Career Development: Children & Adolescents

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Chapter 7: Career Development in Childhood
Super’s Model of the Career Development of Children
This model by Donald Super explains that during elementary school children begin to develop self concepts (Sharf, 2013). Self-concept is the core of Super's theory. Many factors contribute to the self-concept such as biological characteristics, social roles, and the interplay of others reactions on the individual. Development of the self concept begins in late to early adolescence. It is subjective and can be influenced by perceptions from family, peers, and teachers about themselves or about occupations.
Super’s Model begins with identification of the child’s curiosities. Curiosities may evolve from exposure to new objects, new people, or various other stimuli. These curiosities lead to the child exploring and obtaining information that helps develop their interests. Super explained that it is important discourage disruptive behavior while still allowing children to be curious and explore. Encouraging positive curiosity and exploration can help children meet their curiosity needs and may help caregivers have an alternative to punishment. Because exploration leads to more exploration the child is then able to obtain more information about the environment and consequently may lead to a higher potential of vocational planning.
According to Super’s Model one way in which children process information is through imitation. This imitation may be of a key figure in the child’s life, such as a role model. In the development of the child’s self-concept the child can incorporate or reject characteristics of their key figure in order to better suit themselves. As a counselor it is important to listen for misinformation or misperceptions of what t...

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...Knowing the client’s career history in addition to her parents and siblings careers, you can assist the client in forming her own identity of likes and dislikes. This will allow the client to narrow her possible career options.
In regards to career maturity, the client is lacking. She lacks insight as to where her interests and abilities are. She has numerous ideas and pathways she could choose from. In this situation, it is important for the counselor to meet the client where she is. It would be beneficial to understand the client’s willingness to research and explore possible career paths and her understanding of the world of work. Once you have a better understanding of the client’s career maturity, you can start the career readiness process.

Works Cited

Sharf, R. (2013). Applying career development theory to counseling. (6th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Brooks/Cole.

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