Human development is evident throughout life. It enables humans to undergo different stages from infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and eventually death. In the ensuing discussion, the focus will be on prenatal birth, childhood development, adolescent development, death, and dying.
Prenatal Birth
A human being tends to experience a continuous growth development since the moment of conception to the day that an individual passes away. This is usually classified by the cognitive, physiological, emotional, and social changes, where each stage in the human life span tends to have distinctive characteristics. Notably, the beginning of the human life span referred to as the prenatal period is usually classified by conception, where after fertilization of the female egg an embryo is formed, after which it is implanted into the uterus leading to the formation of fetus. During the prenatal period, the unborn offspring undergoes various developmental changes, in order for the fetus to be referred as a baby. During the first two weeks of the prenatal development, the embryo experiences cell multiplication, leading to the formation of multiple lumps of cells implanted in the uterus. Subsequently, after a span of eight weeks, the embryo evolves into a rough figure of a human being. Thereafter, after nine weeks, the embryo develops into a fetus where the basic systems of the body such as the nervous and pulmonary systems mature. At the twelfth week, the sex organs are can be differentiated, which is followed by the development of the fingers and toes. After 28 weeks, the fetus can hear, the pulmonary system undergoes development, and finally the brain undergoes growth. The remaining of the prenatal period the unborn offspring gains weight as it experiences full development of the internal organs.
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Childhood Development
Once a child has fully developed in the mother’s womb, conception takes place. Notably, the first two years during the growth of the newborn baby, he or she undergoes substantial growth, which is characterized by a massive transformation. These include of biological, cognitive, and social changes. Some of these changes are genetic, where a child inherits from his or her parents, which could be the physical features, internal traits, that is, the cognitive transformation, and social traits, that are similar to that of the child’s parents. Nevertheless, other than heredity, the environment also plays a great role in determining the transformation and outcome of a child to adulthood. A child’s physical development is highly correlated to his or her brain development, and study shows that nature plays a role in this development too. Further, according to the some of the life span development theories, it is seen that the environment in which an individual grows in, tends to affect or enhance the development of a child. For instance, a child growing in a harmful environment could experience challenges in being able to speak, however those who growing in a friendly environment tend to experience a higher rate of acquisition of various skills and abilities.
Adolescent Development
Subsequently, the transformation of children from childhood to an adolescent is characterized by multiple changes. Adolescence marks the end to childhood and beginning of adulthood. It acts as a bridge; hence, making it the most crucial period in the life span of a human being. Factors that affect a human being during childhood tend to affect a child during his or her adolescence period. Subsequently, during adolescence, the adaptive patterns also affect an adolescent during his or her adulthood. These include of the social and cognitive issues that an individual faces during the adolescent period and how he or she copes. The physical and mental health of an adolescent tends to be affected by the social and individual factors at the personal, family, and communal levels. Further, an individual’s cognitive ability plays an important role on the same. Nonetheless, as an individual approaches adulthood, the dramatic transformations that an adolescent experiences, tend to stabilize. The sense of understanding and reasoning in an adult undergoes a huge development, as the age increases. Thus, the social cognition in an adult is more developed as compared to an adolescent. Therefore, an adult is able to reason based on other individual’s mental state. During this period, an individual is fully mature, and enters the final stage of life, which is the death and dying stage.
Death and Dying
Although, the human life span has gradually increased, the human life span is considered to have a limit. At some point in life, human beings will experience death. Even when individuals are fully ware that they will die, they keep denying that fact. Apprehension, fear, and anxiety are widespread among people, whenever they think of dying, and as such, talks and discussions regarding death are shunned. Death of the aged is caused by many factors such as diseases, biological death, and social death. As a result, the dying isusually provided with palliative care, which helps in comforting and pain relief for the dying. This form of medication helps the dying to have control over their death, and it could be provided in the form of direct patient care, or through bathing and grooming. Considering death is a stage in human development, it is appropriate to provide death education to individuals. By so doing, individuals are well prepared to cope with this process effectively. It sparks the needs of the individual dying. In addition, death education is vital in improving understanding of the psychological and physical changes that accompany dying.
