Describe The Main Developmental Tasks And Milestones Associated With Each Stage In Human Development Over The Lifespan. Then Choose One Phase Only Of Human Development And Discuss The Developmental Needs Of People In This Stage. Discuss Various Sp...
...later life where you care and look after your own children and grandchildren and watch them develop as your parents and grandparents watched you. From birth to death there are miraculous changes in each stage of development. Starting at the beginning is the newborn.
The Newborn (birth to 1 month) and Infant (1month to 1 year)
Developmental stages:
Erikson's trust versus mistrust (Kail & Cavanaugh 2004:16)
Piaget's sensorimotor stage (2004:19)
Parent-infant bonding
Foundation of language
Foundation of locomotion
Many factors ensure the health of a newborn and infant, including the mother's health and age when pregnant, exposure to teratogens, genetic disorders and birth weight. The Apgar scale at birth determines a newborn baby's physical well being. (Kail & Cavanaugh 2004:52,65-67)
The healthy newborn has several reflexes or unlearned skills that they have from birth. These include the Babinski reflex, blinking, Moro reflex, Palmar reflex, Rooting reflex, Stepping reflex, Sucking reflex and Withdrawal reflex. (Kail & Cavanaugh 2004:87) Except for the blinking and withdrawal reflex, the developmental duration of these reflexes may last less than a year unless practised. (Kaplan 1991:187)
The Newborn spends its time in four stages, alert inactivity, waking activity, crying and sleeping. However, sleeping is what newborn and infants do most of. However, when they are awake, they seem to have a preference for human faces over any other stimuli (Kaplan 1991:183) Newborns can learn in several ways, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and imitation. (1991:191)
The beginning of movement or locomotion, in infants has several stages. Sitting with support is around 4 months, walking when begin led is around 11 months, sitting alone at around 7 months and standing and walking at around 14 and 15 months. Fine motor skills such as...
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