A CHILD’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
Infants to Grade 5: On Solid Ground (Child)
Home, parents & family comprise their firm “base context” for almost all security,sense of belonging and of who the individual is as a person. Primary “giving them roots” occurs during their years. Self-image, relationships, life values & purpose are derived from the teaching, attitudes and behaviors of the family. “How we do things” is how they should be done.
Near the end of grade 5 they the reach a riverbank where the terrain ahead is not so firm…
Grade 6-9: On the Ice Floes of the River (Pubescent)
Individuals leave the terra firma of the riverbank to begin the river crossing.
Stepping onto the ice floes of the spring river, they begin a precarious journey across to who knows where. These are transition years as children begin & complete the confusing years of life, as “home base” matters move from “givens” in life to questionable, even dumb and/or stupid. Parents lose their role as
“answers to the questions” in life to being the questionable authorities.
Peers, media, teachers, neighbors & coaches all are likely to know more than parents. Seeking and searching through all of the confusing messages
of life, sex, right & wrong, truth-telling and most everything else is up for grabs, as they randomly select what someone else says and thinks. They are facing now this way, now that way on this or the next ice floe as they move forward. One day they make a statement that makes them sound rather adult, and the next day they are acting like two year olds. Individual knows what/who they don’t stand for or believe; age of questioning everything.
Late grade 9/early grade 10 – 12: Firmer ground/maturity; Identity of my own (Young Adult)
Maturity in this stage of life brings the individual to begin to seriously consider “Who am I?” and to establish what I believe, agree with and/or stand for. Drawing from all of the influences of family, friends, peers and others, the individual begins to formulate, albeit, tentatively, who they want to be, do and live. The ice floe life basically behind, as ideas, values & purpose begin to form as to this persons vision of him/herself in the world of young adulthood. Questioning, experimentation and deciding values, faith, purpose begin to unfold. Usually, not linearly, but in surges, regressing and readjusting manner.
Lutheran Confirmation 