Growth and Development Assessment Project Guidelines:

Choose a person you know well and complete a developmental analysis of this person’s current period of development. You can choose a person from any of the developmental stages excluding infancy and toddlerhood. Through observation and communications with the person, assess the individual’s current period of development. Within that specific period of life, provide a detailed comparison of the subject’s physically, cognitive, and psychosocial development to the established norms, developmental milestones, and theories from textbooks and scholastic resources. All three areas of development (physical, cognitive, and psychosocial) must be examined in depth with various theories, established norms, and examples of met and unmet developmental tasks. The assessment is not a chronological lifespan report on a single theorist. It should focus primarily on the individual’s current period of life. However, if the person has unmet tasks, you can examine earlier periods of life influential to the delay.

This analysis needs to be a minimum of 4 completed pages of content (excluding title page, reference page, and charts) and a maximum of 6 pages. Again, be sure to utilize various theories, established norms, and developmental milestones and apply those to all three areas of development of your chosen person.

Objectives:

1. Summarize an individual’s current period of development according to textbook information and various theorists.
2. Compare the individual’s physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development to the textbook description, various theories, established norms, and developmental milestones.
3. Recognize unmet or uncompleted tasks of the individual’s current period of development.
4. Identify measures to assist the individual to achieve the tasks of his/her stage of development.

Learning Activities:

1. Select an individual and arrange a time to observed and interviewed.
2. Review lecture and readings on relevant stages of development.
3. Observe and discuss with the individual (or parents) specific issues and topics related to physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth and development.
4. Prepare a report (4-6 pages) to include the following:

• Include an overview (introduction) of the individual’s biographical data: ex. age, sex, family structure, living arrangements, occupation.
• Summarize the theoretical description of the individual’s current period of development.
• Compare the individual’s current cognitive, physical, and psychosocial development to various theories expected norms, and developmental milestones. Comparisons must be from the required textbook and a minimum of one outside scholastic reference.
• Recognize which development tasks have been achieved and/or are still unmet. Provide scholastic evidence based on the analysis of the observation and interview to the theories, established norms, and developmental milestones.
• Indicate measures to assist or maintain the individual’s effort to accomplish age-appropriate developmental tasks.