Description of the family developmental stage
The family developmental stage is a stage for observing the children and their source of knowledge. However, the knowledge is not only restricted in parental guidance or school guidance. Instead, it includes their real-life experiences. Piaget has segmented the different stages of life according to their knowledge activity. The stages are:
Sensorimotor: Age group is from birth to two years. In this age group, the activities and interactions are only restricted within the use of symbols and several body movements. Knowledge cannot be gathered in this stage as the infant children cannot understand the meaning of the reaction (Bjorklund, 2018). In Michael and Jane’s family, Melanie is in this stage as she is presently eighteen months old. She cannot play games properly as her sense of reaction has not developed properly to react to external activities.
Preoperational: Age group is from two years to seven years. This is a developmental stage for children when they start learning languages, new words can react to the external activities. In Michael and Jane’s family, Millie is in the stage of preoperational as she is now five years old. She can express her feelings through words and knows to play. However, she has not developed a matured sense of what she gets annoyed when her eighteen years old sister cannot play skipping and sorting with her.
Concrete operational: Age group is from seven years to eleven years. The characteristic of this age group is to respond to the community, gather knowledge from external sources and develop a self-identical sense (Masten& Barnes, 2018).
Formal operational: The age group is from eleven years to the rest of the adulthood. In this age, persons develop a right to take owns decision and formulate a hypothesis and start valuing the relationship. Jane and Michaelare from thisage group. However, Nathan is in a transitional age as he is 14 now. He has developed a mentality to take his own decision but he is not mature enough to take its own.
However, Erikson disagreed with the Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages. The cognitive developmental stage defines people gathers experiences according to the growing of age. However, Erikson countered the argument by stating that experience and social reactions are the only sources to gather knowledge.
Family lifespan is a widespread aspect that signifiestheactivities of family members according to their age. As per the carter and McGoldrick model, family lifespan can be demonstrated through Family Life Cycle model. Family before divorce and family after divorce are two prior parts of family life cycle model. This study is constituted with the family of Jane and Michael who has three offspring, two daughters, and one son. Thus, the Family Lifespan Model before divorce theory can be applied to this family as the family is still happily united (Fischer, Korinek&Mulsow, 2007). Family Lifecycle model before divorce part has six stages – single young adults, the joining of families with a new marriage, family with young children, families with adolescents, launching children and moving on and families in the later life. As mentioned in the case study, the family is in the stage of a family with young children which is the third stage of Carter and McGoldrick Family Lifecycle model.
Piaget’s stages of life
The first stage signifies a lonely life where the only necessity is to take responsibility for theowner. The second stage signifies the necessity to develop a family by arranging marriages. However, Jane and Michael’s family is in the stage of families with young children. Both Jane and Michael are married for around fifteenyears. They have a son Nathan, who is presently 14 years old, two daughters Millie and Melanie who are five years old and one and a half years old respectively (Minnerath, 2005). The three required developmental process of this stage are :
- Adjustment of the marital system to find space for their children
- The couple must be engaged in childrearing, financing and doing household tasks jointly.
- Realignment of their parenthood with the extended part of the family.
It is necessary for the stage three participant of the family lifecycle find space for their children. It would motivate them in their growing help. Parental assistance would be helpful for them for the mental growth. Jane and Michael must enjoy their parenthood and need to assist their children with a steady growth. Being 14, Nathan is growing a mentality to take all his decisions (Schlesinger & McMurray, 2012). However, it is his immaturity that is leading him to an immature decision. Thus, both Jane and Michaelmustfind quality time for himand behave with him in a friendly way to recognise his queries and point of view. Moreover, they must do all the domestic works jointlyto relive their old days and strengthen their relationship.
In the family cycle, the developmental task depends on the age of the family members.
The early adulthood is a stage for study and going to college or school. The age group of this stage is 13 to 22 years. In the Cameron family, Nathan is in the early adulthood stage whose age base task is to stable in rank and order of his school age.
The 22 to 30 years of age group is also early adult age but it requires larger stability in life. No member of Cameron family is underthiscategory.
The 30 to 60 years age group is categorised as middle adulthood group. The characteristic of this age group is to lead life with the spouse and children. Moreover, this age group is also for taking care of the teenage children. Both Jane and Michael belong to this age group and they both are married to each other and taking care of their children. They have a teenage child; Nathan who is in early adulthood developmental process. Nathan is immature at this stage and it is duty for his parents to guide in taking decision for life.
Child and health care nursing is an important profession keeping in mind the steady health of the family. The family is the unit of the society. Healthcare nursing comprises of services in the home, community mainly residential areas. The healthcare nursing mainly works in partnership with the parents. Besides that the health care system not only covers the physiological aspects but it is an approach to look at the holistic concept of the health. It covers the physiological and psychological health of the children (Haugen & Musser, 2012).
The various mental and physical aspects of the children should be considered by the health care nurses. There are certain approaches which are used by the nurses to judge the mental and physical health of the child and work according to the need of the child. The Cameron family has their boy child Nathan who is Fourteen years old and has relocated with his parents. In the case study, it is seen that the boy has some difference of opinion with his parents. Most of the children in this adolescent age have some psychological problems which should be dealt with properly by the parents if needed professional health care nurses should be appointed (Coyne, Holmström&Söderbäck, 2018).
Sensorimotor stage
Nathan wants to take his own decisions in choosing friends, clothes which are not allowed by his parents. This difference in opinion could create a gap between the parent and the child which will result in a psychological problem in the later stages of the child’s life. If it continuous then Nathan will grow a tendency to become adamant. If he becomes adamant then this small argument between Nathan and his parents Jane and Michael will turn into large fights with fatal consequences.
Professional health care and family care nursing can help to resolve the situation. One of the approaches that can be taken by the by the health care nurse is facilitation between the child and parent relationship. This facilitation will help to nullify the gap that exists between Nathan and his parents Jane and Michael. The facilitation should be done considering the child psychology. It is said that psychological or mental health is far more important than the physiological health (Kagan, 2011).
The Cameron family consist of Jane, Michael, and their three children Nathan, Millie, and Melanie. Relocation is done by the family to have a better life in the countryside. Millie is the second children of Jane and Michael. She is at the tender age of five. As per the case study, she was as a slow starter and had difficulty in organizing her staffs (Hunnicutt, 2010). This is one important point which should be considered under the early intervention and preventive measures which should have been taken. Millie has a little sister of three years who is smart and quick. Millie could develop an inferiority complex which is a major psychological problem. If this problem persists it could affect the mental development of Millie.
This kind of problem could be resolved by the continuity of care. The problem should be comprehended and mental support through proper communication should be established between Jane, Michael, and their daughter Millie (Miller, 2011). Through proper support, this kind of condition in a child is resolved with no further problems in the future.
Family resilience is an important factor which helps to bind the family together in the crisis hours. The family can develop resilience and become stronger by following some basic principles. The same principals should be applied to the Cameron family. Since the family has relocated they will have some difficulties in adjusting to the changing situation. Besides, that argument that is occurring between Nathan and his parents might break the resilience of the family (Masten&Monn, 2015). Several types of research have been made to find out the factors which influence the resilience of the families. Cross-cultural research has been done in different countries.
The three main factors that are responsible are Cohesiveness, flexibility and proper communication among the members of the family. Some of the main principles that should be followed by the Cameron family so that they can build resilience in the family areas below:
- Jane and Michael should allow Nathan to at least take little decision on his own. This will help to resolve the gap between them which will favour building the resilience of the family (Lebow, 2016).
- The Cameron Family should share their feelings and values with each other in a loving and charming way. Jane and Michael instead of forcing the morals and values onto their children should make them understand. If the children understand the morals and values of their heart they will not forget them ever in life. This will help the Cameron family to lead a simple, happy life in the future.
References
Bjorklund, D. (2018). A Metatheory for Cognitive Development (or “Piaget is Dead” Revisited). Child Development.
Coyne, I., Holmström, I., &Söderbäck, M. (2018). Centeredness in Healthcare: A Concept Synthesis of Family-centered Care, Person-centered Care and Child-centered Care. Journal Of Pediatric Nursing, 42, 45-56
Fischer, J., Korinek, A., &Mulsow, M. (2007).Family Systems, Biopsychosocial Processes, and Lifespan Development. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 25(1-2), 1-9.
Haugen, D., & Musser, S. (2012). Health care. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.
Hunnicutt, S. (2010). Universal health care. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Kagan, S. (2011). Patient- and Family-Centered Care—Is There Individualized Care Here?. Geriatric Nursing, 32(5), 365-367.
Lebow, J. (2016). Editorial: Family Resilience. Family Process, 55(4), 613-615.
Masten, A., & Barnes, A. (2018). Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. Children, 5(7), 98.
Masten, A., &Monn, A. (2015). Child and Family Resilience: A Call for Integrated Science, Practice, and Professional Training. Family Relations, 64(1), 5-21.
Miller, D. (2011). Health care. Detroit, Mich.: Lucent Books.
Minnerath, K. (2005). Growth and Development Across the Lifespan. Family & Community Health, 28(4), 359-360.
Schlesinger, M., & McMurray, B. (2012).The past, present, and future of computational models of cognitive development. Cognitive Development, 27(4), 326-348.
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