Human Development Across the Lifespan

This paper discusses the stage of early childhood or toddlerhood in human development, including developmental theories such as attachment theory and cognitive theory. The paper also covers key events during this period and personal reflections on experiences during this stage of life.

Running head: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
Introduction
The human developmental process takes place over the lifetime of the individuals that
tracks the psychological process that occurs in a methodical manner. The major stages of the
development process involves infancy followed by early childhood or toddlerhood. Then
comes late childhood followed by the adolescence starting from the teen years and early
adulthood stage. The later stages include the middle adulthood stage during the ages of 40-60
and finally the old age stage during the ages of 60-80 or more (Payne et al., 2017). This paper
aims to discuss the stage of toddlerhood or early childhood as was experienced by me along
with the different experiences and milestones that I have faced during that stage of my life.
Additionally in the paper, illustration will be provided for the theories of psychological
developments that are in reference with the early childhood development. In conclusion to the
paper, the personal experiences that I have faced during my early childhood stages will be
described along with the various responses.
Overview
The phase of early childhood is being discussed in this paper. This phase extends
about the first five years of the child’s life. According to my perception, this period is very
vital in terms that most of the development of the brain of the child takes place during this
stage. It becomes very important for the child to receive the appropriate amount of care along
with sensory and stimulation education which increases the chance of becoming successful.
In terms of psychology, the stage of toddlerhood or early childhood refers to the period of
birth hence covers infancy, the stage of kindergarten and the preschool ages (Trawick-Smith
& Smith, 2014). Under this the development stages of physical growth and cognitive growth

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along with the social-emotional growth. In terms of physical development, the gross motor
skills are involved along with the fine motor skills (Kail& Cavanaugh2018).
Developmental theories
In order to properly understand the growth and the learning process in children, it is
required to understand the developmental theories related to the particular stage of
development. These theories tend to provide frameworks to understand the human growth
and development which are used to assess the stages and in this case is used to assess the
stage of early childhood.
One of this theories is the attachment theory. This theory was first proposed by John
Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth that successfully established the relationship between the chid
and the mother (Holmes, 2014). This theory also helped to understand the impact of parental
separation and deprivation on the child in the early years of childhood. Attachment is
believed to develop gradually staring from the phase where the mother starts to care for the
unborn child. The process of attachment is lifelong which involves the major aspects of
intimacy and independence (Goldberg, Muir & Kerr, 2013). The early attachment phase starts
with the child giving signals to the caregivers. There is an emotional regulation involved in
the process which enables the child to learn to manage the stressful situations making a way
for self-sooth. In the later stages of attachment around the ages of 7-9 months, the child tends
to become anxious in the presence of strangers, which makes it difficult for the caregivers to
offer comfort. By this time, the children become attached to their caregivers since they
undergo significant amount of interaction with them. During the ages of 20-24 months,
attachment increases in terms that the toddlers tend to show signs of involvement outside the
immediate family. To summarise it can be said that attachment theory marks the beginning of
early human relationships and experiences (Fonagy, 2018).

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The next is the cognitive theory that was proposed by Jean Piaget. The theory
illustrated that the cognitive skills of the children progresses through a series of stages
(Kogan, 2013). During the process new information from the experiences is absorbed and
analysed. The early childhood stages includes development of the sensory motors during the
ages from birth to 24 months and the preoperational periods in the ages 2–6 years. During
thesensory-motor period, they learn to repeat actions which they like and coordinate with it.
Understanding of words also starts in this period.They even start representing objects or
events and try to comprehend the meaning of those objects continue to exist, even when it is
not visible. During the preoperational period, the hallmark of development is language
(Dweck, 2013). Children begin to get involved in pretend play and will take on roles such as
their parents. The theorist believed that from birth, children have a drive to explore and
master their own environment in which they belong try to develop self-confidence through
their doings.
Key events during this period
Developmental milestones act as checklists. There are four different milestones that
includes the physical milestones, the cognitive milestones, the social emotional and the
communication milestones (Britto et al., 2017). The physical milestones includes the large-
motor and fine-motor skills. The large-motor skills generally develop earlier that includes
sitting up and standing. This also involves crawling, and walking. The fine-motor skills
includes the specific movements which includes grasping things, drawing of shapes and such
other actions (Roskos, 2017).
Cognitive milestones are focussed on the ability of the child to think and learn along
with the ability to search problems. The process by which the infant learns how to respond to
facial expressions and a process of learning of pre-schooler the alphabet are both regarded as

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examples of cognitive milestones (Moss, Dahlberg & Pence, 2013). Social and emotional
milestones are focussed on children having a better understanding the emotions. These
milestones also involve learning how to interact and play with other people. The milestones
of communication includes language and communication of non-verbal nature. Most of the
milestones occurs during a specific period of time. The parents and the caregivers of the child
should remember the fact that every child is unique and therefore each child shows in
milestones at different time windows (Dweck, 2013). Examples can be seen in terms that a
particular child of one year old might learn the first words and the five year old might learn
some of the basic grammar rule. This is included in the communication milestone. Some of
the children achieve the milestones early like those who learn to walk or talk much faster as
compared to children of the same age. This does not means that the child is gifted where
other are not. The abilities of development are dependent on one another. Skills of advanced
nature like walking usually occur later than the simpler abilities of crawling or sitting up that
have been achieved already (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2018).
Own reflection
From the discussion of the developmental theories in the above segment, I can apply
the theories in mine own behaviour which I used to display while I was in that phase of my
life that is in the early childhood stage. Through the discussion of the attachment theory I
have understood the behaviours I used to show with my caregivers. Although I do not
remember those situations vividly but I have been informed by my parents that I used to
extremely attached with my mother while I was an infant. However she was a working
woman, and therefore had to get help from the caregivers. Slowly I started showing signs of
attachment towards my caregiver Mrs. Nancy. Other such behaviours included a sense of

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autonomy, when I was forced to sit in the car seat. My parents attempted to secure me using a
seat belt, and tried to separate me from my caregiver. Most of the time of the day I used to
spend with her therefore I developed a strong attachment towards her with was more as
compared to attachment with my parents.
In another scenario of showcase of my behaviour, it can be explained using the
cognitive development. Our family had a small poodle, therefore during the initial days of my
childhood I can only come across small dogs, therefore believed that dogs are small and
furry. However later I came across different dog breeds like the Labrador who were quite
large and lacked furs. I took this information and modified my earlier information in order to
make a sense. Therefore the cognitive development showed that I was able to take in new
information and process it to give the existing information in my mid a new outcome (Stern,
2017).
Conclusion
From the above the discussions it can be concluded that human development occurs
throughout the lifespan of an individual. There are majorly 8 steps, out of which the stage of
early childhood or toddlerhood have been discussed in the paper. There are several
developmental theories like the attachment theory and the cognitive theory that helps to better
understand the human growth, learning and development. The theories provide frameworks
to analyse the behaviours which we show in the respective stages of the development. In the
paper I included my personal experiences and responses which I had gone through during the
stage of toddlerhood. I tried to connect my responses with the theories of development.

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References
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Fonagy, P. (2018). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis. Routledge.
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