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13 NOVEMBER 2009
NO 1513
Nonlinear development
In applying a developmental perspective, it is essential to think of human development as nonlinear. Practice experience has made us aware of the many ups and downs in a child's life, as growth and progress proceed over a zigzag course. Basic to residential care are the variations in the course of the day when children require greater latitude in time or space or contact. Starting the day, waiting for meals, mail time, and going to sleep, are all important moments for children that require extra staff involvement and time (Trieschman, Whittaker and Brendtro, 1969). At these moments, children may function on a more fundamental level; such fluctuations constitute a natural part of the cycle of growth. Such variations in self-management do not constitute a breakdown in self-control, and child care staff sometimes need to create interventions that are in tune with the children's earlier basic levels of functioning.
With so much emphasis in many child care settings placed on growth and improvement, it is particularly important to remember that ordinary development proceeds in nonlinear patterns. There are periods in everyone's lives when old issues re-emerge. In infancy, during pre-school development, and in early adolescence, building relationships and reaching out to a larger world remains the main focus. At each stage, the theme is similar — risking, exploring, bonding. Similarly, there is cyclical variation in children's attitudes towards details and in their sense of order, all of which have direct implication for how we relate to them, such as how we implement demands for the maintenance of their belongings. Before intervening, it is important that we assess whether we are dealing with fundamental issues or merely temporary phases.
As another example of nonlinear variation, recent research findings strongly suggest that there is a "vulnerable age phenomenon" for youngsters in geographical transition (lnbar, 1976). Children around the age periods of 5 to 7 and 13 to 15 whose primary living arrangements had been relocated and who also had to adapt to a culturally different secondary setting (e.g., a different school) were less successful in their educational and vocational pursuits than those who either relocated at a different age or did not relocate at all.1 These tentative findings remind us to explore sensitively the children's experience of transitions when they must move into culturally different systems through being placed in residential programs at these ages of apparent high vulnerability.
Thus, the recognition of a nonlinear, cyclical pattern of human development is more than an intellectual exercise. It is a very practical stance. Each event in the constellation of behavior needs to be viewed contextually for what it means in terms of each individual's progression. As frustrating as it may be for the workers, a messy room is not just a messy room! In Michael Cole's words: "It all depends!" (Cole, 1979, p. x).
HENRY W. MAIER
Maier, H.W. (1987). Developmental Group Care of
Children and Youth: Concepts and Practice. New York and London.
Haworth Press. pp. 18-19.
NOTE
1. Success or lack of success was evaluated
longitudinally compared with that of siblings who faced the same
transitions at a different point of their development (Inbar and Adler,
1977).
REFERENCES
Trieschman, A.E.; Whittaker, J.K. and Brendtro, L.K. (1969). The other 23 hours. Chicago. Aldine.
Inbar, M. (1976). The Vulnerable Age Phenomenon. New York. Russell Sage Foundation.
Inbar, M. and Adler, C./ (1977). Ethnic Integration in Israel. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction Books.
Cole, M. (1979). Introduction. In Bronfenbrenner, U.
The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University
Press. pp.vii-x.
