Developmental+Stages

One of the challenges of being a youth services librarian is that you are often providing services to children and young people from 0 to 18 years old. That birth to teenager spectrum is wide and diverse. Meeting the needs of all our patrons, from the youngest to the oldest (and their parents or care givers) means that we must be creative and thoughtful in our approach to program and collection development. One way that we can begin to develop age appropriate programs and services is to be aware of the various developmental and cognitive stages that children and young people go through. Below are a list of some of the resources available to give you an overview of these different ages and stages. HINT: you will find these resources helpful when you are working on your final project for this course which requires you to plan developmentally appropriate programs for a library for a year!


 * Babies and Children**

How Babies Think (from Scientific American, July 2010): []

Developmental Stages for Children and Youth: []

Growth Milestones from Prenatal to age 18: []

Normal Stages of Human Development: []


 * Teenagers**

The Teenage Brain: []

Frontline: Inside the Teenage Brain: []

Tween and Teen Behaviour and Development: []

Teen Development: []

Teenage Brain: A Work in Progress: []


 * Psychological Stages**

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development: []

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: []