Analysis of Child Development Stages: Case Study of Two Siblings

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Essay Title - Demonstrate knowledge of the main
stages of human development that explains why
TWO of the people in the case scenario are behaving
in the way they are and provide suggestions for how
health and social care practitioners might be able to
advise, guide and support them.
Name:
Module title:
Module code: Psychological Approaches to Care
Word count:
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Essay............................................................................................................................... 4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 10
References.....................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
A mother’s health is going to impact the psychological health of everybody in the family.
Especially kids of the family going to suffer from it on a huge level. If these conditions
don't detect on time, it will be very harmful to their growth and development. In this task,
two children of the family have been suffering from psychological disorders. The older
child becomes more violent, aggressive and chose the wrong path of smoking, alcohol
at a very early age of 15 due to family's negative and toxic environment and younger
one becomes more silent and nonresponsive after he got physically abused from the
older sister. These are the impacts of the toxic environment at home and when one of
the loved ones is suffering from depression or some mental illness. Many theories are
available for the impacts of family life on teenagers or kids at a growing stage. It could
lead them to become more anxious and less confident about their own social behaviour
at the public and at home as well.
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Essay
Psychological health is as important as a human's physiological health. Humans are
facing many issues related to their mental health and even they have not properly
identified the issues to take any proper treatment for their health. That's made the
situation more difficult when a person doesn't even know about its psychological health
and continue suffering from it. It causes bad impact not only their mental health but also
their overall health so far (Akintunde, 2017). There are many types of research and
theories for human development which can explain each and every stage of human
development. Following are the few stages which can explain the development from the
infancy stage to teenage:
Stages of human development
Infancy to early childhood: This stage is from birth to around 18 to 36months of a
child. It is one of the basic learning age of the child. The most important thing about this
age is that this age's unconditional love and care would help them to develop trust in the
world. They learn from their touches, visual experiences around the world. They also
learn from their actions and their reactions. Not only they develop physically but also
this time their ability to think and learn is also growing day by day. Their emotions with
their mother and family developed. Their senses developed with experiences. If a
mother is suffering from some sort of physical issues, it would surely be going to impact
on her baby too. Chantelle and Peter are 15 and 5 years old now. Their mother Jenny
didn't have a normal pregnancy at the time of Chantelle. Jenny conceived her first baby
when she was just 18 years old which wouldn’t be considered as an appropriate age for
being a mother. She spent many weeks at the hospital at her time because she was
suffered from pre-eclampsia and she suffered from post-natal depression after
Chantelle birth. Both of these conditions were made a huge impact on Chantelle
psychological health as a child. Chantelle's mother was admitted into the hospital for
several weeks and was not able to give her personal attention due to her depression
(Alzen, et. al., 2018). That could possibly lead no family connection developed in her
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and at the age of 15 these symptoms showed up. Peter is a 5-year-old good boy. Her
mother's condition is somehow making an impact on him.
Playgroup age: Children from 3 years to 5 years will be considered for this age group.
Most kids start their schooling by this age and this age is an age for them where they
first started interacting with people outside from their own families. It is a very new
experience for them. This age needs much more attention because at this age kids
become very curious about the surrounding world to them. This age makes them
responsible for their particular behaviour and encourages them to take responsibility for
their behaviours with others. It is a great learning experience especially for children from
nuclear families. When Chantelle was at this particular age group, her mother was
suffering from post-pregnancy depression. This condition must have been difficult for
both mother and child. A child needs her mother love and attention most especially
during early age but because of depression, Jenny was not able to give her enough
attention and care at an early age. This could possibly lead to making her more
aggressive at the age of 15. The same goes with Peter, he is just 5 and his mother is
diagnosing from breast cancer. His mother didn't tell this news to the family yet so Peter
is not actually aware of her condition but he is affected by the family atmosphere.
Mother is not sure about her condition and Dave's mother had a fall down a few days
ago now she also needs extra attention and Peter's sister is not behaving nicely with
him. Recently she hit him so bad. This environment is not healthy for Peter and he is
becoming more silent and less cheerful.
School Age: The third stage of human growth and development is considered from 6 to
12 years age group. It is the age between middle childhoods to early adolescence. It is
the basic age of learning new skills and development. At this age, they enhance their
knowledge about the out world. Learning and exploration are the key aspects of this
age. Chantelle was not getting enough attention from her who was suffered from
postnatal depression earlier and now she is diagnosed from a kind of tumour into her
breast. She didn't tell anyone in the family about it but these types of conditions are not
good for the family atmosphere. Dave, the father understands the value of a good
atmosphere at home for the wellbeing of all the family. Both kids of the family are at a
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very sensitive age. This age could be very influencing. Bad or well both types of
influences could make a huge impact on kids belongs to this particular age group
(Engelmann, et. al., 2017). Chantelle is facing hormonal changes at this age but her
aggressive behaviour could be because of not getting emotional attachment and care
from her mother at the early age of her childhood. Peter has been affecting his mother
and sister's behaviours. Chantelle, his sister hit him badly a few days ago. For a 5-year-
old, this sort of atmosphere is not good for his physical and psychological health and his
overall growth.
Adolescence: This age lasts from the age group 12 to 18 years old. In this particular
age, belonging people chose to explore different roles and various path for their future.
This age group develops a sense of identity into them and it prepares them for young
adulthood age. At this age, they move into a unique stage of freedom and liberty. It
considered as a very careful stage not only for kids but only for their parents too. Peter
doesn't belong to this age. Only Chantelle belongs to this age group. She is 15 right
now. She hit her brother Peter a few days ago and earlier she was very loving, helpful
with her brother. A few days ago, policeman caught her moving around a shopping mall
at school time with friends. This incident clearly explains that she is going to the wrong
path in her life. This kind of behaviours is because of her childhood experiences with
her sick and depressed mother. The atmosphere is still making her stay away from the
home and family. Her grandmother had a fall and hospitalized. Her mother diagnosed
with a tumour in her breasts. Jenny, her mother has been sick for a long time since she
gave birth to her. Chantelle is at her teenage. This the age which is known as an age of
mistakes (Maheshwar, et. al., 2018). Being a young girl, she is facing hormonal
changes in her body which made her irritate and irresponsible for her behaviours.
Reasons for Peter and Chantelle’s behaviours and suggestions for social care
practitioners
The kids of this family, Chantelle and Peter are suffering from some sort of
psychological diseases at the age of 15 and 5 years. Both of the children are at their
learning and growing developing stages. They both are very good kids earlier but
recently some changes were found in their behaviours. Some of these are due to
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hormonal changes in Chantelle and some of them are clearly because of their
family/home environment. Their grandmother is hospitalized and their mother is
suffering from a tumour in her breasts. No one in the family is known about it yet but the
environment is still very stressful at home. This much stress is not good for kids belongs
to the age group of 5 to 15 years. These are the following recommendations which
could be helpful to them for overcoming the current psychological issues:
Chantelle is a teenage girl; recently she has caught by police for moving around at
shopping mall with her friends at school time. They caught her smoking and she smelt
like alcohol too. Her behaviour is becoming aggressive day by day not only at school
but also with her little brother too. She is not able to recognize these changes in her
mood and behaviour recently.
Her family should take care of the counselling sessions. At this stage, the child is not
able to understand the importance of open communication with their parents so
counselling could be the utmost solutions for them where she can talk to the counsellor
about her issues that she is dealing with these days (Kruzhkova, et. al., 2018). A proper
session could let her make feel comfortable and open about her problems right now.
Jenny diagnosed with breasts tumour because she is not sure about the condition of
herself. She thinks that she will not be able to cope up with this disease this time that's
why she is not mentally prepared to tell everyone in the family about her illness. A family
counselling will be helpful to Jenny too, where she can openly admit about her tumour
so that family can take care of her and will be prepared for this situation mentally. If she
can talk about it, hopefully, it would be helpful to reduce the stress of family and
family/home environment will be better. It will be helpful to resolve the conflicts between
the relations of each other in the family.
The family should take Chantelle for proper medication which required according to her
condition. Her behaviour is not just because of hormonal changes in her body. She is
suffering from some psychological disorder at so early age. She is becoming more and
more aggressive day by day. It is not safe for her. Smoking and consuming alcohol is at
the very starting stage in her case. Efforts can make her away from these harmful things
at this early age. It is a disease; it needs proper medication for overcoming this
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situation. Social practitioners have to encourage her to become more involved with
good friends and family. Family support and love can treat any mental issues in some
time. Yoga and meditation are the most helpful suggestion for any person who is
suffering from any kind of mental illness (Estévez, et. al., 2018). Yoga poses and
meditation brings peace and calmness into the person. It helps them to become more
focused. Meditation helps to control the aggressive behavioural of person.
It helps to make them more responsible for their actions into public or at home. In the
end, the family plays an important role in helping somebody to overcome this situation
because the family was responsible for her aggressive behaviour later. Dave and Jenny
should develop open communication environment at home so that both kids could easily
talk with. They can make some important house rules for kids which they have to follow
at any cost. If they follow every rule of the house, give them some treats or rewards for
encouraging them. Chantelle is advised to follow some relaxation techniques.
Peter is a 5-year-old little boy in the family. He is a very happy kid at school and has
many friends. But a few days back his teachers noticed a bruise on his face. When the
teacher asked about it, he lied to them and said that he fell down from the bed. After this
incident, he seemed less cheerful and more silent day by day at school. Peter is
struggling with the stressful environment at home and a very aggressive sibling who
actually hit him a few days back. These things made him more non-responsive and no
confidence stage. Peter was a cheerful little guy.
He just needs some family attention and love, he will be alright again. Deep emotional
feeling of love can heal anything. Family love can help him to conquer any fear. He got
scared of his big sister when last time she hit him so bad that he couldn't even ready to
talk about it (Tucker & Finkelhor, 2015). Parents should try to make a family
environment more open up for communications and become friendlier with kids so they
can share their things with parents. Parents have to understand the importance of open
communications at home. If these things didn't work for Peter, then family counselling
and children counselling are the best options for them.
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A counsellor could help him feel alright about talking about all things to parents and
teachers. If the child is able to take about any abuse happens with them, it would be
good for them to understand the situation. Otherwise, these things which happened with
him at his early childhood age would go to affect him all through his life. It can destroy
his confidence which is not a great thing for anybody. Social interactions are important.
Peter is becoming silent and less cheerful day by day. If it still remains the same, it
could ruin the confidence and his personality (Rogers & Khan, 2015). Both the kids of
the family are struggling with two types of psychological illness issues at the same time.
One kid becomes more silent and one is becoming more aggressive day by day. In
required some medications would be helpful to him. Family environment and social
skills make a huge impact on his life (Lund, et. al., 2018). Parents and sibling love can
improve the action-reaction process in him which going to improve his overall
personality in a few days. Health and social practitioners would advise him some
medication if required and could suggest some social practitioners to him to improve his
social interactions.
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Conclusion
The importance of a healthy family environment for the psychological and physiological
of family members especially to the kids of the family has been discussed in this task.
Jenny and Dave are parents of two kids, Chantelle 15 and Peter 5 years old. This task
explained about the mental health-related issues in growing kids. It influenced them
towards the wrong path and like Chantelle, they often make the wrong choices in life.
Alcohol, drugs and smoking situation could be worst. The impact of mother's sickness
and postnatal depression on the child's mental and psychological health has been
discussed. A new-born is more connected with their mother but if the mother is not able
to provide proper love, care and affection to them, kids will go to suffer from some social
and mental issues at their growing age. Few recommendations to health and social
practitioners have been given so that they could be supportive and helpful to the kids for
overcoming from this situation.
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References
 Akintunde, E., 2017. Theories and Concepts for Human Behavior in
Environmental Preservation. ResearchGate.
 Alzen, I., Fishbein, M., Lohmann, S. & Albarracin, D., 2018. THE INFLUENCE
OF ATTITUDES ON BEHAVIOR The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior.
ResearchGate.
 Engelmann, J. M., Herrmann, E., Rapp, J. D. & Tomasello, D., 2016. Young
children (sometimes) do the right thing even when their peers do not. Cognitive
Development, Vol. 39, pp. 86-92.
 Estévez, E., Jiménez, I. T. & Moreno, D., 2018. Aggressive behavior in
adolescence as a predictor of personal, family, and school adjustment problems.
Psicothema 2018, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 66-73.
 Kruzhkova, V. O., Vorobyeva, V. I., Vorobyeva, E. N. & Ljovkina, O. A., 2018.
Adolescent Vandalism: the Role of the Parent-Child Relationship in the
Development of Destructive Behavior. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art,
Vol. 11, No. 3.
 Lund, C., Breuer, E. & Baron, E., 2018. Social determinants of mental disorders
and the Sustainable Development Goals: a systematic review of reviews. The
Lancet Psychiatry. Vol. 5, No. 4.
 Maheswar, M., Narendra, K., Balakrishna, N. & Rao, D., 2018. THE INFLUENCE
OF ATTITUDES ON BEHAVIOR The Influence of Attitudes on Behavior.
iMedPub Journals, Vol. 4, No. 2:9.
 Rogers, P. & Khan, R., 2015. The normalization of sibling violence: Do gender
and personal experience of violence influence perceptions of
physical assault against siblings? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 30, No.
3, pp. 437-458.
 Tucker, J. C. & Finkelhor, D., 2015. The State of Interventions for Sibling Conflict
and Aggression: A Systematic Review. TRAUMA, VIOLENCE, & ABUSE, pp. 1-
11.
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