Human Development Life Stages: Social, Emotional, Cognitive and Physical Developments

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1.1 Human development life stages
There are different stages of life that a human being normally goes through. The stages
are “infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood”. These stages of life are then further
divided into smaller ones, e.g. “infancy, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle
adulthood and late adulthood”. These life stages vary from culture to culture and are not fixed
(Skiadas and Skiadas, 2018).
Infancy 0-2 years
Infancy lasts from 1st day to 2 years. “During this time, the child grows and develops fast
using the senses to understand the world”. Children cry to express their needs, and soon parents
realize the difference between crying in hunger and misery (Perra et.al 2021).

Childhood 3-10 years
Early childhood between the ages of 3 and 5 is a time of strong cognitive development,
where children learn to understand and speak the language, not cry, to express their needs (Gu,
2022). At this time, children begin to start to learn. At the age of 3-5, they seek independence
and often express in response their feelings, which weaken as their social skills develop (de
Pisón 2018). Between the ages of 6 and 10, is a place where children strengthen their skills. They
start becoming active in physical activities, like sports and they start thinking that rules are
important in sports as in understanding that it is equally important in life (Perra et.al 2021).
Adolescence 11-17 years
Adolescents, aged 11 to 17, undergo major physical and emotional changes as the body
produces hormones of varying sizes weights and body types. Physically adolescents develop
sexual characteristics. In adolescent girls, the breast enlarges and boys grow a beard and voice
deepens. They can sometimes feel anxious and embarrassed (de Pisón 2018).

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Early adulthood 18-29 years
Early adulthood develops social ties and careers between the ages of 18 and 29. Early
childhood is a sign of complete independence and many life events can occur, such as exercise
(Newman and Newman 2017).
Middle adulthood 30-60 years
In middle adulthood, the average age is 30-60 years which is also known as the
consolidation period. As older parents need more support, career changes, relationships can
break down and family responsibilities can increase as the adult grows (Newman and Newman
2017).

Late adulthood 60+ years
The average age of late adults is 60 years and over which is become a time where the
adult needs support and care (Reisig and Holtfreter, 2018).
Social, emotional, cognitive and physical developments within each life stage.

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Social development
Infancy Stage 0-2 years
While reaching the end of infancy, children develop hugs, kisses, emotional skills,
showing anxiety towards unwanted events (Newman and Newman 2017). According to
Maestripieri, (2018), infants usually socialise in the form of skin-to-skin contact, feeding, and
cuddles. Babies benefit from being with other children as they learn to live in new situations,
play with new toys, and even adopt new social etiquette. Before interacting with other children,
most children play "parallel" or play side by side. In this, solitary play, infants play alone or
unaware of others around them. In this case, they interact with their toys.
Childhood 3-10 years
Social development occurs, as children play with the same gender playmates. According
to the researcher, the primary socialisation occurs when child learns values and action to live in a
particular environment (de Pisón 2018). As children reach their late childhood social
development occurs. They start to make friends, play games together, team play and they gain
skills to communicate with other people and process their behaviour as they mature and see their
own identity in their group (Pathak and Mehta, 2020).

Adolescence 11-17 years
In early adolescence, young people feel more mood fluctuations as adolescence is the
time when a person moves from childhood to adulthood. Children entering adolescence undergo
many changes. Puberty, which occurs earlier than in the past on average, marks the beginning of
adolescence (Immordino-Yang, Darling-Hammond and Krone, 2018). The consequences of
actions, spending more time with their peers while reaching the middle stages of adolescence as
they become more emotionally stable during the middle stage (Newman and Newman 2017).
Despite the belief that cliques are fundamentally harmful, they may assist adolescents in being
socially adapted and developing a stronger sense of self
Early adulthood 18-29 years
At this stage, an individual starts developing an ability to share relationships that often
formed and often result in marriage. Socialisation in youth is involved in the formation of
general ideals and self-image (Louw and Louw, 2020). Adult socialisation “includes more
explicit and specialized norms and behaviors, such as work norms and behaviors, as well as more
superficial personality traits”.

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Middle adulthood 30-60
The most typical age range is 40 to 65 years, but there may be 10 years (30-75 years).
They socialise with different people, as this is the stage where middle adults make an
independent life. Although the timing of major life events varies greatly between early and
middle-aged adults, they tend to follow a basic pattern known as the social clock. The social
clock means the “right moment” for the most important events in life, such as getting out of
childhood, getting married and having children, as determined by culture.
Late adulthood 60+ years
Late adulthood is a time when people begin to come to terms with their lives and re-
evaluate what they have done or achieved to replace what they want to achieve for the rest of
their lives. At this stage in life, adults around the age of 65 begin to experience various changes
in their appearance and deteriorating health. As society grows more couple-oriented, these little
friendship groups break down even more. They socialise with their grandchildren, friends and
their little communities.

Emotional development
Infancy Stage 0-2 years
In emotional development, it starts from birth as in the first three months' infants display
the emotions through a smile, rage and anger. Make contact, laugh, talk and sing with them, and
play a copy to help them learn the tour (Leerkes and Bailes, 2019). "According to experts, the
socialization of infants is also a basis for communication that promotes proper language
development and even empathy. During this stage, the terrible twos do not occur usually but it is
also a normal development that a child can be experienced by young children often marked by
tantrums, and lots of frustration.
Childhood 3-10 years
In this stage of life, the children can talk about their emotions while lacking the ability to express
their feelings completely (Newman and Newman 2017).