On October 21, 2017, I was able to observe Claire Marcus for my Life-Span Development class. This observation allowed me observe the physical and cognitive changes children experience. It was performed at the Marcus household in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This observation was consented by Claire’s mother. Claire Marcus is a seven year-old, female. She enjoys playing sports, having play dates with her friends, and excelling in school. At age seven, children are going through large stages of development physically, cognitively, socially, and spiritually. By observing Claire Marcus, I was able to get a better understanding of these stages of development, and I was able to see her interact with those around her. It gave me the opportunity to see the different stages of development that I have read about in Santrock’s book, Essentials of Life-Span Development. As stated by Santrock, children at this age are continually growing. In this stage of life, children grow an average of two to three inches each year (Santrock 2014, pg. 191). In the last year Claire grew several inches, and is no longer the shortest girl in her class. She had to get all new clothes and shoes because she quickly out grew her old ones. During this growth spurt, Claire also began gaining muscle, and losing her “baby fat.” Her mother explained that after Claire’s growth spurt she is now the similar size to her friends and classmates. She is the average height and weight for her age, however, before her
I set goals for all the children in my care and we are constantly working toward them each day. When I began this project with the child I set them goals after I seen they were capable of completing the present goal. I think the benefits form this is a positive step forward for the children and their learning goals.
Life has its way of turning an individual’s attention to better understanding the overall course of life. One may experience different transitions, and turning points as well as particular life events and family experiences that may influence the developmental trajectories of life. The Moore Family- Ed, Jessica, Derrick, Terrance, Debbie and Barbara- all have stories that have unfolded over a period of time. One of the useful ways I will attempt to explain the Moore’s family stories, and the relationship between time and human behavior, is the life course perspective. The life course perspective maintains that chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, and social change shape people’s lives from birth to death (Hutchinson, 2013). Timing is very important.
All children and young people develop at different rates, but the order which they advance in differs very little. Children’s development tends to progress from head to toe, inner to outer, from simple to complex and from general to specific.
The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan is called lifespan development. Lifespan development takes a scientific approach in its study of growth, change, and stability. This development emphases on human development. Developmentalists study the course of development in nonhuman species, the most popular examine growth and change in people. In contrast I will focus on the ways people and myself change and grow during our lives, with the consideration of stability in our live span. Together, these findings suggest that we will go through
Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.
Describe the expected pattern of children and young people’s development from birth to 19 years, to include: physical development, communication and intellectual development, social, emotional and behavioural development.
When an infant arrives in the world they are helpless tiny humans who depend on adults for every need from love, to feeding them. It is amazing how these tiny babies grow into adults able to make decisions and become self-dependent. There are many theories about how children develop and what roles the environment plays, what people affect their lives and how events can shape their personalities. Some of these children have and easy life and some have a harder time making that journey to adulthood.
Berger, K. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span (8th ed., p. 241,265,279). New York: Worth.
For Life-Span Development class, on February 13, 2017, the class had the opportunity to observer the physical, cognitive and social development. In this observation the class Riley, a five month old, female toddler. As a class at the Dordt College, gave the class the opportunity to live observe in the child with the infant’s parent consent.
I begin observing Faith Sanchez a six-year-old, who is in the first grade at Emerson Elementary School on November 7, 2017 over the course of three days. The observation took place at the child’s home, where we had access to the materials needed for the different set of skills that I would be conducting during the observational period. The reason for observing Faith was to see if her Physical, Cognitive and Psychosocial domains are developing at the average range for a school age child or if she was showing signs of atypical development.
Life span developmental psychology takes a scientific approach to human growth and change, focusing on change during the life span. There are three main aspects to life span development: cognitive, social, and physical development. This class is not simply a discussion of nature vs. nurture, it explores the interaction between genetic and environmental factors that orient us towards specific behaviors. Initially, my views on life span development were limited to more sociological factors, and did not take into consideration physical developments of the brain. In relation to my personal and professional identity this course has made me realize that development occurs on a spectrum and that not everyone develops at the same time, in the same ways, making me more understanding and compassionate towards those who developed differently than me. The three most important lessons I have learned from this class are that development occurs throughout the entire life span, infants begin learning at a very young age, and that senescence begins as early as young adulthood.
Larry is a 70-year-old Caucasian male that currently reside in Long Beach, California at the Century Villages of Cabrillo. Larry has had a difficult life growing up, experiencing many hardships and obstacles. In order to better comprehend Larry’s life story, his experiences will be categorized using Erickson’s Stages of Development. This will clarify the developmental challenges faced by Larry throughout his life. The first stage is infancy.
In this assignment I am going to describe a child observation that I have done in a nursery for twenty minutes in a play setting. I will explain the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observation through the key developmental milestones based in Mary Sheridan (2005) check-list and provide a theoretical explanation to support the naturalistic observation.
Emily Dickinson (n.d.) once said, “The brain is wider than the sky”. This quote was made evident by the text written on the six theoretical perspectives on life span development. These perspectives include psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, contextual and evolutionary. The writing prompt gave one the image of a sweet 12-year-old girl in the seventh grade having difficulties with math. This exercise will allow one to dive deep into the depth of the perspectives and the limitations to explain Alice’s behavior.
Leading up into the class I was both bit nervous and excited, since this was the first time in years that I haven’t taken a class outside of my particular major. As I was going through the course schedule, I had in my mind that I did not just want to take any old class just because I need it to graduate. So I came across developmental psychology and thought to myself that this would be a good fit because I enjoy learning about other people. Once class started, I was a little confused about how it the class was going to be, since I already had the thought in my head that I was going to be learning about people older in age. After understanding more about what I was going to learn from this class, I became much more excited because this is actually affecting me in my personal life now, as my wife is pregnant and due in December. I thought this was a great pre baby learning experience for myself, since each week I had the ability to learn everything from development, prenatal development, physical development, intelligence, temperament and attachment, gender role development, and development of the family.