Textbook Reflections: Chapter Six- How do adolescents develop?

     

This chapter discussed the development of adolescents: the intellectual, moral, developmental, physical and reader.

The intellectual aspect, Piaget’s Theory states that we progress from sensory motor to concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage. At age 10, a child’s developmental thinking develops from concrete to abstract. Then at age 14, they develop into more abstract thinkers, in this stage they can better scaffold, this is where it is important for the level, type, and Lexile of the book questions must match this stage.

When it comes to the physical aspect, puberty is a time in which the child changes, transitions and grows. During this time period, adolescents become interested in books that offer assurance, that are relevant, and in which they identify with some of the characters in books.

According to Havighurst’s Development Stages, during this stage is where they learn to get along with peers, they form easy relationship with the opposite sex, working for pay, changing relationships with parents, finding a vocation, developing morals and values, adapting to their physical bodies, and defining appropriate sex roles. During this stage they transition from childhood to adolescent. Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy consists of five stages, physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Moreover, Kohlberg’s Moral Theory, relates that kids have preconventional morals, their decisions are based on reward and punishment. Conventional morals follow the rule, overall a good person who abides by the rule, regardless it be dictated societal rules or religion based. Post conventional morals are those we recognize the laws but, this is where it gets blurry, because the sense of humanity is more important than the law sometimes, therefore on occasion leading to civil disobedience.

Readers are developed through empathy, unconscious delight reading, reading autobiographically, reading for vicarious experiences, reading for philosophical speculation, and reading for aesthetic purposes. Through the “cake model” and its stages are where and how lifelong readers are developed.

After reading this chapter, I learned about how adolescents develop, and how that correlates with the literature they want, need, or become interested in reading as a result of those changes. The information was very insightful and will be very useful for when I have to reference back to review Young Adult Literature. It is very important to know what kind of mindset your reading audience is coming from and how their mindset will affect their reading preferences.