Human development and role of counsellor

The development is a complex and complicated lifelong process which integrates multidimensional enhancement of the person. Though there is a systemic trend and direction of human growth and development, yet there are substantial variations in pattern of development. During interaction with different groups, following developmental associated problems and their factors have been noticed.

Developmental problems associated with childhood:

Child is helpless and completely dependent on others even for survival. Love, affection, warmth and care, sense of belongingness and opportunities to learn new things and skills are essential for healthy development of a child. During this period parents play an important role for socialization of children and development of their potentialities.

Some children born with certain deformities like intellectual, physical or sensory challenging conditions, cleft palate, facial problems, premature birth, unattractiveness, abnormally rapid or slow growth, speech problems include stuttering and stammering and diseases etc which may be hereditary, psychological, congenital or acquired due to accident or infections could result in many developmental problems.

          Physical, social, emotional, intellectual as well as moral development of children depends on their childhood experience in their families. Encouragement and reinforcement leads to positive regard for oneself and adequate attitude towards others. The emotional deprivation leads to extreme damage to emotional wellbeing of the child. Too much affection and emotional concentration on child leads to false ideas about self-worth, wrong notion, irrational fears, jealousies, and anger etc.

          Personal and social adjustment mainly depends on child’s relationship with others. General appearance and material availability decides acceptance and popularity one enjoys. Unpopular child feels lonely, insecure and inferior. If the child becomes unpopular, he is deprived of opportunities to learn socially acceptable behaviour. If there is strong pressure to behave in appropriate way, the individual will overact and this may further leads to unpopularity among the group. Behavioural changes noticed among children include temper tantrums i.e. extreme emotional expression like banging heads against wall, disobedience, aggression, stubborn behavior, fighting with siblings & peers , destroying / breaking things, stealing, using vulgar and obscene language, disturbing, teasing and bullying others and neglecting responsibilities etc.

Insecurity and anxiety emerges due to faulty parent – child relations, lack of warmth, inconsistent discipline at home. Children of permissive parents become selfish and disregard rights of others and face problem while interacting with larger society and they become unsocial and aggressive. The children subjected to strict authoritarian training are overtly obedient only in the presence of adult and feel that they are being treated unfairly. Unwanted and negative experience like child abuse in terms of physical punishment, child labour and family friction leads to negative effects. Parent’s attitude and child rearing practices may lead to some crucial problems in child’s development.

Developmental problems associated with adolescents:

Adolescence is the period of storm and stress. On one hand adolescents want freedom from control and on the other they want assurance that someone will help them as and when necessary. During the interactions with adolescents some common problems as noticed are as follows:-

Adolescents never feel free to discuss their personal problems like concerns about sexual impulses, confusion about career options, emotional ups and downs, academic problems etc. which lead to negative attitude towards self and parents. Undue comparison among siblings and with friends results in resentment and maladjustment.

Any variation from normal physiological growth like physical size ,strength and attractiveness leads to problems related to emotional adjustment and social interactions. There are emotional problems related to self identity like an increased desire for isolation, experience of boredom, social antagonism, heightened emotionality, loss of self confidence and anxiety about whether their body parts are developing properly or otherwise.

Most of the adolescents face impulse control problems particularly how to control sexual impulse. They are not comfortable to discuss it with anyone else other than very close friends. The friends also have partial and incomplete information that may mislead them and resulted in increased bad habits.

Excessive use of ego defense mechanism especially regression to win favour and recognition is observed in their behavior. Self rejection and anti-social behaviour is common if the environment is not conducive to support very high and even unrealistic aspirations.

The adolescents also face confusion regarding their role status and related demands and interpersonal relations. The peers have greater influence on their attitudes, interests, values and behaviour in general than that of family members.

The girls are generally neglected by their families in terms of nutrition, health, education, personality and use of potentials. The problems related to their puberty changes and gynaecological difficulties etc are not discussed. Undue attention to physical attractiveness of girls also affects their self concepts and their aspirations. Growing girls are treated with more restrictions and sex role becomes extremely important for them which resulted to child abuse and sexual harassment.

Development takes place partly due to unfolding of the genetic potential and partly due to learning taking place in the environment. The genetic ability decides the time of maturation and maturation provides the basic raw material which makes learning possible that finally leads to development e.g. a child cannot walk without maturation of physical capabilities. After attaining maturation, the extent of expertise attends (development) depends on the external stimulation.

The physical changes are predominately caused by heredity and nutritional factors. But the high level motor skills and cognitive capabilities like thinking and information processing etc. develop due to interaction between heredity, environment, processes of maturation and experience.   Interaction with other individuals and exposure to social situation facilitate the development.

The maturation of physical capacities depends on the heredity, nutrition and caring environment available to the person. Some stimulatory factors which accelerate development are healthy environment, freedom from disease, love and care, interaction with adults and early detection of developmental problems etc. help in attaining maximum maturation and expression of hereditary capabilities.

Factors affecting the development: All the factors which affect the development process of the child belong to two broad groups.

(i)                  Internal factors

(ii)                External factors

Internal factors: Internal factors are hereditary and include physiological and genetical characteristics, colour of eyes & hairs ,temperament ,sensitivity , motor coordination, musculature, vitality, speech and hearing mechanism, nervous system etc. The rate at which development is taking place across life span called pace of development varies from individual to individual not only in terms of rate but also on pattern of development. Some develop slowly in early childhood on some aspects like motor coordination, abstract thinking, language development aesthetic sensitivity, emotional development etc.

The hereditary characters are controlled by genetic makeup of an individual constitute the genotype and the expression of characters i.e. individual’s genotype is referred to as phenotype which include physical and psychological characteristics.

External factors:  Te external factors are present in the environment and play a very vital role in the development of the children. The environmental factors include holistic nutrition, parental care, family environment, peer influence, community influence, interaction with adults, language spoken and exposure to technology and media etc. Stimulating environment promotes the development particularly when individual has acquired maturation and is psychologically ready. e.g. Children who live with adults or to whom parents talk frequently ,learn to talk sooner. Likewise when children are stimulated by evoking their interest in reading, they are likely to learn to read sooner than children who are not exposed to such programmes.

Nutritional influence: Proper nutrition and balanced diet fulfills all the nutrients requirements that lead to better physical and mental growth. The quality of food may also affect size, height and weight of the child. E.g Children fed with non vegetarian food have been found to show remarkable gain in height and weight during development. Well nourished girl child attain puberty and sexual maturity at an early age.

Family influence: Family is the most important institution in the development of the child. Family is the primary social unit that laid the foundation of socialization of the child. The basic needs of the child like food, safety, care etc are fulfilled in the family. The socio-economic status of family sets the limits to the quality of care and support and help in building a sense of security and self esteem in the child. The child learns to interact in the family beginning with parents, brothers, sisters and others. The parental style of warmth, love acceptance, rejections etc. affect the development of the child. Warm and accepting parents inculcate healthy socio-emotional development and negligence leads to hostility, anger, apathy and passivity in child. The overall emotional climate of the family i.e. interpersonal relationship among family members lay the foundation of development.

School influence: School as an important social unit occupies a central place and affects the development of children as they spend good part of their working hours. During the interactions with the teachers, classmates and others the children use their skills and develop ideas about socially acceptable behaviours through experience. School and classroom climate, teacher’s attitude and behavior disciplinary practices, curriculum content and peer interactions are important factors which affect the development of child.

Peer influence: peer group greatly influence development by changing social attitude and behavior patterns, peer pressure supplements the development and helps in the learning socially approved behavior. Peer group also creates more challenges and potential threats to adjustment. If the relationship with peers is pleasant, an individual enjoys social contacts while unpleasant contacts avoid them and make them maladjusted. Often peer come to replace family influence as a socialization factors for teenagers.

Community factors: The availability of common spaces like playground, parks, shopping complex, recreation centres etc. and interaction among neighbourhood of different socio-economic group and attitude play an important role in facilitating development. 

Technology and mass media:  Many electronic gadgets like personal computer, radio television and internet etc. poses strong influence on individual. A lot of time of individual is being consumed every day. Many times what is depicted in media differs considerably from reality that may cause adverse impact on children. The television viewing is the most passive entertainment method which affects efficiency of cognitive process and leads to psychological and physiological problems, emotional and social problems as noticed among children are inefficiency of brain, decrease inefficiency of eyes, lack of proper sleep, lethargy and obesity etc. Readymade messages are detrimental to development of higher order cognitive functions like creativity. General behaviour, dress fashion and mannerism, values and ideals all are related to contents of television programmes rather than reality of the society. Substantially increased aggression and violence has been noticed among heavy television viewing children. The whole personality of heavy television viewing children becomes gratification oriented and want that their every desire to be fulfilled immediately.

Strategies for Counsellor to help in faster adjustment and development:

Development is fully integrated into shaping of young person’s capacity for achievement. Therefore the counselor or teachers should use certain strategies for helping the individuals in faster adjustment and development.

     Provide ample opportunities to use all the senses like seeing, smelling and hearing etc. at the same time we should ensure the sufficiently safe environment in which exploration does not meet any accident.

     In such environment the child automatically develops a trust in the adults and grow up better. Trusting adults automatically facilitate adjustment and future development.

     Adults need to be clear about their expectations from the child and of promises made. Setting appropriate and clear limits and behavior guidelines enable the child to realize what can be tried.

     We should encourage the children to take initiatives at personal and group level, as it will help them learn concepts and have an idea of things around them.

     It is essential to learn to live together and parents need to be encouraged to stay calm and emotionally balanced.

     Development of autonomy is an important developmental task to be achieved by every child.

     Since many tasks are difficult to be accomplished, children often experience dissatisfaction and frustration on failure that leads to doubt about their own capacities and lack of trust. A caring and comforting atmosphere coupled with nurturing relationship will help in facilitating the developmental task.