Child Development: Apply It

  • Describe the stages of prenatal development and the significance of prenatal care
  • Describe infant reflexes
  • Explain the physical development that occurs from infancy through childhood
  • Explain key milestones in Piaget’s sensorimotor and preoperational stages
  • Explain key milestones in Piaget’s concrete operational and formal operational stages

Use your understanding of one of the major developmental theories (psychosexual, psychosocial, or cognitive) to identify strategies in response to these issues. Click on the links below to reveal possible answers.

1. Despite your efforts, your infant daughter continues to put everything in her mouth, including the dog’s food, which is making you concerned about her safety.

2. You are worried about your eight-year-old son who is failing math and seems to only care about baseball, causing conflict between you and him.

3. Every morning, you engage in a twenty-minute battle with your two-year-old daughter who refuses to wear the clothes you pick for her, which is making you late for work.

4. Your chronically depressed sixty-eight-year-old neighbor feels like she has wasted her life, and you are struggling to find ways to lift her spirits and help her find purpose.

5. Your 18-year-old child has made the decision not to go to college, but instead to move to Colorado to become a ski instructor, which is causing you to worry about their future.

6. You are struggling with how to handle the fact that your 11-year-old son is the class bully, and you are concerned about how this behavior is affecting him and others around him.