Understanding and Engaging Unaccompanied Children & Youth Through the Lens of Child Development
As an advocate working with unaccompanied children and youth, you are able to observe first-hand how child developmental stages impact communication and engagement. Through your experience and client interactions you understand the importance of building trust with your clients to gather accurate information about the reasons for, and experiences during their journey to the United States. In your work with children, even if they are all of the similar ages, it is important to consider their cognitive capacity as well as their language and emotional development to phrase questions in a trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate way.
As we know, unaccompanied children and youth arrive to the United States with diverse life experiences, often shaped by trauma, displacement, and instability. Each client’s developmental stage significantly influences how they perceive their environment, communicate, regulate their emotions, and make decisions. As advocates, it’s vital to understand child development, not just age differences, but taking into consideration cultural differences, trauma’s impact on development, and a child’s resilience.
According to developmental psychology, the five main stages of development are:
- Infancy (birth to 1 year)
- Toddlerhood (1 to 3 years)
- Preschool (3-5 years)
- Early school age (5 to 12 years)
- Adolescence (13 to 18 years)
In each stage of development, it is important to be conscious of developmental differences such as disabilities, socio-cultural differences, and the five domains of development. The five domains of development are physical, cognitive, language, social, and emotional development.
The majority of advocates work with children and youth in the developmental stages of early school age and adolescence; therefore, this excerpt will summarize these two developmental stages. CILA will host a webinar on August 26, 2025, that will cover all five developmental stages. Learn more about our webinar at the end of this post.
Early School Age (5 to 12 years old) Developmental Stage:
This is a wider age range of development. Even though 5- to 12-year-olds are under the same developmental stage, how you would communicate and engage with a five-year-old is different than how you would communicate and engage a 12-year-old. For example, during this stage for the physical domain five- to six-year-olds can kick a ball, while a 12-year-old can run with the ball and play soccer with an understanding of the rules of the game. For each domain in this developmental stage 5–8-year-olds per say will start developing the skills shown in each domain while later ages 10–12-year-olds will have a better grasp of those developmental skills (targets).
Physical:
- Significant advancements in gross and fine motor skills
- Body image awareness (more aware of their bodies and physical abilities)
- Closer to 11/12-year-olds begin to deal with puberty/physical changes
Cognitive:
- Can grasp concepts of past, present, and future
- Short- and long-term memory improve, are able to recall information and experiences more reliably
Language:
- Vocabulary and sentence structure become more complex, can understand and use more sophisticated language, including complex grammatical structures
- Able to create narratives with a clear beginning, middle, and end
Social:
- Capable of following multi-step instructions
- Learn to manage emotions better (regulation) and express themselves appropriately
- Closer to 11 or 12 years old, more susceptible to peer pressure, which can influence their choices and behaviors
Emotional:
- Improved emotional regulation to emotions like anger or sadness
- Peer relationships become increasingly important, children learn how to navigate social situations, cooperate, and resolve conflicts
- Start to develop their own sense of right and wrong
Adolescence (13 to 18 years old) Developmental Stage:
Physical:
- Period marked by puberty, a time when the body undergoes rapid changes in preparation for sexual maturity
- The onset and progression of puberty varies between individuals, with some experiencing it early in the adolescence stage and others later
Cognitive:
- Develop the ability to think abstractly, reason hypotheticals, consider multiple perspectives
- Can evaluate different options, consider future consequences, and make more complex decisions
Language:
- Develop a deeper understanding of figurative language (such as metaphors, similes, idioms, and moving beyond literal interpretations)
- Improved ability to construct more complex grammatical structures, adapt to code-switching (culturally or different language styles depending on context- friends, vs adults)
Social:
- Developing peer relationships, exploring romantic interests, navigating transition from family-oriented structures to broader social circles, greater sense of belonging, and want to feel accepted by peers
- Want to establish their own identity and make independent decisions
Emotional:
- Marked by increased sensitivity, mood swings, changes in behavior, heightened focus on peer relationships
- Navigating changes in adolescence can be challenging and lead to feelings of insecurity, anxiety, depression, and mental health challenges often begin to manifest or intensify during this stage
Strategies for Engagement:
The early school age and adolescence developmental stages are a formative period where a lot of changes are happening in the different domains; physical, cognitive, language, social, and emotional. Practical strategies for engagement for children and youth in these stages are:
- Ask open-ended questions. These questions begin with what, why, or how, and encourages clients to elaborate on their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
- Let them feel. Acknowledge and validate a child’s/youth’s feelings and emotions of the feelings/experiences shared with you.
- Give agency. When there is space, let them know they can choose where to sit, when to take a break if they need one, what they’d like to address next.
- Engage in activities that involve physical movement such as stretching, walking, or running in place.
- Show them. Practice coping techniques with them such as deep breathing, mindfulness- being present in the moment, exercising, journaling, coloring, and drawing.
Join our CILA Webinar: Meeting Unaccompanied Children Where They Are: Practical Guidance Across Developmental Stages
Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Time: 2:00 pm-3:30 pm CT
LIVE via Zoom
Register HERE
By CILA social work team