Assessing Development Stage for GP/Family Medicine professionals

This session will help you review both personal and accepted definitions of adolescence. It will discuss the physical, social, cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes that take place during this developmental stage. A four stage assessment tool will be described that can be used to determine where a young person is in relation to early, middle or late adolescent development.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe personal and accepted definitions of adolescence
• Specify the five changes that contribute to the developmental stage
• Describe the four major challenges of adolescent development
• Evaluate the four step developmental assessment framework

Young people go through complicated biological, psychological and social changes during adolescence. These changes influence their psychosexual development, their personal identity and the way they process information about themselves, their world and the future.