1 Answers
Option 1 : Adolescence
Development describes the growth of humans throughout their lifespan, from conception to death. It refers to development as patterns of change over time. It does not just involve the biological and physical aspects of growth, but also the cognitive and social aspects associated with development. Very broadly the stages of development may be categorized into two main types:
- Prenatal development: The development of a person begins much before his/her birth and the stage of development before birth is the prenatal development stage.
- Postnatal development: Postnatal development refers to all the stages that follow after birth till the very end of life. It has 4 stages of development of a child these are:
- Infancy
- Early childhood
- Later childhood
- Adolescence
Adolescence: Adolescence literally means 'to grow to maturity. It is an intermediary stage between childhood and adulthood characteristically possessing qualities of both stages, although not fully in either of them. The age range is from 12-19 years. It is the threshold to adulthood. There are rapid physical changes taking place including sexual maturity which is attained during adolescence. Consequently, there are also psychological and social changes. Adolescence is a crucial stage for the person.
Characteristics of Adolescence age of development:
- Coming to terms with one's own body and accepting the changes.
- Achieving new and more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes.
- Selecting and training for a career.
- Adolescents face many biological, social, and personal changes due to hormonal changes.
- Desiring, accepting, and achieving socially responsible behavior.
- Achieving emotional and economic independence.
- According to Erikson, adolescence is known as an Identity crisis, in this stage teenagers actively search for identity.
- Gaining self-identity.
- An important change that takes place during adolescence is sexual maturity which occurs at the property.
- Changes in height and weight are rapidly referred to as 'growth spurt'. Puberty marks 'menarche' or the beginning of the menstrual cycle among the girls and nocturnal emissions among the boys.
- So by all these references, we can say that hormonal changes occur at the age of adolescence in the process of human development.
- Infancy period: During this stage, adjusting to the new non-uterine environment becomes the major goal or focus in the life of the neonate. Adjusting to room temperature. Breathing independently, sucking and swallowing the milk, eliminating body, and waste are prime areas that the newborn needs to master.
- Early childhood period: The period from birth to six years is a time for rapid development. In this stage, the absence of experience and deprivation can be detrimental to growth. Care and stimulation are critical during early childhood or the first three years.
- Later childhood: During this stage children develop marked negativism and because of their desire for independence seldom obey their parents. The child begins going to school and learns the rudiments of knowledge essential for successful adult life. The peer group assumes great significance and children of this age 'crowd together, thus earning the name gang age'.
Human development periods span the lifetime from conception to the end of life. These periods are as follows, prenatal, early, middle and late childhood, puberty, adolescence, young adulthood, early, middle, and later adulthood old age.
- Cephalocaudal Law- It means that development spreads over the body from head to foot.
- Proximodistal Law- It means that development spreads outward from the central axis of the body to the extremities.