhat arbitrarily. In fact, even developmental scientists/authors don't always agree on "where" the lines between these artificial constructs fall. If you were given the task to defend why a particular child had moved solidly into adolescence, what would be the 3 most important non-physical areas of development you would examine to make the decision (i.e., some specific cognitive or psychosocial characteristic/skill)? In addition, describe how you would expect an adolescent to function differently in each of these 3 characteristics/skills you have selected.

Answer 1

The 3 most important non-physical areas of development of a child to becoming an adolescent according to my viewpoint would be:

1. Inductive and Deductive Reasoning skills- As a child grows and garners information from her/his surrounding through sensory experiences initially and moving to asking questions showing curiousty about everything and understanding abstract concepts he/she transitions into acquiring reasoning skills. As a child one is not able to explain or understand a lot of abstract concepts but during adolscence by deducing logic a teenager is able to explain a particular phenomena. Also understanding of concrete concepts develop and a teenager is able to draw logic out of things.
2. Social skills- As a child one is not able to understand how to deal with people, what reactions to give when someone greets you but again through sensory experiences,school,peers the child in his growing stage starts learning peoples skill. They learn how to greet,or shake hands with someone etc.During adolscence the skills become more refined and now a teenager knows how to deal with people confidentely. A teenager also becomes moody at this stage. They also transition into public speaking skills,during adolscence stage they learn how to carry themselves,how to speak with others which obviously a child would not know.
3. Relationship skills/Emotional Intelligence-As a child one would not understand the importance of relations and how to make those relations work but as years pass and a child grows into a teenager they meet new people,experience relations and a gamet of emotions. Emotional intelligence of an adolescent helps them to understand others emotions,they develop empathy as well more sensitivity towards human relations.