Development factors

According to cognitive development theory Piaget, (2007), at the age of 10 years the child has reached the final stage of development. At this stage, the child is able to process information, conceptualize the situation, and understand the language as used by the adults. The child is able to understand the death of his or her parent and what death means in human life (Piaget, 2007).

In the death of the parent, the child has the ability to conceptualize and know it that as an irreversible occurance in life. He is able also to understand that death can occur to any person of any age. He or she is able to know that death will make him or her to miss the parent for the rest of his or her life. The parent has gone forever and will not come back to life again. From what the adults are doing or saying about his or her parent make the child understand what death is and why it happens (Kindlon, 2001). However, to some children this may create a lot of psychological effect due to some misunderstandings. The child may be very much depressed to the loss of a loved one who was very close and supportive to him or her. He or she will feel the absence and have a lot of fear about the parent’s destiny after death. He or she may create a lot of hypotheses about the future and ideological problems in regard to the death (Elkind, 2001).

The child become more concerened are very eager to know what and why the parent died. These questions makes the child to get more worried and affected psychologically when he or she does not see the parent. From the reactions of adults towards the loss the child percieves death as a greatest enermy to human life and hence fears death to occur to him or her too (Biggs & Collis, 2002).

In response to the loss the child is able to accept death and learn how to live without his parent. Even though the memory will not get out of his or her minds, the child is able to remember his or her parent as he or she grows. He is able to think logically and understand what death means. At this age, the child is able to accept the physical loss of his or her parent and is able to accommodate it in his or her mind. He or she begins to conceptualize and think abstractly in relation to the death of his parent. He or she is able to create logical structures to explain his or her own physical experiences in life and from what he sees the adults are talking and doing. Since the child is approaching the final stage of cognition, he or she no longer requires objects that are concrete to enable him or her make rational judgments about death. His or her abstract thinking is very much similar to that of an adult (Chapman, 2008).

Due to this ability, the loss of the parent may affect him or her and feel very much depressed immediately after the death. At this time the child requires a lot of counselling and guidance to accept the loss and cope up with it. To the child, loss of parent may make him or her feel that his or her hope has reached its end. The future may look hopeless to him or her. This is the time the child needs to be helped by the adults on how to survive without the parent.

References

Biggs, J. & Collis, K., (2002). A system of evaluating learning outcomes: The SOLO Taxonomy. N Y: Academic Press.

Chapman, M., (2008). “Constructive Evolution: Origins & Development of Piaget’s Thought”.

N Y: Cambridge University Press.

Elkind, D., (2001). The Hurried Child: Growing up too fast, too soon, 3rd Ed. MA: Perseus Publishing.

Kindlon, D., (2001). Too much of a Good Thing: Raising children of character in indulgent age. N Y: Hyperion.

Miller, P. H. (2002). Theories of Developmental Psychology 4th Ed. N Y: Worth Publishers

Piaget, J., (2007). The Essential Piaget. N Y: Basic Books.