Human Development and Life Transition Issues Assignment 2023

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE TRANSITION ISSUES
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE TRANSITION ISSUES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE TRANSITION ISSUES1
The developmental milestone is considered as the crucial part of human development
which facilities the development of cognitive, social, physical and psychological abilities
amongst children to make them a responsible adult (Narvaez et al., 2013). Kearney and
Fulbrook, (2014), highlighted that in the developmental stage of 2 years months to 5 years,
toddles acquire an ability to express themselves by using sounds, facials expressions and they
have acquired the habit of feeding themselves, involve in the parallel plays and attend toileting
needs. In the developmental stage, the children of 2 to 5 years also develop psychosocial skills
which further shape the personality as adult. Hence, this assignment is aimed to explore two
examples of psychosocial development such as toileting habits and healthy eating habit in the
following paragraphs. The assignment will also explore psychosocial developmental theory of
Erikson and Bandura. Lastly, it will also provide an in-depth discussion of factors that contribute
to the psychosocial development of children of 2 to 5 years in the following paragraphs.
Narvaez et al., (2013) define psychosocial development as a developmental stage which
enhances the development of social, cognitive, intellectual and physical capabilities. The
importance of psychosocial development is that psychosocial developments develop personality
amongst children through facilitating self-awareness and sense of identity. The Erikson provided
an excellent description of the psychosocial development of the children of 2 to 5 years. In this
case, it can be said that children of 2 to 5 years usually experience two stages such as
“Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt” and “Initiative vs. Guilt” of psychosocial development.
Dunkel and Harbke (2017), highlighted that infants of 2 to 5 years usually gain a sense of

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE TRANSITION ISSUES2
independence through gathering fine motor skills such as feeding themselves and continence.
Through these skills, toddlers gain a sense of autonomy and independence (Knight, 2017). In this
stage, the lack of support from parents and criticism from peers develop a sense of doubt and
reduce the self-esteem of the toddlers to gain self-management skills (Walle, 2016). Hence, in
this age group of 2 to 5 years, support and encouragement from the parents, caregiver and peers
are crucial for development of autonomy and taking initiatives. The parents must not hurry for
the development of the child since it may impact self-esteem of the child.
In this current context, Walle (2016), suggested that during the development of the
toddler, they experience normative transitions children are able to recognize familiar voices,
express themselves through different sounds. They also acquire fine motor skills such as feeding
themselves, playing with peers and gaining continence. These factors further develop a sense of
independence in them (Veldman, Santos, Jones, Sousa-Sa & Okely, 2019). For instance of the
case study, it can be said that Andrew is a toddler who has working parents and consequently,
they get very limited time to support psychosocial development. In the day-offs, tom supports the
psychosocial development by taking care of him which further encouraged him to sing with him
and other family members. In such cases, if parents failed to encourage and support these
developmental skills of the children of 2 to 5 years, then they failed to develop these skills. In
this context, due to lack of constant parental support, Andrew failed to take the initiatives of
developing skills of healthy eating pattern and toileting on their own which hindered his
psychosocial development such as autonomy and independence.