Stages of growth and development

Although growth and development is a continuous process it varies among children of different ages. Their needs and problems also vary at different ages. Erik Erikson a well known psychologist had divided the period of childhood into 5 stages. he considered that each of these stages is characterised by a crisis situation having favorable and unfavourable components which the child must resolve before progressing to te next stage.

The successful resolution of the crisis situation leads to easy progress to next stage whereas the unsuccessful resolution leads to difficulty in porgressing to next stages.

Stages of childhood and their crisis components as expressed by Erik Erikson.

       S.N.                             Stages of childhood                           Crisis components

1.                             Infancy                                     Trust versus mistrust
2.                             Toddler                                   Autonomy versus shame and doubt
3.                             Preschool                                Intiative versus guilt
4.                             Shool age                                 Industry versus inferiority
5.                            Adolesence                               Identity versus isolation
    with the broadening of the concept of paediatrics to include the child through from the time conception to adolescence, it has become customaary today to divide the period of childhood as follows.

• Intrauterine period.
• Infancy period
• Early childhood
• Middle childhood
• Late childhood