Developmental Tasks

Specific Age Periods

During infancy (approximately birth to 2 years), the focus is on physical, sensorimotor, and social developmental tasks. Infants are expected to master motor tasks, such as grasping and hand-to-hand transfer. They begin to move independently, eventually being able to walk on their own. Reflexes present at birth evolve into sensorimotor intelligence, and infants begin to integrate sensory experiences with motor behaviors so that they can eventually accomplish the developmental task of acquiring object permanence (or the understanding that objects exist even when they are unobservable). Maturing visual and social systems mutually complement each other; enhancements in the visual system promote mutual gaze between mother and child, which supports the developmental task of attachment. Developmental tasks related to communication, such as the ability to recognize sounds and articulate and understand words, are key developmental tasks essential for social communication and the later developmental task of forming interpersonal relationships in subsequent age periods.

During toddlerhood (approximately 2–4 years), children develop more advanced locomotive and language skills. Motor developments at this stage can be seen in toddlers’ emerging ability to run, jump, and go up and down stairs easily. Other developmental tasks include using words for communicating socially, acquiring vocabulary, and forming increasingly complex grammatical sentences. Unique to this age period is the developmental task of fantasy play, which psychosocial theorists believe is essential to social and cognitive development. Finally, toddlers are expected to attain some measure of physical, social, and emotional self-control during this age period, including bowel control, being sensitive to the needs of others, and rudimentary frustration tolerance.

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