My individual for this assignment is going to be my mother Trina Karen Simmans. I had spoken to Trina and got information from her about her life stages, but from when she was in her infancy and childhood, she can’t really remember anything that had occurred, so from this point I went to my Nan and Granddad’s and got the information from them about how my Mum used to be when she was younger. Birth occurs after a fetus has developed for about 36 to 40 weeks from the point of fertilization of sperm and egg united in a single cell in a process called delivery. Birth is considered the first of the five stages of life.
Trina was born on the 29th of July 1961; her Mother Diane went into labour at home approximately 41 weeks and Trina weighed at a healthy weight of 8. 2 ounces. When Diane was pregnant with Trina, she didn’t have any problems with her, she grew into a healthy baby and through the pregnancy, every stage e. g. babies start moving their fingers at 15 weeks and yawning by 18 weeks, had happened through the technology that is provided. Gradually at week 12 the baby has developed all of the body organs, and they then begin to grow bigger and into a healthy weight.
The stage of infancy lasted from the birth of Trina until approximately the age of 2. During Trina’s infancy, there was a great deal of initial learning occurs, which the learning is provided through the environmental cues, such as her own parents behaviour. During this period, a Trina learns to walk, to talk and to interact with others. Trina’s very basic skills are mastered during this time period, such as crying, nursing, co-ordination and the ability to represent images and objects with words from learning them with everyday experiences.
Trina had been breast fed for 6-7 weeks and went onto solid foods at 4 months old. Trina’s co-ordination and the ability to grasp onto objects was around 3 months old, this isn’t to late or too early, to this day, about the same percentage of babies would be co-ordinating more and sitting up at the age of 6-7months. Trina was quite a late developer when crawling; she started crawling at around 10 months and after 3 months of crawling she then began walking at the age of 13 months.
Trina wasn’t sleeping in her own cot till she was a year old, this shows that she had another late development and that she couldn’t settle without one of the parent’s in the room with her, this is shown as an attachment. An important influence in Trina’s life at this stage is her parents. It is very common to see a child at the ages of 7-9 months old become upset when they are separated from their primary care giver, when Trina’s Mother had to go back to work, which happened at around the age of 6 months, below average of most children would.
This is also known as an attachment, and is important in determining how Trina will behave within the future relationships as she matures and grows older. Trina mentioned her first word when she was 7 months old, and gradually begun talking a lot more at the age of a year ?. When Trina was aged 4 – 6 months, her weight had double the birth weight. During the second half of the first year of life, growth is not as rapid. Between ages 1 and 2, Trina would have gained only about 5 pounds. Weight gain will remain at about 5 pounds per year between the age of 2 – 5.
Growth is a big part in infancy; it’s the most advanced growth throughout the whole of the life stages. When Trina has gradually become older she is now able to lift her head at the age of about 3 months, kick her legs a lot more, rolling over at the age of 4 months-5 months, these are all done by Trina using her gross motor skills. Also Trina could sit there with support from one of her caregivers, begin to crawl at the age of 7 months old, she liked to bounce with support from any care giver as at that point she was going through her attachment theory stage, and she always wanted to be around anyone that would give her fuss.
Trina’s sensory skills become a lot better as she grew older, she would have been able to look at a toy and examine them, by feelings the different type of textures. She would be looking for the toy/object if it had fallen or disappeared. She had a thing about different sounds, she used to love listening to music, and it made her feel really relaxed, either if it comes from music or the voice of a person. Trina’s social development was well developed as by the age of 2 months old she would be able to babble, coo and gurgle.
She would be starting to smile at usual faces, like her care givers or familiarised individuals. Trina always shows different imitate facial expressions to individuals, to show what she may have wanted, and casually looking at the individuals. With Trina’s emotional development she begin to self soothe after she had been crying, be developing a sense of love and trust with caregiver’s and would have been able to express various emotions e. g. these could be through happiness, sadness or anger.
Trina become really good with her fine motor skills, by being able to reach for objects, knowing how to use her hand-eye co-ordination, throwing objects and holding toys/objects. Childhood is considered the third life stage, which lasts from the time a child is 2 to 10 years of age. The first two years of this stage, or up until the child is about three years of age, define a toddler. However, as the child grows and matures, he grows more independent and socially active, especially in school or learning environments.
Trina’s father used to take her and her other siblings to the park to play football and other games, they are all a lot older than Trina by 8+ years, but she was able to participate with playing football at the age of 2, she could kick and throw a ball but not as well as her other siblings as they were a lot more co-ordinated than she was. When Trina started primary school, they used to play games like skipping, and they done it within physical education, she used to funereally enjoy it and that was around the age of 5.
Riding a bike was quite difficult for Trina, but she begun to understand how to ride it, she got it for her 6th birthday and used stabilisers for around 6 months and built on greater knowledge of how to ride a bike. Around 4-6 years Trina began to grow with her bones and muscles, she grew with more gross motor skills and had a larger muscle development which helps her with her co-ordination. Also Trina’s precision skills development grew, which helped her to be able to paint and to play her piano.
Trina begun to be able to use her use of words, but she wouldn’t of been able to understand the logical implications. She would find it difficult to understand the mass and volume, and she could count to around 20 when she first started school but didn’t know what 20 is or what could come after it. Trina’s concrete logical stage was roughly around 7-11 years old, she had good logical thinking with practical situations and could understand the most complicated things that she probably wouldn’t have been able to a few years back e. g. puzzles. Her language observation progressed in her childhood.
Trina’s imagination developed at the age of 2 years old, and it helped her in understanding others around her, she also begun to develop an idea of herself, knowing more about whom she is and what she also looked like through a mirror. Trina was very close with her mother and father and found it difficult to not be around them, she needed the comforting feeling, knowing that her care givers were around her and making her feel valued. When Trina started primary school and not seeing her mother or father she begun to build on her self-esteem and self-confidence to not have them there all the time and accept others around her.
She also begun to develop relationships with other peers and learnt to deal with emotions caused by popularity and rejection whilst she was in primary school. When she started school she only was with one group of friends but then she began to learn of making more friends and rejection got thrown out of the window. Trina was always in her primary socialisation, which is her family before she was at school and always relied on them; it will always be the same but has gradually died down since she’s been in a different environment, at school.
School is a safe environment for Trina, as she needs to experience different social relationships and to grow on her independence, which increased at school. Like mentioned about popularity and rejection, Trina began to make different friendships and her social play developed whilst being with different peers and within a different environment. At the ages of 2 – 10 years, Trina will be able to continue to grow at a steady pace. A final growth spurt begins at the start of puberty, sometime between ages 9 and 15, this happened to Trina at the age of 11.
The nutrient needs for Trina correspond with these changes within the growth rates. When Trina was an infant she needed more calories in relation to size than a pre-schooler or any other school-age child needs. Nutrient needs increase again as a child gets close to adolescence. Generally, a healthy child will follow an individual growth curve, even though the nutrient intake may be different for each child especially Trina. Parents and caregivers should provide a diet that is appropriate for their child’s age.
Trina’s care givers should offer a wide variety of foods to ensure their child is getting enough nutrition. To get Trina to be in more healthy eating habits should begin during infancy and childhood to prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and childhood obesity. Children who regularly do not get enough nutrition have poor growth patterns and underachieve at school, Trina had a good upbringing, had enough nutrition so this didn’t occur for her. Getting enough of a good variety of food choices is important for Trina’s intellectual development, especially breakfast.
Children may feel tired and unmotivated when their breakfast is too small or they skip breakfast, which is why Trina was always told to have breakfast , because it’s a lot healthier for her. Adolescence and adulthood At the beginning of adolescence, hormones start to affect the brain causing Trina to think in a different way with physical emotions and sexual maturity. Her brain cells are constantly forming new branches as she learns. Trina has been at her peak of physical performance at the age of 18 till around the age of 28.
When she finished school she used to do quite a lot of sport, going to the gym, running and swimming, Trina stopped doing her sporting sessions at the age of 21, which usually most adults would be in sports between 16 years old to 30 years. Gradually Trina loses that strength and speed over time that she built upon herself through her sporting techniques. As exercise keeps your body healthy and fit, therefore all adults can maintain some fitness over 40 years old, but Trina didn’t keep that going, but worked hard with 3 different jobs and still occurring.
Trina started her puberty at the age of 12, she didn’t understand what was happening to her body, she was still very young and didn’t know and information of why and what it does to your body, back then they didn’t teach you about puberty or periods till the ages of 14-15. Most adults are able to conceive between 18-25 years old, Trina become pregnant with her son Ryan at the age of 22. Women are then unable to have children due to the menopause at around the ages of 45-53 years; Trina started the menopause at the beginning at around 44-45 years old, which is a little earlier than expected.
Trina had been experiencing side effects of tiredness’s and depression at around the age of 50, it is known that most women will experience these effects as well as hot sweats around the age of 52, which shows that Trina has developed these before expected again. At around the age of 52 Trina would have loss of calcium in her bones through the changes in her hormone levels. Trina’s intellectual skills and her abilities had increased, in her early adulthood around the age of 18; she still has a period of acquiring knowledge, of school, college and work which would have been around the ages of 18-25 years old.
When Trina become older, she keeps her mind active still, by continued learning, which is the ages of 30-45. When Trina was in her 40’s she still had increased wisdom even though she was in her later adulthood. With her emotional development, Trina still has a sense of self and her self-esteem continues to develop, she did know and again struggle with her confidence and stress and her relationships begin to develop further. In Trina’s late 20’s she had more contentment but she went through a divorce with the father of her 3 boys, which caused a relationship breakdown at a young age.
In Trina’s social development, she had a different wide of network friends, through school, college and work at the age of 18. Trina had got herself in a relationship with a man whom she married at the age of 20 and had 3 little boys. Marriage back then was at a much younger age and usually it would be at the ages of 21-30 years approximately. As soon as Trina finished at college, she went straight into work at the hairdressers at the age of 18. Trina had to balance her life because of her children and work with her social life.
This all caused different conflicts and stress for Trina as she had her relationship on the line with working and having to look after 3 children, she didn’t have much of a social life when she was with her husband and she couldn’t go out of the house to communicate with people as much because of house work and to look after the children. Since Trina has been getting older, it’s continued with her, there has been a loss of social purpose, as all of her children now shouldn’t need much support.
Usually her son’s will come to her with support and she will help whatever the matter is, it might be because she misses her children being helped. Breast development is the main sign that a girl is entering puberty, this happened when Trina was around 10-11 years old. The first menstrual period usually follows within about 2 years, but for Trina it happened at an earlier development. Before the first menstrual period, Trina had increase in height, increase in her hip size, clear or whitish vaginal secretions and pubic, armpit, and leg hair growth.
Adolescence is the time between the beginning of sexual maturation which is also known as puberty and adulthood. It is a time of psychological maturation, which a person becomes “ adult-like” in behaviour. Adolescence is considered to be the period between ages 13 and 19. The adolescent experiences not only physical growth and change, but also emotional, psychological, social, and mental change and growth. During the adolescence stage, it is normal for most young people like Trina to begin to separate from their parents and establish their own identity, usually around 18 and onwards.
In some cases, this may occur without a problem from their parents and other family members. However, in some families, the adolescent’s rebellion may lead to conflict as the parents try to keep control; Trina had moved into a house with her old husband and gradually built on her own family. The teenager’s quest to become independent is a normal part of development, most teenagers would try this later on in life, but Trina had a job and a boyfriend which, she didn’t enjoy being at home and wanted to become more independent in her and move on. Her parents shouldn’t see it as a rejection or loss of control over her.
Her parents need to be constant and consistent; they should be available as a sounding board for her ideas, without dominating the child’s newly independent identity. When Trina was in the middle of her adulthood stages, she had been often caring for her children as well as her parents and, at times, is financially responsible for all of them. Trina is at different stages depending on her individual path and the society’s customs. Some have pursued careers; some have raised children and now have jobs, while still others are helping the next generation raise their children.
But Trina had raised her children, and has had 3 different jobs occurring at the same time, and her children are having children and she’s still giving the support and raising the next generation’s children. Elderly- When you enter elderly, you need the support again, just like infancy. You need the support as a baby, then you grow up and begin to deteriorate as an adult but then you go back down again to an infancy stage where you need the support and help needed as you begin to slow down a lot more.
Trina needs the support from all of her family care givers and at the age of 67 she’s retired from her workplace, and most of her physical approaches have changed, she can’t work as much as she used to and had to pack it in. Also, Trina’s heart, her breathing and the circulation within her body will become a lot weaker than how she was within her adulthood. All the muscles, bones and skin joints are becoming less flexible for Trina to control, she has less mobility than she was through her adulthood, but not as bad as she can’t walk very far, she’s still very well for being over the age of 70.
A couple of times Trina might have had a little accident of cutting herself whilst cooking or falling over, she will bruise a lot easier as the skin tissues are a lot weaker. There are many risks at Trina’s age where impairments and disabilities can arise and her reactions will begin to slow down. Trina finds it a lot harder to solve problems since she’s been getting older; also her mental stress abilities are affected by her physical health. Trina does try and keep her mind active and exercised, which helps the mental abilities to continue to develop and store more knowledge as she grows older.
Trina hasn’t been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia, she’s really good at remembering situations and occurrences. Trina has continued to develop her sense of self but the self-esteem has been affected, because of her age, usually this could be done by any kind of illness but to Trina it’s because of her appearance changing. Since Trina has retired from work, she has a lot more time to herself, and to go out and socialise more with friends and family.
Also helps that now she has a travel pass and discounts in local places that there won’t be any issues getting to places but even if things have been discounted and she’s having a pension, there still could be financial problems. There’s more of an opportunity to meet new people and take us more hobbies, this is good for Trina to go out and socialise more with her friends, she’s been going to different events and inviting people round for lunch/dinner or go out for a meal with friends and her family.
It’s a good thing that Trina does have the ability to go out and doesn’t have a low self-esteem about herself, because if she didn’t go out then it could cause a problem of isolation and this can cause serious problems with the individual. When Trina becomes older, her face developments and challenges on its own. Her body is changing and her physical strength and health is often diminishing. Most elderly people, like Trina, have much wisdom and experience to share with younger people, but not always the physical strength to chase after them.
In times of emergency, studies show that the elderly often demonstrate more emotional resilience than the generation below. Yet grief can become a major focus as friends and relatives begin to die because Trina’s friends were older than her and older family members e. g. parents. People, like Trina at this age must also come to terms with their own inevitable death. Trina enjoys the high prestige as custodians of village lore and morality, and as the persons nearest to departed ancestors.
As long as she is going to stay physically able, they also contribute to productive work in farming and in the household. Within the extended family, they enjoy a sense of belonging, as well as emotional and physical security. Even in the most developed countries, the extended family continues to play an important role, though often at a distance, with good relationships usually maintained with Trina and her children that are now entering middle aged adulthood. Trina’s family will continue to provide care and supportive services for her, especially through daughters and her daughters-in-law’s.
