ABSTRACT
Young children are cute and delightful—or they are having temper tantrums. Primary school children are eager and enthusiastic, gaining mastery of their world, defiant and difficult at times but still mainly wanting to please, responding to suggestions and requirements. What is unnerving for the young person and his/her family are the physical changes and also the changes in energy levels. At times the young person is full of energy, lively, restless, ready to go, to do whatever; at other times he/she feels exhausted, washed out, and very low. Underlying some of this tension is the emerging sexuality. Adolescents are struggling to confirm their sexual identity, their gender, their sexual orientation. The young person has to accomplish the major developmental task of coming to terms with difference. While the peer group is imposing and demanding a rigid conformity and sameness, in reality the young person is faced with the complexity of difference, which he/she will attempt to deny.
