Human Development and Family Studies
Human Development and Family Studies covers growth and development from conception to old age, and the family as the setting in which development happens. Questions test milestones, developmental principles, Piaget and Erikson, types of play, family types and functions, and parenting styles.
Principles of development
Development is lifelong, sequential and cumulative, follows cephalocaudal (head to foot) and proximodistal (centre outward) direction, moves from general to specific responses, and shows individual differences. Growth is increase in size; development is change in capability, so the two are not synonyms.
Stages and milestones
Infancy (0-2 years): reflexes, birth weight doubles by about 5 months and triples by 1 year, object permanence appears. Early childhood (2-6): symbolic play, egocentrism, rapid language growth. Middle childhood (6-12): peer group, industry, school skills. Adolescence (12-19): puberty, abstract reasoning, identity formation.
Theories
Piaget: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7, no conservation), concrete operational (7-11, conservation and classification), formal operational (11+, abstract thought). Erikson: trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame and doubt (1-3), initiative vs guilt (3-6), industry vs inferiority (6-12), identity vs role confusion (adolescence).
Worked example
A 9-year-old sees two identical clay balls; one is flattened and she says both still hold the same amount. Reasoning: she has conservation, so she is in the concrete operational stage, not preoperational. She still fails a purely abstract hypothesis-testing task, so she is not yet formal operational.
Traps
Do not label a 3-year-old as sensorimotor with object permanence still absent, since that stage ends around two; authoritative parenting (warm but firm) is confused with authoritarian (firm, low warmth); play is not wasted time but the child's way of learning.