Unit 4 – Development through the Life Stages

1. Unit 4 – Development through the Life Stages Knowing the stages of growth and development throughout the human lifespan - Lesson 4

2. Learning Outcomes of Unit 4 • You will be able to: • Identify and define the stages of growth and development through the human lifespan, • Identify, define and apply the potential effects of life factors and events on the development of the individual, • Identify and define the physical and psychological changes of ageing.

3. Fact or Opinion? Hand out newspaper article to students and ask them to highlight facts or opinions.

4. Intellectual Development • Piaget (1896 -1980) – famous theorist who studied our ability to think and develop, • Piaget believes that there are four stages of intellectual development which mature or unfolds: • Sensorimotor stage: birth to 1 and a half or 2 years, • The pre-operational stage: 2 – 7 years, • The concrete operational stage: 7 – 11 years, • The formal operational stage from 11+ years. Page 140 – book 1

5. Language Development • Chomsky (1959) and Pinker (1994) believe that the ability to develop a signed or spoken language is genetically programmed into us (language acquisition device), • The ability to use language develops because of maturation, we do need to experience other people using language but we do not need to be trained in order to speak, • Some children will develop speech much more rapidly than others.

6. What do you think? In pairs discuss how quickly you learned to speak when you were young and compare this learning a second language in school. Reflect on how far personal experiences can be explained in terms of genetics for first language

7. Writing task Read and copy the table on the development of language on page 141.

8. Social development • There are great differences and cultural variations in the way individuals will experience social relationships during the course of their life. However there some generalisations: • Infancy (0-3) interacting with carers, • Childhood (4-9) first social learning, • Adolescence (10-18) secondary social learning • Adulthood (19-65) • Older adulthood (65+ years)

9. Emotional development • The way we understand and feel about ourselves and other people develops as we grow older. Some key features of emotional development associated with the life stages are summarised below: • Infancy – attachment • Childhood – understanding self and others • Adolescence – identity • Adulthood – intimacy • Older adulthood – making sense of your life

10. Delayed development potential causes and effects • Delayed development happens when a baby or a young child has not shown development within the expected time range, • The term is usually restricted to development within the first five years of life, • Delayed development may be caused by issues such as: • Brain damage • Poor social interaction, • Disease, • Visual disability • Hearing disability • Poor nutrition

11. Delayed development – potential causes and effects • Developmental progress will be checked by health professionals such as health visitors, although parents and GPs may be the first to notice problems, • Children who appear to have delayed development will be referred to appropriate specialist for advice or therapy

12. Case study – p144 B1 Read through Nia’s case study and answer the three questions

13. Arrested Development • The term arrested development means development that has stopped, • The word arrest means to stop something or someone, • In the past people with severe mental disability were sometimes regarded as arrested, but people with serious learning difficulty can develop and the term arrested ca be argued to be misleading if used to refer to people with learning difficulty or disability

14. Homework Using the internet or books provided undertake a web search to explore the concept of arrested development. Write some short notes to summarise your research.

15. 5 – 5 – 1 Summarise today’s topic in 5 sentences. Reduce to 5 words. Now to 1 word. (with as many variations as there are numbers!)