Name: Salanga, Joselle A.

Reflective Essay 1.
Define Child, Adolescent, Growth, Development, Human Development and Child
Development using your own words.

A child is a young human being who falls within infancy and below puberty. A child has
a different level of intelligence, cognitive and emotional capacity compared to an adult. In this
stage, they are still dependent and need guidance, care, and support from their parents or
guardians because they are still in the process of growing up. Meanwhile, adolescent refers to
a teenager who is still in the process of developing from a child to an adult. During
adolescence, teenagers start to experience various changes in their physical appearance like
growth of facial hair, enlargement of the breast, deepening of voice in males, hormonal
changes, development of cognitive abilities, heightened emotions, and mood swings.
Meanwhile, growth is the process of developing and maturing physically, mentally, and
emotionally. It is either biological or developmental growth. Biological growth refers to the
increase of the mass and size of an organ and body (e.g. enlargement of the breast,
development of Adam’s apple, penis and testis getting bigger) Specifically, developmental
growth refers to the maturation and advancement of an individual’s critical thinking (e.g.
problem-solving abilities and understanding).
In terms of the basic concept of developmental stages. Development refers to the
progressive changes in physical, mental, emotional, and key areas of age destination. It is a
multifaceted concept that encompasses their growth, maturation, and advancement.
Development is divided into two parts: human development and child development. Human
development encompasses various aspects of the life of an individual from birth to old age.
Specifically, it examines the growth, changes, and transition to understand how humans
explore life in their existence. Human development deals with seeking their well-being and
with their capabilities, free will, and choices in life to become educated and decent in standard
living. Lastly, child development refers to the growth and changes of a child from birth to
adolescence including their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. When a
child starts to develop their motor skills by learning how to walk, crawl, stand, speak, develop
a sense of identifying what is right and wrong, and make a peer.

Reflective Essay 2.
Explain each view in not less than 50 words.

Ramon was a good friend of yours in eighth grade, but you have not seen him since.
Last week, you most surprisingly ran into him and spent some time together reminiscing. You
thought as you walked away, “Good old Ramon, still the same funny guy”.
You remember a quote by Socrates in Plato’s Dialogue (350B.C./1952).. some men- the
best men are made of gold, others of silver, and still others of brass and iron.
Socrates asserted that these characteristics generally will be preserved in their children,
meaning that our genetic lotteries play a key role in determining our behavior. Thinking of
Socrates’ statement makes you wonder if perhaps Ramon’s humor is determined by something
in his genetic constitution.
But, as you walk on, you also remember a contradicting thought from Locke’s works.
He made a point of emphasizing that impressions are made during our “tender infancies” and
have lasting and important consequences.
Now you wonder if Ramon’s environment was the main contributing factor in making
him the funny person that he is. (Owens, 2006)

Based on Socrates’ viewpoint, our genetics play a key role in our certain behavior and
personality traits. It means that an individual characteristics or behavior can be passed down
through their genetics. He categorized people into different types of metal gold, silver, brass
and iron. Men who were made of gold implied that they had admirable qualities, silver men
were considered to have positive traits but not as good as gold men, brass men were
considered as low quality and exhibited less desirable traits and iron men were considered as
least favorite and implied negative traits. It simply means that the behavior of someone can be
generally preserved from one another, just like the Filipino proverb conveys “Whatever the
tree, so is the fruit”. The speaker in the context is considering that Ramon’s sense of humor
might be rooted in his genetic makeup. In conclusion, Socrates’ viewpoint believes that
behavior is hereditary and can be passed down to the next generation.
However, based on Locke’s viewpoint contradicts the statement of Socrates. It
emphasizes that our environment influences our behavior and personal traits. Specifically, our
early childhood experiences on what kind of environment we are dealing with. He stated the
context of “tender infancies” which means that our experiences in our growth and
development have a big and lasting impact on our behavior. Locke believes that our life
experiences mold and shape who we become. Like Ramon’s personality, it was the
environment or the external factors that shaped his funny personality.

Reflective Essay 3.
Answer briefly the following questions.

1. Discuss the importance of knowing the developmental tasks in each period as a future
teacher. How do you think acquiring knowledge on it would help you deal with different
types of students?
Knowing the developmental task in each period as a future teacher can significantly help
me to become observant, aware, and empathetic in order for me to understand and connect
with my students’ behavior and emotions. In addition, acquiring this knowledge to deal with
different types of students. It can help me to establish realistic expectations for students
based on their developmental stages and can foster a positive learning environment, recognize
their differences, navigate challenges easily and I can provide guidance and support to deal
with their negative emotional responses.

2. Name the three domains of development and discuss its interrelationship.

The three domains of development are physical, cognitive, and socioemotional
development. Physical development refers to the physical aspects of the development of an
individual including the shape, mass and size of their body. Cognitive development refers to
their intellectual and cognitive capacity. Socioemotional development refers to the social and
emotional abilities of an individual. These three domains are interconnected and can have a
domino effect on each other and illustrate how changes can impact other areas. Its
interrelationship emphasizes that the changes in every developmental stage have a ripple
effect on one another and can drive changes. Physical, cognitive and socioemotional
development work together to mold an individual’s overall growth and development.
3. Explain why two people are not exactly alike. What is the implication of it in Teaching-
Learning process?
Two people are not exactly alike due to their genetics, learning environment and early
childhood experiences. These factors can shape and influence an individual uniqueness leading
to physical, cognitive and emotional differences. Its implication in the teaching-learning
process can recognize individual differences by means of taking accountability for students’
strengths and weaknesses, behavior and intelligence. Specifically, employing different
strategies to meet the diverse needs of the students when it comes to learning because it is
vital to embrace diversity in every student’s uniqueness.
4. Give your own examples of non-normative age-graded, normative-history graded, and
non-normative influences?
One of the most timely and relevant non-normative age graded is child labor. When a child
starts to engage in various forms of job because of poverty (e.g. street vending, begging,
agricultural labor, and domestic work). It is not the expected experience for children’s age
because they were supposed to focus on their education, well-being, growth and
development.
Martial Law refers to the period of military rule and government control that was declared
by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. It is an example of normative-history graded. Many
Filipinos faced harassment, restrictions on their freedom of speech and liberties, being
arrested and jailed. It left a lasting impact on the political, social and emotional of many
Filipinos at that time. Martial Law was a shared experience and intensely affected an entire
Filipino generation molding their perspectives and values up until now.
Winning a prestigious award or recognition such as Nobel Prize or Oscar is an example of
non-normative influence because it is a highly remarkable and rare achievement that only a
few people can experience.
5. Differentiate critical period from sensitive period. Give examples.
Critical period refers to the specific time frame or absence of a certain aspect of
development. One of the examples is the language acquisition that occurs during early
childhood. It can also influenced by language exposure and linguistic environment and it is
associated with specific developmental stages. Meanwhile, a sensitive period refers to the time
frame of being more open or accessible to certain experiences. For example, by learning how
to play a guitar, during this time they can develop their cognitive abilities, acquiring motor
skills and musical concepts.