Development through life stages

Human life begins with conception which is fertilising an egg, and then it is pregnancy and then birth and infancy. After nine months baby will be born and new born baby has to take easily digestible food such as mother’s milk in the first weeks in order to grow. Newborn’s baby brain isn’t fully developed but can hear sounds tell differences in taste and identify the smell of own mother or carer. Infants are born with various temporary and primitive reflexes. The primitive reflexes infants are born with include:

• A newborn baby will turn their head towards any touch on the cheek.

• If you place your finger in the palm of a baby’s hand, they will grasp your finger tightly.

• If a baby is startled – perhaps by a loud noise – they will throw their hands and arms outwards, arching the back and straightening the legs.

• If a newborn baby is held upright with their feet touching the ground, they will make movements as if trying to walk. Babies prefer the sound of human voices to other sounds and soon learn to recognise their mother’s voice.

Childhood

Children grow steadily but less rapidly than during infancy. Children’s practical abilities continue to develop, at the age of 2 children may be able to run and to climb stairs one step at the time. When children are 4 they may be able to kick and throw a large ball. By age 6 or 7 a child may be able to skip and ride a bicycle.

Adolescence

Puberty in girl starts between 11 – 13 years although it may begin earlier in some girls. Boys start puberty later often between 13-15 years old. Puberty is a stage where body is preparing for sexual reproduction. Both boys and girls may experience a growth spurt where they will grow faster than before. Girls development:

1. Enlargement of breasts

2. Development of pubic hair

3. Increased fat layers under the skin

4. Start of menstrual periods

Boys:

1. Enlargement of their testes and penis

2. Increased muscle strength

3. Boys voices ‘ break’ and become deeper in tone

Adulthood

Young adults are often at the peak of their physical performance between the ages of 18 and 28. Older adults tend to lose some strength and speed with age. Exercise can help develop physical fitness and athletic skills. There are a number of age-related changes that become apparent as we grow older. During their forties, many people find that they need to wear reading glasses. Some people cannot hear high-pitched sounds so well during late adulthood. Many adults show a thinning of hair, with hair loss being common in men.

The menopause

Women are most fertile in their late teens and early twenties. The risk of miscarriages and pregnancy complications increases with age and between 45 and 55, fertility reduces and then comes to an end in. The menopause involves:

• The gradual ending of menstruation and a large reduction in the number of viable eggs in the ovary.

• An increase in the production of hormones to try and stimulate egg production which can cause irritability, hot flushes and night sweats.

• A reduction in sexual interest

• associated problems, such as osteoporosis, which can be caused by a reduction in the production of sex hormones

Final stage of life

The longest any human has lives is 122 years but the average of people living is 90 years old.

Intellectual development

The sensorimotor stage: birth to 1. 5 or 2 years – Learning to use senses and muscles

• Babies are born with the ability to sense objects.

• Babies are also born with a range of reflexes such as the sucking reflex to enable them to feed. These reflexes lead to ‘ motor actions’ controlling body muscles.

• The sensorimotor stage is a stage when thinking is limited to sensing objects and performing motor actions.

• Piaget believed that a baby would not have a working system for remembering and thinking about the world untilthey were about 18 months old.

The pre-operational stage: 2–7 years Pre-logical thinking – thinking in language but without understanding logic

• Pre-operational means pre-logical; during this stage Piaget believed that children could not think in a logical way. Children can use words to communicate but they do not understand the logical implications involved in language.

• Piaget explained that pre-operational children cannot properly understand how ideas like number, mass and volume really work. A child might be able to count to 10 but might not understand what the number 10 really means. For example, in the case of 10 buttons stretched out in a line and the same number of buttons in a pile, a young child might agree that there are 10 buttons in the line and 10 buttons in the pile, but then they might say that there are more buttons in the line because it is longer.

The concrete operational stage: 7–11 years -stage where logical thinking is limited to practical situations

• Children in the concrete operations stage can think logically provided the issues are ‘ down to earth’ or concrete. In the concrete operational stage children may be able to understand simple logical puzzles.

The formal operational stage: from 11+ years -Thinking using logic and abstract thought processes – adult thinking

• With formal logical reasoning, an adult can solve complex problems in their head.

• Formal logical operations enable adolescents and adults to use abstract concepts and theories in order to be able to gain an understanding of the world beyond their own experiences.

• Adults with formal operations can think scientifically

• Abstract thinking enables us to think through complicated ideas in our head without having to see the concrete pictures.

Language development

Age: 3 months – infants begin to make babbling noises as they learn to control the muscles associated with speech

12 months: infants begin to imitate sounds made by carers such as da-da; this develops into the use of single words

2 years: infants begin to make two-word statements; the infant begins to build their vocabulary

3 years: children begin to make simple sentences, and then this develops into ability to ask questions, knowledge of words grows really quickly

4 years: children begin to use clear sentences that can be understood by strangers

5 years: children can speak using full adult grammar.

Social development

Infancy

1. At 2 months start to smile at human faces

2. 3 months- respond to when adults talk

3. 5 months-can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people

4. Make first relationships – emotional attachment to carers

5. Play alongside other children

Childhood

1. Emotionally attached and dependent on adults that care for them

2. Begin to learn social roles and behaviour

3. Co-operate playing with other children

4. Becoming increasingly independent

5. Begin to form friendships

6. Form social networks of friends who like and agree with each other

Adolescence

1. Copy styles of dress, beliefs, cultural values and behaviours of their own network of friends

2. Coping with development of their sexuality

3. Social transition to full independence from the family

Adulthood

1. Friendship networks continue to be very important

2. Formation of adult sexual partnerships

3. Need to find employment/establish a career

4. Marriage and parenthood

5. Adults in their forties and fifties experience time pressures that may limit their social activity

6. Splitting time between work, care of parents, other family commitments and wider social activities

Older adulthood

1. After retirement adults have more free time

2. Older adults tend to increase their involvement with close friends and family rather than extend their network of social contacts

Emotional development

Infancy

1. Built-in need to form an attachment with a carer

2. Infants who are securely attached will grow up with the emotional resources needed to cope with uncertainty in life

Childhood

1. Use of imagination to begin to understand social roles that other people play

2. Begin to image a “ me” – an idea of self

3. Relationships with other family members influence how a child feels valued and have a sense of self-worth

4. They way child get on with teachers and friends influence their self-confidence

5. Child might develop a permanent sense of confidence or failure.

Adolescence

1. Sense of self continues to develop

2. Secure sense of identity needs to be developed

3. Person needs clear understanding of identity in order to feel secure

4. Self esteem may depend on the development of identity

Adulthood

1. Learning to cope with emotional attachment to a sexual partner

2. This involves not being to self-centred or defensive and not becoming emotionally isolated

3. Risk of emotional stagnation

Older adulthood

1. Older people need to develop a secure sense of self that enables them to cope with physical changes associated with ageing and death

2. Might experience emotional despair

When a person is developing there are many different factors in which can affect the way that a person acts and develops.

First factor I am going to talk about is illness, for example brittle bone disease. Children born with that disease are likely to fracture or break their bones really easily because their bones do not have right amount or type of a protein which is called collagen. Child will develop a little bit differently from all the other children if they have this disease.

Alcohol has a negative influence on a child’s development before birth. Mothers who drink lots of alcohol when pregnant may give birth to undeveloped child. These children tend to have smaller heads than normally and overall are smaller. Children may have heart problems and learning difficulties.

Diet is also important factor because child will be affected by what their mother is eating during pregnancy and breast feeding. If a mother has a diet high in sugar and fat it can result in an increase of cholesterol and a risk of heart disease for her children late in their lives. Pregnant woman should eat plenty of healthy foods for a child to develop normally.

Poor housing may also influence child development. Poor housing is often associated with poor health. Dampness and mould increases the risk of allergic diseased for example asthma. Poor housing is also more likely to have problems with poor lighting, non-safety glass in windows, loose rugs and poor maintenance of stairs, which may result in accidents. Overcrowded housing may cause stress due to lack of privacy, noise and difficulties in relaxing and sleeping. Overcrowded housing may limit people’s ability to access washing facilities, TV programmes and Internet and computing facilities and is likely to make it difficult to study. People on low incomes are more likely to live in damp or overcrowded housing than people with a higher income.

Areas of low income may have poorer facilities and there are some concerns that poor people do not receive the same quality health service as other people. A low income makes it difficult to get to health or care facilities. When people can’t get to the doctors then they don’t know if their child is developing properly.