Infancy
Infancy, among humans, the period of life between birth and the acquisition of
language approximately one to two years later. Infants can be considered children
anywhere from birth to 1-year-old. Between birth to 1 year of age, babies grow and
develop at an astounding rate. They learn to smile, roll over, sit up, wave, clap,
pick objects up, crawl, and some may even start saying a few words. They learn to
bond with and trust their caregivers and they often understand more than they are
able to communicate. Babies communicate from birth, through sounds (crying,
cooing, squealing), facial expressions (eye contact, smiling, grimacing) and
gestures/body movements (moving legs in excitement or distress, and later,
gestures like pointing.)
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Early childhood is a stage in human development. It generally toddlerhood and
sometime afterward. Early childhood is usually defined as the time period from
birth until the age of eight years, therefore covering infancy, kindergarten and first
grade. Early Childhood is a time of remarkable growth with brain development at
its peak. During this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and
the people that surround them. The emotional development includes expressions,
attachment and personality. Children manifest fear of dark and monsters and
around the age of three notice whether they are a boy or a girl and start acting that
way. Boys are usually more aggressive, whilst girls are more caring. However,
aggression is manifested in two different ways: boys are more physically
aggressive, while the girls are more socially aggressive (name-calling and
ignoring). In this stage the individual differences become more prominent.
Middle Childhood
Middle childhood has been called the “golden age” of childhood. Overall, children
are relatively healthy during this period. Growth rates slow and children start
gaining about 5-7 pounds in weight and 2 inches in height each year. Many
children begin to slim down as their torsos become longer. A child at this age can
have strong muscles and increased lung capacity to enable them to play for long
periods of time. This is the age when many children begin to play organized sports.
Their bodies are well-equipped for such activities. concrete operational stage of
intelligence, involves the ability to understand the physical or tangible world.
Children can now classify objects in many ways. They recognized that objects
retain their identity, even if modified (such as a scrambled egg is still an egg), and
recognize the identity held by numbers. It becomes easier for school aged children
to reverse a set of operations in math or to understand that moving backward in a
set of procedures can bring one back to the beginning point. Reciprocity is also
understood. A child recognizes that the water level rises if a container of water is
narrow and falls if water is placed in a wide, shallow container.
Adolescents
Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. Children
who are entering adolescence are going through many changes (physical,
intellectual, personality and social developmental). Adolescence begins at puberty,
which now occurs earlier, on average, than in the past. The end of adolescence is
tied to social and emotional factors and can be somewhat ambiguous. Adolescents’
thinking is on a higher level than that of children. Children are only able to think
logically about the concrete, the here and now. Adolescents move beyond these
limits and can think in terms of what might be true, rather than just what they see is
true. They are able to deal with abstractions, test hypotheses and see infinite
possibilities. Yet adolescents still often display egocentric behaviors and attitudes.
Puberty is a period of several years in which rapid physical growth and
psychological changes occur, culminating in sexual maturity. The average age of
onset of puberty is at 11 for girls and 12 for boys. For girls, physical changes
sometimes start happening as young as eight years, or you might see these changes
only now, as your child enters the teenage years. Physical changes in puberty
include:
breast development
changes in body shape and height
growth of pubic and body hair
the start of periods.
For boys, physical changes usually start around 11-12 years – but any time
between 9 and 14 years is normal. Physical changes include:
growth of the penis and testes (testicles)
changes in body shape and height
erections with ejaculation
growth of pubic, body and facial hair
voice changes.
Adulthood
Adulthood, the period in the human lifespan in which full physical
and intellectual maturity have been attained. Adulthood is commonly thought of as
beginning at age 20 or 21 years. Middle age, commencing at about 40 years, is
followed by old age at about 60 years. Physically, early and middle adulthood are
marked by slow, gradual declines in body functioning, which accelerate as old age
is reached. The muscle mass continues to increase through the mid-20s, thereafter
gradually decreasing. The skeletal mass increases until age 30 or so, and then
begins to decrease, first in the central skeleton (pelvis and spine) and last in
the peripheral skeleton (fingers and toes). Throughout adulthood there is a
progressive deposition of cholesterol in the arteries, and the heart
muscle eventually grows weaker even in the absence of detectable disease.
