Child and Adolescent Development Our personal past Oldest

Child and Adolescent Development

Our personal past ü Oldest memory ü Young child ü Teenager

Foundations of C & YP development Biological predispositions Prenatal development Birth Personality and Social development Cognitive and Language development Context/Systems

Challenges for C & YP development biological moral and spiritual social cognitive psychological

Biological challenges Physiological changes Sexual Changes Emotional changes

Cognitive challenges Abstract thinking Egocentric thinking Ability to think about other people New ways of processing information Ability to think critically Ability to think creatively

Psychological challenges Forming a new identity New/emerging functions of personal identity Individuation Emotional responses Ethnic /cultural identity

Social challenges Society expectations Parental expectations Adolescent expectations

Moral and spiritual challenges Moral development Spiritual beliefs

Human Development Theories Erikson Klein Winnicott Bowlby Psychosocial development Object Relations Theory Transitional object Attachment Theory

Erikson (1902 – 1994) • • Born to a Jewish mum and a Danish dad (not her husband), he grew up as a tall, blond, blue eyed boy with a Jewish mum (the details of his birth were a secret from him) – His mum having fled to Germany during her pregnancy. In Temple he was labelled ‘Nordic’, in school he was labelled as a ‘Jew’. He was not that academic, in late adolescence, he struggled with identity (ethnic/religious/national) When he was 25, he came into contact with Freud in Vienna. Encouraged by daughter, Anna Freud (who noticed his sensitivity toward children) he began to study Psychoanalysis. He studied Child Analysis alongside the Montessori method of Education (looking at child development and sexual stages) He left Germany in 1938 because of the Nazi rise to power, ending up in the US with his wife and 2 sons. 1 st Psychoanalysist in Boston. Worked at Mass General, Harvard Med School & Yale University. 1938 invited to observe education of native Sioux children in South Dakota. This was to prove significant in the development of his thinking.

Erikson: Psychosocial development Stage (age) Psychosocial crisis I (0 -1) -- infant trust vs mistrust II (2 -3) -- toddler Significant relations Psychosocial modalities Psychosocial virtues Maladaptations & malignancies to get, to give in return hope, faith sensory distortion -withdrawal autonomy vs shame parents and doubt to hold on, to let go will, determination impulsivity -- compulsion III (3 -6) -- preschooler initiative vs guilt family to go after, to play purpose, courage ruthlessness -- inhibition IV (7 -12 or so) -- school-age child industry vs inferiority neighbourhood and school to complete, to make things together competence narrow virtuosity -inertia V (12 -18 or so) -- adolescence ego-identity vs role- peer groups, role confusion models to be oneself, to share oneself fidelity, loyalty fanaticism -- repudiation mother Society should provide clear rites of passage - accomplishments and rituals. The distinction between the powerless, but irresponsible, time of childhood and the powerful & responsible time of adulthood, needs to be made clear. VI (the 20’s) -- young adult intimacy vs isolation partners, friends to lose and find oneself in love a another promiscuity -- exclusivity VII (late 20’s to 50’s) -- middle adult generativity vs self- household, absorption workmates to make be, to take care of care overextension -rejectivity VIII (50’s & beyond) -- old adult integrity vs despair to be, through having been, to face not being presumption -despair mankind or “my kind” wisdom

Donald Winnicott (1896 -1971) • • • To the outside world, Winnicott appeared to have a happy childhood, but the reality was that he was oppressed by his mother’s depression. His father encouraged his creativity. During adolescence, he showed considerable self awareness, and described himself as a ‘disturbed adolescent’ That insight formed the basis of his interest in troubled children & young people. He trained in Medicine and became a paediatrician/psychoanalysist He was a contemporary of Anna Freud & Melanie Klein Became a member of the ‘middle’ group rather than a ‘Kleinian’ or a ‘Freudian’ of the BPS He worked extensively with evacuees in WW 2 as a consultant Psychaitrist Key concepts ‘holding environment’ ‘transitional object’ Defined ‘Play’ as crucial for emotional/psychological wellbeing not just for children but for adults too – Art/Hobbies/Sport etc

Winnicott’s Transitional Object § Winnicott’s concept of the ‘transitional object’ is important and the transitional object, or security blanket, “acts as a bridge which connects the inner world of phantasy to the outer world of reality” § The transitional object thus represents the mother ‘out there’ and the ‘inner world’ of self § Winnicott’s theory (1965) of the ‘good enough’ mother concluded that ‘the mother is the place that all other relationships develop from’. Winnicott observed that therapists recreate a ‘holding’ environment which resembles the mother and infant/child. § Pre or delinquent behaviour may be related to a sense of loss/ or a cry for help. A search for holding not previously found within the family itself.

What does Transitional Object mean to a child? • Mother substitute: When a mother (or primary carer) leaves an infant, they can easily become upset by the disappearance of their primary care-giver. To compensate and comfort for this sense of loss, they imbue some object with the attributes of the mother. • Not-me: The transition object also supports the development of the self, as it is used to represent 'not me'. By looking at the object, the child knows that it is not the object and hence something individual and separate. In this way, it helps the child develop its sense of 'other' things (and self).

Transitional Object: Key attributes of the transition object include: • The infant has total rights over it. • The object may be cuddled, loved and mutilated (by the infant). • It must never be changed, except by the infant. • It has warmth or some vitality that indicates it has a reality of its own. • It exists independently of 'inside' or 'outside' and is not a hallucination. • Over time, it loses meaning and becomes relegated to a kind of limbo where it is neither forgotten nor mourned.

Melanie Klein (1882 – 1960) Object Relations Theory • Born in Vienna, of Jewish parentage – invited to London in 1926 by British psychoanalyst Ernest Jones • 1 st person to use psychoanalysis with children, she observed troubled children play with objects – dolls, animals etc and attempted to interpret specific meaning of play. Like FREUD, she emphasised the significant role parents play in children’s fantasy life, but unlike Freud, she felt the SUPEREGO was present from birth. • Klein felt that babies has no sense of ‘self’, that they are utterly dependant on their mother for sense of ‘self’ – that the mother is the baby’s ego. • Klein had a difference of opinion with Anna Freud in London in 1938 which led to many controversies – referred to as CONTROVERSIAL DISCUSSIONS which split the British Psycho – Analytic society into 3.

Freud’s stages of development

John Bowlby (1907 – 1990) • • • Born to an upper class British family, Bowlby rarely saw his mother and was cared for by a nanny who left him when he was 4, at 7 he went way to ‘board’ at school, which Bowlby observed was ‘emotionally impoverished’ During WW 2, after qualifying as psychoanalysist, he worked extensively with children who had been separated from their parents. This gained him significant evidence on which to base his theory. While working for the WHO in 1951, he wrote widely on maternal deprivation, in 1956, he began his defining work on ‘Attachment’. This 3 volume body of work was published between 1969 and 1974. Bowlby felt that theory of Attachment is essentially an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect the vulnerable infant from predators. Along with Mary Ainsworth, he created theory of the ‘secure base’ – a position of safety from which the infant can explore their world and return to their secure base ( generally their mother) for reassurance. Much of Bowlby’s work looked at the effects of poor Attachment, which is particularly noticeable when in crisis.

Bowlby’s cycle of arousal In order to promote good attachment, the significant carer needs to be: • Accessible • Responsive • Consistent

Cycle of despair Detachment – Lack of interaction with primary caregiver after reunion, active avoidance of pcg, failure to recognise pcg Protest – crying, distress, pursuit of mother, searching for mother, temper tantruming Despair, Depression, quiet withdrawal, refused to be comforted by a stranger, disinterest in play or exploration

Types of Attachment • Type A – Insecure Avoidant (casually avoids, nonchalantly ignores caregiver on return) • Type B – Secure (displays secure behaviour on return of parent) • Type C – Insecure Ambivalent (distressed & inconsolable upon return of parent) • Type D – Disorganised – Disorientated (conflicting, approach/flee, dazed, freezing on parent’s return – ‘frozen watchfulness’) (Fahlberg 1980)

Positive working model • About him/herself: 1. I am worthwhile/wanted 2. I am safe 3. I am capable • About his/her caregiver: 1. They are available 2. They are responsive 3. They meet my needs

Negative working model • About him/herself: 1. I am worthless 2. I am unsafe 3. I am impotent • About his/her caregiver: 1. He/she is unresponsive 2. He/she is unreliable 3. He/she is threatening/dangerous/rejecting