LIFE STAGES: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Level III
RATIONALE: Human Service workers are often involved in planning, managing, and delivering services (e.g., counseling, crisis intervention, educational programs) to individuals or groups of individuals at specific life stages (e.g., childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, and old age). At each life stage there are unique developmental and social conditions that may support or detract from a person’s quality of life and their adjustment in society. To effectively support positive development with individuals in these different groups, it is important for human service workers to understand the opportunities and risks that are present at the different developmental stages, and the ways in which the interaction between a person and his/her environment can foster or hinder positive development. For example, understanding that poverty and inadequate educational opportunities can hinder a child’s development suggests the need for early childhood education programs. Understanding how a youth development strategy can help teens develop their potential as leaders in their communities can inform the development of community programs for youth. Likewise, understanding the changes and challenges that face the elderly can inform the development of policies and programs that provide the necessary health and social services to this population.
This competency enables students to understand a particular life stage in ways that enable them to develop and implement programs and policies that sustain healthy and productive personal growth within that life stage.
COMPETENCY: Using theory and concepts, can explain the major developmental changes, opportunities, and risks that occur in a specific life stage and describe how different programs and policies can support positive social and emotional development at a particular life stage.
CRITERIA:
To demonstrate the competency, a student must:
1. Explain the major developmental changes that occur in a specific life stage.
2. Explain the conditions within various social contexts (e.g., family, school, church, work, community) that can support positive social, emotional, and cognitive development or that place an individual at-risk for experiencing social, emotional, or cognitive problems.
3. Explain policies and describe programs that have been instituted to support positive development within a particular life stage and to reduce conditions that could place an individual at risk.
PORTFOLIO LINKS: You are expected to use the Level III Communications Portfolio writing standards as guidelines for the essays required by this competency. At a minimum, writing should demonstrate Level II Communications Portfolio standards.
The written paper(s) that you produce for this competency may be used for the critical analysis option of the Writing III portfolio.
STANDARDS:
1. For Criterion 1, you must identify the major changes/benchmarks that occur in the life stage, and the typical/atypical variation among individuals. Base your explanation on developmental theories, using terms and concepts drawn from these theories. The descriptions should cover the cognitive, physical/biological, and social-emotional changes that occur within the specific life stage.
2. For Criterion 2, you must identify the developmental tasks unique to a given life stage and identify multiple factors that can support or hinder an individual in meeting the tasks. The factors should be drawn from theories of risk and resiliency, vulnerability, etc. Further, you must provide a description of the past and present conditions within the context of the family, school, community, work setting, etc., and an explanation of how those conditions support or put an individual at risk. The description must draw upon relevant literature (including historical accounts) on the conditions that contribute to positive development or give rise to social, emotional or cognitive problems. Case studies may be used to trace an individual’s development and the environmental context in which it occurs.
3. For Criterion 3, you must identify relevant policies that address specific developmental factors. Descriptions should be provided for specific programs that put one or more of these types of policies in place. Relevant literature should be presented on the historical roots of these programs and, where possible, the effectiveness of the programs.
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATION:
1. Prior Learning: A student who has had prior learning of working with clients from one of the life stages negotiates with a faculty evaluator to use one of her clients as a case study. The student obtains a list of relevant readings and uses her prior experience to reflect on the issues and challenges of the particular life stage in accord with the competency’s criteria and standards. The student writes a 7-10-page paper incorporating information about the client based on her prior experience and relevant theories and concepts from the readings. The paper should also include a brief discussion of the relevant risk factors that were at play in working with the client, relevant policies and programs that she used to assist the client.
2. Independent Learning: A student contacts a faculty evaluator and obtains a list of relevant readings. The student, who is interested in the adolescent life stage, then interviews youth, assessing the individuals' experiences as they impact on the particular life stage and assessing past and present environmental conditions as they may be impacting the person’s experience of adolescence. Using a case study approach, the student writes a 7- to 10-page paper, incorporating information from the interviews and relevant theories and concepts from the readings. The paper also includes a brief discussion of relevant risk factors, relevant policies and programs that the persons may be using or could use to address these risk factors.
3. Course: A student takes a CPCS course that addresses the Life Stages competency.