Theory of Human Development and Impact of Prenatal Factors on Human Development

This report discusses the theory of human development and its relation to supporting others. It explores the impact of biological and environmental factors on human development, including prenatal factors. The report also examines the range of life events that affect development through childhood and adolescence. The case of Kenny, an 11-year-old child with social interaction problems, is used as an example throughout the report.

Higher National Diploma in
Social and Community Work

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................3
P1 Describe the theory of human development across the lifespan in relation to supporting
others...........................................................................................................................................3
P2 Review the importance of biological and environmental factors on human development....5
M1...............................................................................................................................................6
D1................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Assess the impact of pre-natal factors on human development.............................................7
P4 Range of life events that affect development through childhood and adolescence...............8
M2...............................................................................................................................................9
D2................................................................................................................................................9
ACTIVITY 2..................................................................................................................................10
P5. Describe the impact of different life events on development through adulthood ..............10
P6. Review the physical, psychological and social changes associated with the ageing process
...................................................................................................................................................11
P7. Assess the role of the social or community worker in supporting individuals through
significant life events................................................................................................................12
P8. Describe the range of services in own locale that can support individuals experiencing
different life events...................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Social and community work is a profession which is concerned about putting efforts to
enhance the social functioning and overall well-being of an individual, families or group
(Gitterman, 2014). It is a way of performing social roles and providing social services to the
society. The main focus of this work is to develop individuals skills and abilities to use their own
resources. It requires a knowledge of human development and behaviour. In context of this
report, it is based on a case, in which a 11 year old child name Kenny, have problems to interact
with social environment as he is quite demanding and difficult to handle. The following
assignment will focus on various theories of human development along with impact of biological
as well as social factors on human development. Furthermore, it will discuss the impact of pre-
natal factors on human development and impact of life events on development through
adulthood.
ACTIVITY 1
P1 Describe the theory of human development across the lifespan in relation to supporting others
Human development is a concept of expansion of human capabilities along with
enhancement of freedom and fulfilling rights of humans. Different theories has been developed
for the advancement of human development and to support others. Such theories are discussed
below:
Cognitive theory: This theory is an approach to psychology which helps to explain
human behaviour by understanding the thought process of an individual. It is basically a study of
information process of mind. There are some basic steps of this theory such as perception,
selective attention or memory. It is a learning theory and helps individuals to learn by observing
others (Huddleston and Unwin, 2013). Social physiologists suggest that environment plays a
vital role in contributing to an individual behaviour. Though people learn by observing others,
their learning may not be shown in their performance.
However, this theory will help Kenny to learn some social behaviours, as he was a
difficult child and looses his control frequently. Being in a complex environment he was ill
mannered and thus he got failed in school to make friends. This theory will help Kenny to learn
some good behaviours by observing other individuals. Actions of others, environmental factors
and individuals specific experiences will help him to move forward in life and lead to overall

human development of him. Implementation of this theory will help Kenny to perform better and
he will learn how to behave with his mother and it will develop a better understanding between
Kenny's mother and him. It will develop his critical thinking as well as his mind processing.
(Source: AP Psychology Study Resource: Cognitive Learning, 2019)
Behaviourist theory: It is a learning theory which suggests that all human behaviours
are arise from conditioning. Conditioning is a concept which occurs through interaction with
environmental factors. Also, actions of an individual is depend on different environmental
stimuli. Strength of this theory is that it helps the learner to focus on a single goal. Outcomes of
success can be easily quantify in this theory (Lewallen and et.al., 2015). The major concept of
this theory is that it is difficult to analyse the internal status of mind of an individual, however, it
is easy to access and find patterns of individual actions in a particular environment. Sometimes,
it can be consider as a limitation of this theory is that it only focus of observable actions and
overlook mental status of individual.
Social learning can be obtained through this theory in context to Kenny. He could learn
how to behave public ally and being an uncontrollable child it would be helpful for his mother to
get better outcomes in less time. Implementation of this theory will help Kenny to make friends
and to enhance his performance effectively. Behaviourist theory will result in improved actions
Illustration 1: AP Psychology Study Resource: Cognitive Learning

of given individual and it will help them to respond accordingly to different environmental
stimuli (Payne and Askeland, 2016). Different environmental factors need different actions to
respond to deal with them. For Kenny, Multiple situations and conditions will arise, for which he
have to learn basic behavioural actions.
P2 Review the importance of biological and environmental factors on human development.
Biological as well as environmental factors are necessary for overall growth and
development of a human being. Biological factors include gender, brain chemistry, heredity and
hormonal changes. However, environment also play a vital role in overall human development. It
includes the sum total of physical and psychology stimulus. Physical surroundings and
conditions of area in which an individual is living influence human development.
Human development is important for individual as a community or a social worker.
Human development goes on through life time of an individual. It is is made up of social,
biological and cognitive factors. Biological changes are natural in human body and keeps on
changing whereas, social and intellectual development of an individual come after biological
changes which continues across the span of life. As a social worker it is important to understand
human development to ensure that all aspects of individuals are considered and appreciated
while working with them. Biological and environmental factors influence human development
and explores tasks which need to be accomplished. They keep on changing as an individual goes
through different experiences and events throughout his life. Such factors help to develop
actions and strategies in response to deal with them. They play an important role in human
development.
In context to Kenny, different biological and environmental factors will help him in
overall human development. Kenny is just 11 years old, thus knowledge of human development
will help him to survive in society. Biological factors such as gender, brain chemistry, heredity
and hormonal changes are quite important for human development (Naples, 2014). Being a child
such factors will help Kenny with his physical appearance and also such factors will help him to
grow and develop his understanding level. Environmental factors include nearby surroundings
which have a major impact on human development.
For overall human development of Kenny, it is necessary for his mother to build a
positive surrounding environment which will help the child to develop a better understanding.
Knowledge of human development will help given individual to interact socially and help him to

make friends in school. Through a better understanding of knowledge, Kenny could be able to
perform better in school. This will help him to understand that it is not right to hang out with
people whoa re older than him and the habits which he is developing like smoking and bullying
the neighbours are not good for him for surviving in a society. Biological as well as
environmental factors will help the selected child to increase their intellectual power and critical
thinking (Allen and et.al., 2014). He will learn behavioural etiquettes and learn to respond to
various stimuli. Thus, with different life events and experiences, he will get to learn that
knowledge of human development is important to tackle various life activities and it help to earn
various social and physiological behaviours.
Christine, being the mother of Kenny will be beneficial as she will get to analyse
different behavioural changes in her child and support him to develop in a positive way with a
better understanding of human development.
M1
Social work involved with people throughout the life course. Hence, it is the
responsibility of social workers to work with different groups of people at different phases of
their life. Developing a knowledge of human development will help social workers to improve
the quality of delivering services to individuals. It will enhance social functioning and overall
well-being of individuals. A good understanding of human development will help social and
community workers to analyse the behaviour of individuals and make them to learn how to
behave in a society (Berkes and Ross, 2013). Knowledge of human development will lead to a
deeper understanding about interaction between individuals and social norms.
D1
Theory of human development will help social and community workers to identify the
way human interacts and their response to certain stimuli. Social work practice leads to
determine how social workers can implement theories. Cognitive theory will help social and
community worker to identify human behaviour of young adults. By analysing behaviours of
individuals, the can improve their services according to the behaviour of young adults. Whereas,
behaviourist theory will lead to a deeper understanding of observable actions of young adults so
that they can build effective strategies for them to develop better understanding of psychological
factors.

P3 Assess the impact of pre-natal factors on human development
There are many pre-natal factors that play important role during the development of a
infant during pregnancy. It effect child development after the birth at the stage of life. There are
numbers of factors are occur that can impact on mental, physical like weight, appearance,
increase risk of diseases which leads to premature delivery. The factors are drugs over the
counter, alcohol, lack of nutrition, stress, chemicals which effect the prenatal development. The
pregnant woman should keep their diet healthy as it directly influences on child's health and
leads to difficulties in communication, language and domestic violence (Berkman and et.al.,
2014). If mother is adapting harmful environment then it alter the genes and results in difficulties
during developing of brain, liver, intestinal cells and the sexual reproductive organs. The mother
need to ingest all needed requirements including food, medication and liquid which passes
through placenta to the foetus.
In context of Kenny, her mother is a drug addict and she also consuming drugs during
gestation period. Due to drug bad habits, Kenny born eight weeks before delivery. He was kept
in hospital for about three months because of his pre mature delivery. Kenny becomes a difficult
boy which have difficult in walking and talking. The impact of drug on Kenny health is effecting
in his brain and on his growth. The drug highly effect the brain development as the chemical
neurotransmitters play important function in the process of neurons and circuits. Drug can alter
the transmitters which transmit wrong signals to the brain and the child can behave inappropriate
and problem in understanding and learning. The excessive consumption of drugs delay
development include aneuploidy and inborn errors of metabolism and this can be seen in case of
Kenny according to his sign and symptoms. The prenatal period refers to time which is a host of
maternal which directly influences the offspring's brain and physical development.
In Kenny's case, her mother's behaviour in prospect to her offspring affected the birth
delivery which weak the child health for the exposure natural environment. Drug ingestion is one
of the most risk factor for behavioural, physical, neurologically changes which can effect the
offspring. It is a common problem health concern that can bring complications. With the
improper development during gestation period many disease can appear at the stages of life life
diabetes, heart abnormalities, brain damage (Cournoyer, 2016). The over take of tobacco
increased risk of such as urinary tract and limb malformation. The gestation period is the most
essential part of an individual development. The duration and timing of these exposure are also

effect on woman womb. Any form of stress during fetal development can develop changes in
fetal behaviour, attitude, thinking which may effect the child on his growing stage. The other
changes can develop into disease at early stage as like changes appear in Kenny's development.
Some prenatal infection factor can also effect the child's immunity and cause disease like cancer,
heart defects, etc. To protect child from problems with prenatal development, the new mothers
should take care of what they are consuming.
P4 Range of life events that affect development through childhood and adolescence
In the process of growing, individuals faces a life events through childhood and
adolescence. The childhood and adolescence are qualitatively different because they have
physical, psychological and social needs that are necessary to alter growth and development
(Engel and Schutt, 2014). These life events of childhood and adolescence depend on the parents
or family, society or community to meet those needs for their children that what kind of adults
they will become. Children and adolescence share basic need requirements that depends on range
of personal, cultural and social factors. Children need a proper guidance during the early years
when they are mostly dependent on their family and community.
The parents and communities need to initiate them into cultural skills, way of thinking
and attitude towards life for their better well being. But there are some child which are facing
problems during their children and adolescence period. These problems derive from various
issues like gender differences, different appearances, disability, suffer from disease. During
adolescence, the children can affect from psychological disorder that follows exposure to
negative circumstances. The period of adolescence is one of the self discovery experience which
need proper care and development. In this puberty changes occur like body changes, height.
Some life events like divorce or death of their parent leads in their psychological and behavioural
changes (Featherstone and et.al., 2014). There are some physical torture including beating with
stick, abusing and other dis-hearted reaction of an activity. In case of Kenny, his father Greg has
violence nature and he was abusing towards child. He strike on his face, push him, shout on him
and calling his name loudly. This aggressive behaviour of father start affecting child
psychologically and he started spending and playing in room most of the time. This could be a
threatening impact on child's development on his childhood and adolescence.
During his childhood, he started spending most of time out of the house and playing with
elder boys which forces him to do bad and violence activity. This activity includes smoking,

annoying the neighbours, hitting other children. They force to child to steal things for them and if
child refuses to do they start humiliating him. This effect the child mentally and his way of
lifestyle which socially appear changing. Due to his mother prostitution work, he suffer a lot of
problems from society and from his friends. There are threat factors commonly experienced by
children and adolescence include loss of family and friends, loss of self respect and self
confidence, uncertainness about the future, non-paying domestic work, lack of opportunities for
education and play. These risk factors include poor health, lack of support services,
unemployment, lack of material resources (Fook, 2016). The loss of childhood and adolescence
can have a noticeable effect as their capacity of learning, forming relationship which is an outlet
of deep frustration, anti-social behaviour, fear and anxiety. This affect the child intellectual
development, emotional maturity. Abuse can be of many different forms with in the society but
with in the family it is profound and it is highly affecting children in their growth.
M2
It is a set of principles which determines the development of emotional bond between an
infant and primary caregiver. It effects the overall behavioural and emotional development of a
child in his adolescence. Attachment theory help a caregiver to identify the response of an infant
towards him and to analyse the best approaches for the development of a child. It will help a
child to learn social and emotional functioning which will help him in future. It minimises the
risks factors, mental health problems and coping strategies of a child. Kenny should develop this
theory as it will help him to communicate with his mother and to build an emotional bond with
her.
D2
It is the responsibility of a social or community worker to analyse the behaviour of adults.
Physical and mental heath of an adult will impact him to respond to various environmental
stimuli. Adults are usually get influence by others and then adapt bad habits like smoking, drug
intake etc. Such habits leads to bad consequences and may cause a negative impacts on their
lives (Kezar and et.al., 2015). However, social workers after knowing behaviours of adults can
work on their weaknesses and motivate them to bring necessary changes. It will help them to
build overall human development of adults.

ACTIVITY 2
P5. Describe the impact of different life events on development through adulthood
The life events which occur during the development of an individual affects the life of the
child to a great extent. Such events and changes that occur throughout the life may influence the
behaviour of people. As Christine was a drug addict, due to which Kenny was a premature
child, such children are at great risk of being readmitted to the care service centres for longer
period of time and have higher mortality risk. Kenny spent three months in hospital due to
premature delivery which affected him physically and mentally.
Kenny was a difficult baby because during his development, Child's mother spent most of
his time earning money through prostitution and then spending everything to buy drugs. Such
events made the child aggressive and difficult to settle. He used to cry a lot and was facing
problem in walking and talking abilities. The child used to fell left out with various number of
carers and often left alone in playpen for hours, because their mother was constantly high on
drugs (Ray and et.al., 2013). The abusive nature of the child's father made the condition worse,
because he used to strike, push and shove the child on face and was abusive towards him. Such
events made the baby more out of control and difficult. The lack of food, toys and furniture
made the child feel alone and weak physically and mentally.
During the child stay with his grandmother away from the parents, made the baby quite
stable. He gained weight, height and developed language and play skills which helped in healthy
development and growth. After moving with his mother again, Kenny used to spend time alone
playing with toys. At the age of 4, he joined school which was difficult to settle, but the support
of teachers assist the child in developing quick learning skills and became a good football
player. The new relationship of Christine with Ray made the situation complicated, as he
dislike Ray and thus does not involve in any family functions. This made the child feel stressed
and anxious all the time. By the age of 10, due to lack of parents attention the baby started
mixing with older spoiled boys who dare him to do smoking and engaged the child in vandalism.
Such disturbing life events made the development of Kenny difficult throughout the adulthood.

P6. Review the physical, psychological and social changes associated with the ageing process
Various physical, psychological and social changes are associated with ageing process
and the human body go through many changes everyday on outside as well as inside. Some
changes that come with the development are discussed below.
Physical changes: It has been observed that as we age the blood vessels of heart losses
the power of elasticity and the fats get deposited against the walls of artery which results the less
circulation of blood throughout the body leading to high blood pressure. The bones and joints
also lose their size and density. The flexibility and strength of muscles becomes weak as a part of
ageing process. The skin loses the tightness and elasticity (Shea and Bidjerano, 2014). The
reflexes of digestion slow downs. The process of eliminating waste from blood may become less
efficient due to weakening of kidney and urinary tract. The death of brain cells as a human age
may affect the capacity of retaining the memory, lessening the reflexes and response.
Psychological changes: The infants show different behavioural including excitement,
surprise, relaxation and stress. Various emotional behaviour like anger, fear and sadness also
reflected during this age. During childhood, they exhibit more goal oriented behaviour with
creativity and spontaneousness as Kenny developed learning skills and became good football
player. They begin to understand the relationship with parents and become self aware about own
emotion and potential, which Kenny build with his grandmother. At adolescence, they become
self conscious, responsible, self directed, rational and deductive. Emotionally, they may build
sexual roles and have sex urges. With adulthood, the person emotional capabilities are at peak so
as to met the demands of marriage, children, career. Women face menopause during this age
which affect the hormones to great extent resulting in imbalance in emotional state. During old
age, the individual become emotionally and physically dependent on others.
Social changes: This change mainly focus on the relationship with family members and
friends. Such relationship is majorly built during adolescences. The social surrounding, variety
of people, the thinking of society all affect the changes of social life (Thompson, 2015). Kenny
when used to live with his grandmother made him more stable due to the surrounded people and
society. When he went with his mother to live with Ray, the change of environment and
surrounding made with unstable again and the child indulged with older boys and engaged into
activities like smoking and stealing. Thus, healthy social life is very important to lead good
quality of life.

P7. Assess the role of the social or community worker in supporting individuals through
significant life events
The perfect role of a care worker depend on the work and service setting, as supporting
social worker gives a wide range of services and work to needed people. They offer direct care
services, clinical services, medical services, helping people cope with everyday problems,
treatment and diagnosis of mental and other health issues (Wenger-Trayner and et. al., 2014). A
social worker is advocate, mediator, broker, manager, researcher, community change agent etc.
A social worker can help person in a supporting way are Developing support and coping
strategies, help to develop trusting relationships, recognizing and naming the symptom, safety of
environment such as safe place to live. They also plan to protect, provide financial resources,
transportation, they provide control of body making victim get enough sleep, regulation of
symptoms and understanding their self harm behaviour, have concrete safety plan.
A Care worker are usually more confident working with physically abusive children and
physically and sexually abusive women comparing with cases affecting internet based abuse,
trafficking, grooming or child sexual exploitation, regular aid and supervising is essential in
developing social workers confidence and skills. Training was uncertain in terms of accessibility,
focus, format, connection, quality to practice (Williams, Blair‐Loy and Berdahl, 2013).
From the case study Kenny is a boy who is premature born and physically abused by
father and verbally abuse by outsider people because Kenny body parts are totally immature,
can't walk properly and speak accurately. Mother Christine work as prostitute and take drugs and
spent all money in consumption of drugs. By this case study a social worker support in setting up
a football ground, skating board area within the park as well as better team so that Kenny could
play because the child like to play games in field, they provided all facilities through social
worker so that he could grow and mature as well sensible.
Community worker improve the quality of their lives, occupant also speech the socio-
economic obstruction that often lead to crime, poverty, low poorness values, poor health,
underperforming schools etc.
P8. Describe the range of services in own locale that can support individuals experiencing
different life events
Within Barnet borough, there are ample of locale service providers that aids in supporting
the experience of individual in different life events. Heritage Healthcare is a locale service

provider which help the individuals to live independently within their own home. The members
of such care services are trained enough to support a large personal care services like dressing,
grooming, monitoring the weight and nutrition, giving prescribed medications and also help in
washing and bathing to the required individual at home.
During the childhood of Kenny, such services may have helped a lot to groom him and
support him during the baby's alone childhood. The companionship services of Heritage
Healthcare helps an individual to share the feeling and past traumas to the skilled workers so that
the person does not feel left out and alone. The services assist in enabling the individual to
become involved more with the community (Heritage Healthcare Barnet, 2019). Such
companionship would have helped Kenny to improve the social health and would have stopped
him in spending time with older spoiled boys, who forced the child to smoke and steal. The
services also make a person confident and self enabled to perform the daily tasks and taking life
decisions on their own. The main part of life where the care should be provided most is the
adolescence time, where a child may get indulge into bad influence, thereby such locale services
aids in shaping the quality of life better.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, social and community work in very
important in shaping the life of an individual. Various theories of human development assist in
supporting the needy person, where the biological and environmental factors play an essential
role. It has been concluded that, the overall events of life affects the physical, psychological and
social changes of a child till adulthood. Thus, it has been observed that the role of the social and
community workers and locale services helps in improving the effects of past life events and aids
in enhancing the quality of life.

REFRENCES
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Wenger-Trayner, E.,and et.al 2014. Learning in landscapes of practice: Boundaries, identity,
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Online
Heritage Healthcare Barnet. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://heritagehealthcare.co.uk/barnet/>
AP Psychology Study Resource: Cognitive Learning. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.appsychology.com/Cognitive+Learning>