Child and Adolescent Development

Action for the Rights of Children

Children and adolescents are not short adults – they are qualitatively different. They have physical, psychological and social needs that must be met to enable healthy growth and development. The extent to which parents, the family, the community and the society are able to meet these developmental needs (or not) has long-term consequences for the kinds of adults they will become. Armed conflict, displacement, disruption of normal life, and separation from family and/or community can have powerful, long-lasting effects that need to be compensated for in protection and assistance interventions.

This resource pack does not aim to offer a comprehensive account of child and adolescent development: rather it seeks to provide some introductory material which relates particularly to some of the critical isues facing children with a refugee background. It is mainly knowledge based: facilitators will find many references to other ARC Resource Packs and may find it helpful to turn to these both to amplify some of the issues and to find more skill-oriented training materials.

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