Development_Through_the_Life_Stages

Development through the life stages P1 Describe physical, intellectual, emotional and social development through the life stages. Throughout our whole life span we develop and grow through life stages. The main life stages are: * Prenatal stage. * Baby stage. * Infant stage. * Toddler stage. * Childhood. * Adolescence. * Adulthood. * Old age. Physical development Life begins with conception. A woman usually produces an egg each month. The egg cell travels from the ovary towards the uterus. If sexual intercourse takes place whilst the egg is in the fallopian tube there is a possibility of conception. When a man ejaculates during intercourse millions of sperm are produced, just one sperm may fertilise the egg. Although only about half of all fertilised eggs develop to become babies. Many eggs are lost without a woman even knowing that fertilisation ever happened. Prenatal stage Pregnancy begins when a sperm penetrates an egg. After a couple of days later the single fertilised egg begins to divide. After about two or three days later there are enough cells to make the fertilised egg about the size of a pea. The developing group of cells are known as an embryo which is joined to the uterus by a placenta. The woman can no longer have a menstrual period once the embryo is attached to the uterus. After eight weeks the embryo could have possibly grown to about three to four centimetres, has developed the beginning of eyes, ears, arms, legs, mouth and has a heartbeat. This growing organism is called the foetus. By about twenty weeks the foetus will have reached about half the length of the baby at birth. By about thirty two weeks the foetus should be about half its birth weight. Birth and infancy It takes approximately nine months for a baby to be born after conception. When the baby is born it does not have a fully developed brain but can hear sounds and identify the smell and voice of their mother or carer. Also, the new born baby has to eat easy digestible food such as their mother’s milk for them to grow properly. Babies are born with reflexes. Reflexes are a response to a stimulus. A new born baby is born with a rooting reflex. This reflex is when you touch a baby on the cheek and they turn their head towards where you touched them. This helps the baby to get the nipple into their mouth so they can feed. Another reflex is called the grasp reflex. This is when you place your finger in the middle of the palm of a baby’s hand; the baby will then grasp your finger tightly. Also the startle reflex. This is when a baby is startled maybe by a loud bang they will throw their arms and legs outwards arching the back and straightening their legs. Lastly, if a new born baby is held upright with their feet touching the ground, they will make movements as if trying to walk. This is called the walking reflex. Babies do not have muscle coordination or control as their muscles have not fully developed. They cannot hold their own head up or sit up by themselves. Childhood Throughout childhood children grow less rapidly than during infancy. By about three years children should be able to have control over their own muscles and run, jump, walk and climb. By age four children may be able to kick and throw a football. By age six or seven children may be able to skip and ride a bicycle. When a child is around five years their head should be about ninety per cent of an adult size, although the body still has a lot of growing to do. The average person does not stop growing till the around the age of eighteen or nineteen. Adolescence Adolescence is a general stage of lifespan development. This stage is an important part of growing up for both sexes as you start puberty. Girls usually start puberty between the ages of eleven and thirteen, it could possible begin earlier in some girls. Girls usually start puberty before thirteen whereas boys usually start later on between thirteen and fifteen years of age. Puberty is a stage which prepares the body for sexual reproduction. It is a developmental stage. Puberty is started off by the hormones that control sexual development. Both boys and girls may experience a ‘growth spurt’. A ‘growth spurt’ is when adolescents grow taller pretty rapidly. During puberty girls breasts enlarge, pubic hairs develop, fat layers increase and it is also the start of menstrual periods. Throughout puberty boys testes and penis will enlarge, they develop facial hair, their voice deepens and have increased muscle strength. These extravagant changes mean that adolescents look and behave a lot differently to children. Adulthood You usually are at the peak of physical performance between the ages of around eighteen to twenty eight. By taking up exercise an older adult could easily achieve a peak of fitness at around the ages of forty or fifty. Exercise is extremely important for health and wellbeing and helps to develop physical skills. Throughout adulthood most people will stop growing altogether as they have already reached their full growth in adolescence. Later adulthood Older adults generally tend to loose strength and speed with age. There are a few age related changes that slowly become more apparent as we grow older. Whilst growing older some adults may find that they need glasses as their eyes become weaker which makes it harder to read and see things. It also becomes difficult for adults to hear high pitched sounds during late adulthood as the hair on their ears becomes thinner with age which makes it difficult to hear. In many adults hair becomes thinner, with hair loss being more common in men than women. Between the ages of forty five and fifty five women go through a menopause. The menopause is when fertility reduces and eventually comes to an end. There is a risk of miscarriages and pregnancy complications with age. The menopause involves the ending of having periods and a large reduction in the number of eggs in the ovary. There is also a reduction in sex hormones which could result in reduction of sexual organs and sometimes in sexual interest. Old age Older adults often put on weight. This may happen because they eat the same amount of food as they did before but because there are getting older they may not exercise so this results in putting on weight. Older adults are also more at risk of disability and disease. This is because as you become older the more your immune system weakens and this makes it easier for diseases to enter the body and spread, the body will then find it hard to fight off the diseases. Also, your bones become brittle with age and the skin gets thinner, this could result in easy bruising and bleeding. Wrinkles form in the skin when you age. Your muscles slack which makes you a whole lot weaker and it could become difficult to walk or even get up off a chair. By looking after your body by eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising it is more likely that you will live for longer than someone with a poor diet and someone that does not exercise. If you want to lead a longer healthy life you should also avoid smoking as it damages DNA and can lead to heart disease and lung cancer. Intellectual development As you grow older you develop and learn a lot. Infants and children learn a great deal from personal experience. As you grow older you also develop abstract thinking. Abstract thinking is having the ability to solve problems using imagination without having to be involved practically. We also develop concrete thinking. This is the ability to solve problems when you can see or physically handle the situation. The famous theorist Piaget studied our how our ability to think develops. He believed that there were four stages of intellectual development which mature. These stage are the sensorimotor stage (one – two years), the preoperational stage (two – seven years), the concrete operational stage (seven – eleven years) and the formal operational stage (11 years and onwards.) The sensorimotor stage Babies are born with the skill to sense objects. Babies are also born with reflexes such as the rooting reflex helping them to feed. These reflexes lead to motor actions which control body muscles. The sensorimotor stage is a stage when thinking is limited to sensing objects and performing motor actions. A baby probably would not remember much and not think about the world until they are around eighteen months. The preoperational stage Preoperational means pre-logical. During this stage children will probably not think in a logical way. They can use words to communicate but do not understand the logical implications involved in language. Whilst children are at this stage they probably cannot fully understand how ideas like number, mass and volume really work. The concrete operational stage Children in this stage can think logically as long as the issues are concrete. In the concrete stage children may be able to understand simple logical puzzles. The formal operational stage With logical reasoning, an adult can solve complex problems in their head. Formal logical operations allow the adolescent and adult to use abstract concepts in able to understand the world beyond their own experiences. At this stage adults should be able to think scientifically. Abstract thinking enables us to think through complicated ideas in our head without having to see the concrete evidence. Intellectual development all goes downhill when we hit old age. Our ability to think decreases rapidly. When you are an old age pensioner you tend to forget a lot and your brain slows down. Some old people can develop Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is when you have a very short memory span and cannot remember hardly anything; you tend to repeat yourself as you cannot remember what you have said and can only remember certain things from the past. Alzheimer’s can also affect you by not even remembering who some of your family or friends are. Social development Infancy Infants tend to interact quite easily with their carers. By about two months they may start to smile and recognise human faces. At three months they will respond when adults talk. At about five months infants should be able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces. Infants tend to make their first relationships as they form and emotional attachment to carers. In the later stages of infancy children learn how to play alongside one another. Childhood Young children are emotionally attached and dependant on their adult or carer. Children will learn to cooperate with other children. As children grow older they will become increasingly independent and form friendships in which they learn to trust. Friendships become very important as a child develops more toward adolescents. Children also begin to learn social roles and behaviour within their family context. Adolescence During this stage the way a person sees him/herself may be influenced a lot by other adolescents. Adolescents tend to experiment and copy dress sense and behaviour of their own friends. Being an adolescent can be a very stressful time. You have to learn to cope with your sexuality and full independence. Adolescents can become stressed and depressed because of the impact of sex hormones at puberty. Adulthood During early adulthood friends continue to be very valuable. For most people the main part of adulthood is adult sexual relationships and the need to establish a career. Other major social factors of this stage are marriage and parenthood. Matured adults have to balance their time between work, family and care of their parents. Some mature adults loose out on social activities due to these pressures. Old age At this stage of life adults retire from work and have a lot more free time to themselves. However, due to age adults may not want to experience any social activities as they become less active. Retirement also means that adults are no longer socialising with colleagues in a social setting. But they may choose to increase their involvement with close family or friends. Also with old age may come ill health, this could be poor mobility or problems with hearing or vision which may make interaction with people difficult. Emotional development The way that we understand the world and the people around us develops as we grow older in life. Infancy Infants have a need to form an attachment with a carer. This attachment is more than likely to make an imprint on the rest of the child’s life. Infants who are securely attached will grow up with emotional needed to cope with problems in life. Infants who are not securely attached are more than likely to experience a reduced ability to cope with stress and major life events. Childhood Children are good at using their imagination to understand the social roles that people carry out. Relationships with other family members may influence how a child feels valued and has a sense of self-worth. The way a child gets on with teachers and friends may increase their self-confidence. The child may develop a sense of confidence or a sense of failure and low self-esteem. This could be caused by the way the family has brought up and valued the child. Adolescence During the adolescent stage the sense of self continues to develop. An adolescent needs to develop a secure sense of identity. An adolescent needs to have a full understanding of who they are and what sexuality they are. This needs to be understood in order to develop a loving sexual attachment. This process could be very stressful as self esteem could be knocked down due to the development of identity. Adulthood The key task of early adulthood is learning to cope with emotional attachment to a sexual partner. This may involve not being to selfish or defensive and not becoming emotionally isolated. Later on in life adults may loose interest in social issues due to emotional stagnation. Old age When you are at an old age individuals need to develop a secure sense of self that enables them to cope with the physical changes associated with ageing and death. People who cannot make sense of their own life might experience emotional despair.