Wood Stages 3-5 and Their Implication on Learning Processes, Reaction Paper Example

Group and Social Skills in Stage 3

Stage 3 is usually starting when children start their first grade in school. They would enter a new environment, which would involve group work and the development of social skills. Children need to learn how to successfully participate in organized group discussions and activities, and this would mean that they start giving up their personal needs and demands to be accepted by the group. The social-emotional processes in this stage are important for children, and some effective development programs need to be created for children with disabilities, or lower than average social skills. The reason why the program is important is that children need to recognize the value provided by the group, so they would accept rules and other children’s views.

The two main forces in this stage of emotional development are “self-protection” and “seeking adult approval”. As children learn to identify valued adults in school, they would become somehow less dependent on their parents and would listen to the school staff more intensively. Many researchers have revealed parents’ influence on the later values of children.

There are several emotional and anxiety problems that can occur at this stage of development. One of them is “fear of failing”, which would be caused by concerns about meeting standards, or trying to hide problems at home from the school staff. These problems are generally more common, when children experience death, parental absence or substance abuse. The clearly defined communication, socialization and cognition milestones would help the educators use the right tools to develop disabled children’s behavior, cognition and social skills. The main tools an adult can use to support children with problems at Stage 3 are praise, enforcement and problem solving. The strategies recommended for behavior management are: praise, motivation with materials, redirection, reflection, interpretation, verbal interaction, rules, little space interaction and removal; when there is no other solution. Great examples are found in the “A Snack time discussion” example. It is a method that can be used with socially and emotionally disabled children, also kids living with any type of disability, who suffer from personality problems or bullying.

Stage 4: Developing the Sense of Belonging

Between the ages of 9 and 12, a new social and group strategy is needed. In this stage, children would create bonds with peers and adults, alike, and they would experience the sense of belonging. Investing in group processes is essential, and developing the concern for others within the school community is supported by the program. Children at this age would need to be followers and contributors alike. The emotional conflict is between their own individuality and seeking acceptance and trying to assimilate into a group. This could – in extreme cases –  lead to isolation from the group. Children with special education needs would have underdeveloped social skills and parental connections.

The risks of this social and emotional development stage are based on the following forces: intensity of emotional needs, extent demands, lack of coping skills, pervious positive or negative experiences dealing with the demands, unhealthy level of self-confidence.

Building values inside the group, and making children with special educational or social needs to accept them is the best approach to improve both cognitive and emotional systems, processes. The cognitive processes to focus on are reasoning, evaluating, producing ideas, remembering and comprehending. The behavior, socialization, academic, and communication milestones of Stage 4 would allow educators and professionals to develop a program that tackles the right areas of development.

The role of the adult would somehow change, and they would need to develop advanced group facilitator, individual advocate and role model skills or values. The new method to be used, apart from the ones introduced in Stage 3 is “life space intervention”. This enables educators to successfully tackle individual and group conflicts. Children with disabilities would need more careful life space intervention methods, to be able to successfully tackle problems based on their diversity or disability.

Stage 5: Introducing New Situations

At Stage 5, the importance of self-confidence comes to light. Children would start trying to discover their roots, values, identify themselves and planning their future. There is a greater need for expressing individuality, and this could lead to a number of social or group conflicts. The stage usually starts at the age of 12, and it comes with several changes in the emotional and social development process. The main areas of change are physical appearance, sexual maturity, moral values and realization processes (extreme criticism), advanced mental development,  increased level of self-awareness and planning (or being scared of) adulthood.  Children are usually asking the questions: “Who am I?” and “What will I become”? at the first few years of adolescence.

Making vocational choices is connected with the above question, and when children feel pressured or neglected by parents at home, they would experience extreme frustration either because of the high expectations, or because of the lack of support. Morality is another important aspect that comes to the surface at this stage, and if inner conflicts were not dealt with,  children would encounter many emotional and social problems. The clearly defined behavioral, communication, academic and socialization milestones are extremely important to review when creating a successful strategy for children with special emotional or social needs.

Teachers, parents and counselors have an extremely important role in supporting children at stage 5 in the successful transition process. The tools used in Stage 4 are still extremely useful, however, they would develop a new role and would have different objectives. There are different individual and group activities designed to accomplish the development goals of adolescents with emotional or social disabilities. Some of them are related to the acceptance of group values, others would help students reflect on the world, while changes made to the history and music/art curriculum would also support the development process. Music has been recognized as one of the most effective ways to connect with disabled children, and the results achieved with kids suffering from Down Syndrome and and Asperger’s syndrome.