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Summary Unit 1 - Human lifespan development notes
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Unit 1 – Human Lifespan DevelopmentPhysical Development across the Life Stages
Growth and Development are different
Growth is not consistent across life stages e.g. teenagers may experience growth spurts.
Growth is the increase of measured quantity e.g. height, mass
Development is the increase in skills, abilities, and capabilities
Life stages are marked by physical, physiological, and psychological changes
Milestones develop alongside social roles and different stages of the life span e.g. gross and fine motor skills, thinking, and language
skills.
Principles of Growth
The process of growth is as height increase, weight increase
If growth in continuous, the rate of growth is not as smooth
Rapid growth in infancy and again during puberty
There is a difference between boys and girls when speaking of growth rates
Referring to growth, consider two dimensions : weight and length/height
Rapid growth in infancy happens during the first six months of their lives
A health infant will be half their adult height at the age of two
Growth measurements help identify issues such as if an infant is under or overweight or growing too slowly
Infant growth in-between their first and second years of life is 12cm and 2.5kg
Infant growth gains 2kg and 8cm in-between their second and third years of life
If growth is as expected, weight will rise following centile lines on growth chat of infant
Information about the infant is recorded into a personal child health record to ensure that if there concern on weight or height, an
early referral to paediatrician.
Principles of Development
Development is changes that involve ability levels altering
Development happens head to toe = first control head, control over body = them to sit, control over legs = them to crawl then walk
Development happens inside to outside = control movement in body, then arms + legs, then small muscles in fingers
Development happens in the same sequence but at different rates
Development happens holistically = area of development is dependent on each other
Milestones = developmental norms, they describe skills that infants, children and adolescents are expected to develop at certain ages
and stages in their life e.g. walking, talking, or tying shoelaces.
Skills acquisitions are physical (gross and fine motor skills), intellectual development and language skills, emotional development, and
social development. PIES
Physical Development in infancy and early childhood
Gross motor skills = movement involving large muscles of the body e.g. legs, arms, and torso of body
Fine motor skills = movement involving smaller muscles in hands, fingers, and toes
Infants develop use of both gross motor and fine motor as they become more independent at two
Before two, they have not much gross motor movement or fine motor movement
Early childhood, gross motor skills develop as the child ages each year e.g. At 3 they run, ride a tricycle. At 4 they kick, throw large
ball. At 5 they hop on each foot. At 6 or 7 they skip, ride a bike. At 8 they have good strength and body coordination.
Fine motor skills = control over smaller movements. At 3 they can use a pencil. At 5 they can dress and undress + shoelaces. At 8 they
have good control of small muscles and able to draw in detail.
Development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics
Primary sexual characteristics = changes and development of reproductive organs
Secondary sexual characteristics = outward signs of development from child to man or women
Puberty in girls = 11 to 13. Puberty in boys = 13 to 15
Sex hormones = responsible for changes that occur in puberty controlled by the pituitary gland
Female hormones = oestrogen and progesterone and responsible for ovulation and menstruation
Male hormones= testosterone is responsible for stimulating sperm production and development of secondary sexual characteristics
Early Adulthood (19-45 years)
,Peak Physical performance between 19 and 28
Young adults have reached full height, quickest reaction time, peak manual dexterity, and full strength
Speed and strength are gradually lost but often unnoticed
Physical capabilities may run out if you have an unhealth diet, does not take exercise and keep an unhealthy lifestyle
Pregnancy and lactation
In preparation for parenthood, women experience physical and emotional changes in early pregnancy e.g. mood swings
Progesterone increase (maintains pregnancy) and so does oestrogen (responsible for sickness)
The shape and appearance of breast, including darker veins for increase blood supply happens due to hormones
Nipples harden and areolas darken with breast becoming more sensitive and tender to prepare the breast to produce milk
Perimenopause
The reduction in oestrogen leads to the ovaries stop producing an egg each month which is called the perimenopause transition
Menopause occurs after perimenopause where the ovaries stop releasing eggs.
The duration of perimenopause typically last for four years, however, it can last for a few months to up to 10 years
Perimenopause ends when a woman has not had her period for 12 months
Reduction in oestrogen can lead to physical and emotional symptoms e.g. hot flushes, night sweats, breast tenderness, loss of libido
(sex drive), fatigue, irregular or very heavy periods, vaginal dryness, mood swings, trouble sleeping, urine leakage when coughing or
sneezing, and urinary urgency ( an urgent need to urinate more frequently)
Middle Adulthood (46-65 years)
Fertility reduces between 45-55 years old and then comes to an end called menopause
Menopause involves:
Gradual ending of menstruation and a large reduction in fertile eggs in the ovaries
Increase in gonadotropins that try to stimulate egg production leading to hot flushes, night sweats, and irritability
Reduction of sex hormones produced by a woman’s ovaries, resulting in shrinkage of sexual organs + reduction of sexual interest
Additional problems including osteoporosis, causing a reduction in the production of sex hormones
General hormone changes can lead to mood changes, anxiety, and depression
Self-esteem and self-image can become low, impacting on the quality of life during transitional stage of the lifespan
Effects of the ageing process
Middle age spread is where they continue to eat the same amount of food as they did when they were younger however they have
now become much less active
Signs of ageing are increase weight and waistline, loss of skin, elasticity, loss of muscle tone and strength, greying, thinning of hair ,
and hair loss
Later Adulthood (65+ years)
Predicting life course becomes difficult in the later life stages as life expectancy has risen
Maximum lifespan for a human being is now 120 years old
Changes in the ageing process can result in changes in the body system and organs leading to disease and can impact on an
individual’s lifestyle
The heart becomes more susceptible to disease
By 80, an individual could loss up to 5cm in height leading to changes in posture and compression of the spinal discs and joints
Mobility ( Gross motor skills) and dexterity ( Fine motor skills) become more difficult
Loss or shrinkage of nerve cells and general slowing of movement and response can happen with the ageing process due to small
changes to the brain
Being more susceptible to accidents and falls due to the lack of muscle strength and problems with balance or reaction time comes
due to visual and hearing problems interfering with daily life as a result of the ageing process
If following a lifestyle including a healthy diet and exercise, reasonable health may be retainable
Deterioration of intellectual abilities
Major depressive disorders tend to be undiagnosed
Diseases and conditions that affect health and well-being e.g. Parkinson's disease + Alzheimer's disease is common in older people
Cognitive impairment is an early sign for Alzheimer's, which has now become prevalent as people are now living longer
Loss of nerve cells in the brain and reduction in the ability of nerves to transmit electrical signals is result of ageing
As a result of cognitive impairment reaction times may be slower and older people may report problems with memory recall
, Intellectual development across the life stages
There are five important aspects associated with intellectual development
Language development - essential for organising thought and to express ideas
Problem solving – to work things out and to make predictions
Memory - required for storing, recalling, and retrieving information.
Moral development - allows for reasoning and making choices, and how to act situations, yourself, and others.
Abstract thoughts - (same as creative thinking) essential for thinking and discussing situations and events that cannot be observed.
As an individual progress through the various development stages, their intellectual and cognitive ability increases.
Intellectual and Language skills in Infancy and Early Childhood
The brain grows very rapidly during the first few years of life
In early infancy and childhood, there is a rapid growth in language and intellectual skill
At birth, a baby’s brain is about 30 per cent of the size of an adult’s brain.
By the age of two, the child’s brain has increased to approximately 80 per cent of the size of an adult’s brain.
3 months old - Infants begin to make babbling noises as they learn to control the muscles associated with speech.
12 months old - Infants begin to imitate sounds made by carers like ’da da’. This develops into using single words.
2 years old - Infants begin to make two-word sentences, such as ’cat goed’ (meaning the cat has gone away).
………. The infant begins to build their vocabulary (knowledge of words).
3 years old - Children begin to make simple sentences, such as ’I want drink’. This develops into the ability to ask questions, ’when we go?’
………. Knowledge of words (vocabulary) grows very rapidly.
4 years old - Children begin to use clear sentences that can be understood by strangers. Children are expected to make some mistakes with
……… grammar, ’we met lots of peoples at the shops today’.
5 years old - Children can speak using full adult grammar. Although vocabulary will continue to grow, and formal grammar will continue to
………. improve, most children can be expected to use language effectively by this age.
These are many ways
in which language
development can be
promoted by both
child and carer.
Piaget’s Model
Cognitive development is a child’s ability to learn and solve problems
Piaget’s research focused on how children acquire the ability to think.
He concluded that children think differently to adults.
He suggested that a four-year old cannot use abstract logic (abstract logical thinking) because they are not mature enough (no matter how well
they are taught).
He observed that infants use egocentric thinking, meaning they can only understand the world from their own perspective.
Piaget believed that the ability to think logically does not happen until around the age of seven years old when children can use simple logic
(concrete logical thinking) to solve problems.
Piaget stated that there were four stages of intellectual development which mature or ‘unfold’ during the early stages of the lifespan:
Sensorimotor: birth–2 years: Infants think by interacting with the world using their eyes, ears, hands, and mouth (senses)
Preoperational: 2–7 years: Children use symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor discoveries. Egocentrism
Concrete operational: 7–11 years: Children’s reasoning becomes logical providing the issues are concrete.
Formal operational: 11–18 years: This is where there is capacity for abstract thinking, allowing adolescents to reason through symbols that do
not refer to objects in the real world
Piaget’s theory explains cognitive developmental stages up to adolescence.
His cognitive development theory was the notion that children go through a series of stages of intellectual development which are referred to
as schemas
A schema is a category of knowledge as well as the process of acquiring knowledge
By age 7, children understand the theory of conservation – that something’s appearance may change but that its quantity will stay the same.
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