WHAT IS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT? is the pattern of change in human

capabilities that begins at conception and continuous throughout the life span.

Implies orderly change. Generally the rate of change is more rapid during early than later years of life, both because changes in the body are less rapid the older one gets and because with increasing age, people tend to establish more stable routines of living.

Is progressive, involves differentiation and accumulation

Pattern of development is complex

PATTERN OF DEVELOPMENT BECAUSE IT IS THE PRODUCT OF SEVERAL PROCESSES

1. Physical processes – involves changes in individuals biological nature

2. Cognitive processes – changes involves in an individual’s thought, intelligence and language

3. Socio-emotional processes – involves changes in an individual’s relationship with other people, changes in emotions and changes in personality.

PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT1. Prenatal/Neonate – from

conception/fertilization till birth2. Infancy- birth to 18 months3. toddlers – 18 moths to 3 years4. Preschool – 3 to 6 years5. Childhood – 6 to 12 years6. Adolescence – 12 to 18 years7. Young adult – 19 to 40 years8. Middle Adult – 40 to 65 years9. Seniors/aging/senescene – 65 +

STAGES OF PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT1. Conception

2. Zygote (1-3 day)3. Blastocyst (3rd day – 2nd week)

day 3 - end of 2nd week, implants itself in uterine wall (“nidation)

4. Embryo – (3rd – 8th wk) occasional primitive heart contractions at 2 weeks; heart pumps blood and ECG tracing looks normal by 4th to 5th week; some brain activity by the end of 6th week; normal heart functioning after the end of the 7th week

5. Fetus (9th week until birth) develops fingernails, vocal chords, taste buds, and salivary glands and begins to urinate (3rd month); “quickening” – spontaneous movement between the 13th-20th week (3rd, 4th & 5th month); develops hair and eyelashes(5th mos.); “viability” – fetus can survive outside the mother, occurs approximately by the 24th week

FACTORS AFFECTING PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT (HURLUCK 1982)

1. Maternal Nutrition- Mothers diet must contain sufficient proteins, fats and carbohydrates to keep the child healthy

2. Vitamin Deficiency- deficiency of vit. , C, B6, B12, D, E and K is especially likely to interfere with the normal pattern of prenatal development

3. Maternal Health – maternal health conditions are known to have a great effect on the unborn child

4. Drugs – pregnant women are advised to take no drugs without their doctor’s knowledge

5. X-ray – when used in early pregnancy, x-ray and radium are usually damaging to the unborn child.

6. Alcohol – if used frequently and heavily, it is likely to damage the child’s physical and mental development

7. Tobacco – maternal smoking affect the fetal heart rate and the chemical content of the fetal blood

8. Maternal emotions – in mild maternal stresses, fetal activity and fetal heart rate increase

9. Uterine crowding – in multiple births, crowding may limit fetal activity which is important for normal development.

INFANCY Infant – Child from birth till 18 months,

majority of time spent in sleep, and after few months generally becomes diurnal.

Infant’s Perception1. Vision – sight tends to be blurry in early

stages but improves over time. Color perception similar to that seen in adults demonstrated from 4 months using habitual method and gets to adult-like vision from 6 months.

2. Hearing – developed prior to birth, prefer complex sounds to pure tones, human speech to other sounds, mother’s voice to other voices, native languages to other languages. Infants are fairly good in detecting the direction a sound comes from and by 18 months, hearing ability becomes equal to adult.

3. Smell and Taste – born with odor and taste preference acquired in the womb from the smell and taste of the amniotic fluid , in turn influence by what the mother eats.

4. Touch and Feel – one of the better-developed senses at birth considering its one of the first senses to develop inside the womb. This is evidenced by the primitive reflexes and the relatively advance development of the somatosensory cortex.

5. Pain – infants feel pain similarly but not as stronger than older children.

Language – babies are born with the ability to discriminate virtually all sounds of all human languages, at 6 months they can differentiate between phonemes in their own language but not between phonemes in another language, also start to babble producing phonemes.

Infant CognitionPiaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development –

Infant’s perception and understanding of the world depended on their motor development, which was required for the infant to link visual, tactile and motor representations of objects. It is through touching and handling objects that infants develop object permanence, the understanding of object is solid, permanent and continue to exist when out of sight. At 6 months, develop ability to represent numbers .

TODDLER (18 MONTHS TO 3)At this stage, toddlers developed self-awareness,

maturity in language use and presence of memory and imagination. Learn how to walk, talk and make decisions for themselves. Self-control also begins to develop, take initiatives to explore, experiment and learn from mistakes. They begin to identify gender roles, acting according to their perception of what a man or a woman should do.

Caretakers need to encourage them to try new things and test their limits to help them become autonomous, self-reliant and confident.

PRESCHOOL – 3 TO 6 YEARS (EARLY CHILDHOOD)ALSO CALLED, EXPLORATORY AGE OR TOY AGE

When they attend preschool1. they broaden social horizon, become more

engaged with those around them, transition of the world at home to that of school and peers

2. Impulses are channeled into fantasies which leaves the task of the caretaker to balance eagerness for pursuing adventure, creativity and self-expression with the development of responsibility. Consistent discipline will make them develop positive self-esteem while becoming more responsible and will follow on assigned activities.

3. Intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects.

4. Operational thinking develops which means actions are reversible and egocentric thought diminishes, learn to make things, use tools and acquire the skills to be a worker and a potential provider. They can now receive feedback from outsiders about their accomplishments.

5. Discover pleasures in their activities, intellectual stimulation, learns to read, write and basic math which develops their sense of competence. If this did not become successful, they may develop sense of inferiority, feeling of inadequacy and may haunt them throughout life.

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (6-12 YRS OLD)

1. Attend regular normal and formal school, making friends outside the immediate family

2. Master new physical and mental skills becoming more and more individual

3. Opens the door for a new set of challenges both for child and parent, often can lead to stressful situation that can have a negative effect on child’s developmement.

4. Development of Concrete operational stage where focus is on logical thinking, intelligence and psychosocial development of teenagers.

5. Enable child to perceive the events/problems from different angles

6. Aspects of development are logic (learn to reason and use the acquire knowledge constructively), decentration (thinking changes from perception to concrete logical), reversibility (any process can be returned to its original state) and causality (principle of or relationship between cause and effect and that nothing can happen without being caused).

ADOLESCENSE1. Onset of puberty and the full commitment

to an adult social role, such as worker, parent and/or citizen.

2. Formation of personal and social identity3. Discovery of moral purpose4. Intelligence is demonstrated through the

logical use of symbols related to abstract concept and formal reasoning.

5. Return to egocentric though often occurs early in this period, only 35% develop the capacity to reason formally.

6. Unconsciously explores questions:“Who I am?” “Who do I want to be?”

7. Explore, test limits, become autonomous, commit to an identity or sense of self

8. Different roles, behaviors and ideologies must be tried out to select an identity. Role confusion and inability to choose vocation can result from a failure to achieve a sense of identity though, for example friends.

Divided into 3 parts1. Early adolescence – 9 to 13 yrs old2. Mid adolescence – 13 to 15 yrs old3. Late adolescence – 15 to 18 yrs old

EARLY OR YOUNG ADULTHOOD (19-40 YRS OLD)

1. Stage where development is mainly focused on maintaining relationships. Ex. Creating bond of intimacy, sustaining friendships and ultimately making families.

2. Development of intimacy skills rely on the resolution of previous developmental stages such as sense of identity gained. If this is not learned the alternative is alienation, isolation, a fear of commitment, and the inability to depend on others.

MIDDLE ADULTHOOD (41 – 65 YRS OLD)

1. Experience conflict between generativity and stagnation. Experience the sense of contributing to society, the next generation or their immediate community or a sense of purposelessness.

2. Decline in muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness and cardiac output.

3. Experience menopause (drop of estrogen) and adropause (drop of androgen).

OLD AGE OR AGING1. Stage in which individuals assess the

quality of their live, reflection on their lives, 2. Develops feeling of integrity if deciding

that their lives were successful or a feeling of despair

3. Decline in muscular strength, reaction time, stamina, hearing, distance perception and mobility.

4. Mental disintegration leading to dementia, alzheimer’s

5. Crystallized intelligence increases while fluid intelligence decreases