At this stage infants turn to interact more with their parents. By two years, they will being to smile when held and also show excitement and pleasure towards their carers. They make sounds to respond when parents talk. At five months, infants can differentiate familiar and unfamiliar people.
During emotional development, infants form strong attachments towards their loves ones and often feel uneasy when they are separated them. In 1953 Bowlby argued that infants have an in built need to form an attachment with a career, however too much of this attachment may affect emotional development for the rest of the child’s life. The ones who are insecurely attached may be unable to cope with stress and complex life events.
Intellectual development refers to the growth of children and how infants develop more useful ways of thinking. At this stage their brain becomes more capable of understanding. Paiget (1894-1980) conclude that intellectual development is the result of the interaction of genetic and environmental factors because as a child develops and interact with the world around, it knowledge is invented and reinvented. However, research imply that infants are more able to understand their world than Piaget thought.
Her theory implied that intellectual development stops during adolescence but many other theories believe that adults continue to improve their ways of learning and thinking abilities. As stated in BTEC National Diploma in Health and Social Care Book 1, “that some psychologists suggest that there is stage of thinking where adults become more skilled in their ability to make flexible judgment. Many adults develop an ability that could be called ‘wisdom’ as they grow older”.
- Sensorimotor (0-2 years) – infancy learn through senses and actions. At this stage their thinking is sensing objects and performing motor actions.
- Preoperational (2-7 years) – at the preoperational stage Piaget believed that children could not think in a logical way in the moment they are able to use words during communication but they do not understand the logical implications.
- Concrete operations (7-11 years) – they can think more logically and learn through experiences.
- Formal operations (11+) – can solve more complex problems in their head, which enables adolescences and adults to use abstract concept and theories to go beyond the limitation of everyday experiences.
Childhood
Childhood spans from four to nine years old. At this stage, intellectual, emotional and social developments are very major. Children’s body change proportions and they start to look more adults than babies. They being to loss their baby fat as they develop sleeker, straighter bodies with long muscles necessary for work and play. Children tend to more of their gross motor skills because their muscles become more flexible.
During intellectual development children tend learn through practical learning. They develop the ability to associate a symbol with an object. Children learn to start grouping like objects together. At the first year, they often begin developing speech and mimicking the words and action of others.
Throughout social and emotional development, children begin to mature in their ability to interact with others socially. During the infant stage their task is to bonding and connecting with primary caregivers, but in contrast, they start to branch out and to create other social relationships. When interacting with other children, sensorimotor children engage in parallel play. Parallel play is when children play beside each other without interacting with each other. For example, Ellie plays with his blocks and builds his structure independently while sitting by Jane, who is creating her own block tower. However during Preoperational stage, children begin to play more cooperating. At the early stage of childhood, children exposed to large family members and friends. This gives them confidence and high self-esteem due to the conditional love from their family members, which enables them to build further attachment. Erick Erikson theory suggests that people develop socially from
Adolescence
In this stage the spans a large age range from 10 to 18 years old. In adolescence there is growth and development in all areas. The main physical changes relates to the secondary sex characteristics. The process of rapid physical changes in adolescence is known as puberty. Statistics chows that, the age which puberty starts has been dropping in most countries, probably due to better nutrition. As a result children hit puberty earlier than we use to. The hormones begins some years earlier and produces periods of moodiness and restlessness. During this development, girls develop more quickly than the boys and for the first three years, girls appear to be maturing faster, after this the boys’ then catch up. These changes include:
- For the girls- the start of menstruation, growth of under arm, body and pubic hair.
- For the boys- their voice break (becomes deeper than it use to be), growth body and pubic hair, facial hair, erection and wet dreams.
At the age of seventeen they become young men and women, who maybe bigger than parent and capable of having children themselves. At the seeped of these changes, adolescences become more concerned about their appearance. They might need reassurance, especially if they are not maturing as faster as their friends or feeling uncomfortable with their changes.
During intellectual development, adolescences use more logical reasoning and can solve difficult problems in their head. The formal logical operation enables adolescences to use abstract thought and theories in order to go beyond the limitation of everyday experience. In terms of social development, adolescences tend to spend more time with their friends. Peer pressure is one of the most important elements during this stage. Emotionally an adolescent needs to develop a secure sense of identity. They need clear understanding of identity in order to make a loving sexual attachment and feel more secure.
At the secondary social learning stage and adolescent a person’s sense of self – worth may influenced by their friends that by the family. They cope with the styles of dress, beliefs, cultural values and behaviour of their own network of friends. They have to cope with the development of their own sexuality. “Recent, research as show that adolescence experiences a smooth transition to adult roles without serious conflicts with parents”.
Adulthood
Nineteen to sixty five years old is defined as adulthood. Within this age different have different experiences in life. The first stage is the early adulthood, which the body physically changes. People may continue to add a bit of height and weight to his or her teen frame. The body continues to undergo hormonal change, these changes makes the body grow a bit thicker and the voice deeper. Within this year, most young adults will finish school and chose to enter the workforce full time or pursue further education. Despite the consequences of an individual's choice, many aspects of their emotional development will be the same. This is the stage in which women usually have children. As result women gain little weight and finish their full breast development. Early adulthood is the stage when most people will start employment, have a relationship with a partner or even get married and have children. This may still continue in later adulthood but usually loss of social purpose when children no longer need them.
The second stage is the middle adulthood, during this stage the most noticeable changes is loss of elasticity in the skin. This results in lines and wrinkles that are seen as of the first signs of aging. Men gain weight in the abdominal region, while the women gain weight in the hips and thighs. Their strength and flexibility in the body wanes out. During this stage women experience hormonal changes, this results in the ability to reproduce. This is called menopause.
Last adulthood is the final stage of physical development. At 30-60year’s older adult loose strength and speed overtime, however exercise can keep them fit and therefore maintain some fitness in years 40-50. The skin continues to lose elasticity. At this stage the line and wrinkles get deeper and more recognisable. They normally have eyesight deteriorates, which causes many seniors to need glasses. at this stage many physical illness such as heart, breathing and circulation get weaker, which results in impairment and disability problems. Throughout the intellectual stage, older adults often keeps their minds active by continued learning, which increases their wisdom and therefore skilled in making complex decisions.
They are less able to solve problems, which often relates to mental abilities affected by physical health. For example, the development of Dementia. At some stage in emotional development, people continue to develop their senses of self but self-esteem can be affected in old age by illness. For example loss of love ones can lead to low self esteem and more vulnerability and more importantly their confidences. In later adulthood, some people might go on retirement, which gives them more free time and the opportunity to make new friends. This can be very positive but without this it isolation can occur.
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