Erikson, Kohlberg, Bronfenbrenner and Children with Special Needs

Each stage has a crisis; resolving it positively builds a healthy personality.

1. Trust vs Mistrust (0–1½ years)
2. Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt (1½–3)
3. Initiative vs Guilt (3–5) – pre-school
4. Industry vs Inferiority (5–12) – primary school years; success with tasks builds competence
5. Identity vs Role Confusion (12–18) – adolescence; "Who am I?"
6. Intimacy vs Isolation (young adulthood)
7. Generativity vs Stagnation (middle adulthood)
8. Integrity vs Despair (old age)

Teaching tips: primary teachers should give achievable tasks and praise effort (industry); secondary teachers should allow choices, discuss careers and values, and respect students' search for identity.

Studied moral reasoning using dilemmas such as the Heinz dilemma.

Level 1 – Pre-conventional (most children under 9)

• Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation
• Stage 2: Self-interest / instrumental exchange ("you scratch my back…")

Level 2 – Conventional (most adolescents and adults)

• Stage 3: Good boy–good girl (interpersonal approval)
• Stage 4: Law and order (maintaining social order)

Level 3 – Post-conventional

• Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights
• Stage 6: Universal ethical principles

Criticism: Carol Gilligan argued the theory focuses on justice and underrates an ethic of care.

A child develops within nested environmental systems:

• Microsystem – direct contact: family, school, peers, neighbourhood.
• Mesosystem – links between microsystems (e.g. parent–teacher relationship).
• Exosystem – settings that affect the child indirectly (parent's workplace, local education office).
• Macrosystem – culture, values, laws, economy.
• Chronosystem – changes over time (e.g. parents' divorce, floods, migration).

Implication: a child's learning problem may come from outside the classroom; teachers should build strong school–home links.

• Dyslexia – difficulty with reading and decoding words.
• Dysgraphia – difficulty with handwriting and written expression.
• Dyscalculia – difficulty with number sense and mathematics.
• ADHD – inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity.
• Sensory impairments – visual or hearing impairment.
• Intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and gifted and talented learners.

Inclusive education educates children with and without disabilities together in regular classrooms with needed support. An IEP (Individualised Education Plan) sets specific goals and accommodations for a learner.

Strategies: seat near the teacher/board, multi-sensory teaching, break tasks into small steps, extra time, peer buddies, visual aids, clear routines, enrichment and acceleration for gifted learners.