1.

Social changes at different periods of the human life span:

The life-span approach emphasizes developmental change throughout adulthood as well

as childhood. The interplay of biological, cognitive, and socio emotional processes produces the
periods of the human life span.
A developmental period refers to a time frame in a person’s life that is characterized
by certain features. Describing development in terms of these periods helps us to understand
development better.
The most widely used classification of developmental periods involves the eight-
period sequence.
The prenatal period is the time from conception to birth. Infancy is the
developmental period from birth to 18 or 24 months.
Early childhood is the developmental period from the end of infancy to age 5 or 6.
Middle and late childhood is the developmental period from about 6 to 11 years of age.
Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood,
approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 21 years of age.
Early adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the late teens or early twenties
and lasts through the thirties.
Middle adulthood is the developmental period from approximately 40 years of age
to about 60. Late adulthood is the developmental period that begins in the sixties or seventies and
lasts until death.

Physical development
Prenatal stage involves tremendous growth-from a single cell to an organism
complete with brain and behavioural capabilities-and takes place in approximately a nine-
month period.

In Early childhood period parents eagerly await to see when the child learns how to
roll over and crawl.
Each of these represents a part of physical development. The process happens in an orderly
manner; that is, certain skills and abilities generally occur before others.
For example, most infants learn to crawl before they learn to walk. It is also important to realize
that the rate at which these physical goals are reached can vary from child to child.
During Middle childhood, children grow in height and weight. In adolescence, children attain
puberty. When children hit puberty, their bodies produce certain hormones which cause physical
changes.
Some of these changes include an increase in height and weight, growth and changes in
sexual organs, sometimes pimples! These physical changes are caused by hormones produced by
the body, such as estrogen and testosterone.
However, because of the different levels of testosterone and estrogen found in the two genders-
boys with more testosterone and girls with more estrogen boys and girls undergo different
physical changes.
During adulthood, there are few changes in height. There may be changes in weight
as people put on or lose weight. Some men may experience ‘middle age spread’ as their waistline
expands. Some Women’s weight may fluctuate as a response to pregnancy or hormone changes
associated with post-pregnancy or menopauses factors. Growth in
later adulthood is usually negative growth.

2. Biological processes of conception:

Most of the time, women don’t know the exact day when they get pregnant. The
doctor will count the start of pregnancy from the first day of the last menstrual period. That
is usually about two weeks ahead of when conception actually occurs. The processes involved in
conception are as follows:
Ovulation: Each month inside the ovaries, a group of eggs start to grow in small, fluidfilled sacs
called follicles. Eventually one of the eggs erupts from the follicle (ovulation). It usually happens
about two weeks before the next period.
Hormones Rise: After the egg leaves the follicle, the follicle develops into something called the
corpus luteum. The corpus luteum releases a hormone that helps thicken the lining of the uterus,
preparing it ready for the egg.
The Egg Travels to the Fallopian Tube: After the egg is released, it moves into the fallopian
tube. It stays there for about 24 hours, waiting for a single sperm to fertilize it. All this happens,
on an average, about two weeks after the last period.
If the Egg Isn’t Fertilized: If no sperm is around to fertilize the egg, it moves through the uterus
and disintegrates. The hormone levels go back to normal. The body sheds the thick lining of the
uterus, and the monthly period starts.
Fertilization: If one sperm does make its way into the Fallopian tube and burrow into the egg, it
fertilizes the egg. The egg changes so that no other sperm can get in. At the instant if
fertilization, the baby’s genes and sex are set. If the sperm has a Y chromosome, the baby will be
a boy. If it has an X chromosome, the baby will be a girl.
Implantation: Moving to the Uterus: The egg stays in the Fallopian tube for about three to four
days, but within 24 hours of being fertilized it starts dividing very fast into many cells.
It keeps dividing as it moves slowly through the fallopian tube to the uterus. Its next job is to
attach to the lining of uterus. This is called implantation.
Some women notice slight bleeding for one or two days around the time of implantation. The
lining of the uterus gets thicker and the cervix is sealed by a plug of mucus. It will stay in place
until the baby is ready to be born. Within the first week, a hormone called human chorionic
gonadotropin (HCG) can be found in the blood. It’s made by the cells that eventually become the
placenta. Within three weeks, the cells begin to grow as clumps, and the baby’s first nerve cells
have already formed.

These are the biological details regarding conception. The development stages
of pregnancy are called trimesters or three-month periods, because of the distinct changes that
occur in each stage.

3. The patterns of growth after birth:

Apart from some basic reflexes and the ability to cry, the newborn is unable to
perform many actions. Over the next 12 months, however, the infant becomes capable of
sitting, standing stooping, climbing, and usually walking.
During the second year, while growth slows, rapid increases in such activities as running and
climbing take place.
It is important for educators and teachers to know about the physical and
mental development of children at all stages because they spend maximum time with
children during the day.
It is important for them to know the normal physical and mental development of
children during infancy, because any small change or accident at this stage can have very serious
consequences for the child’s future.

At birth, the infant that began as a single cell has a brain that contains eighty six billion
of nerve cells, or neurons.
Extensive brain development continues after birth, through infancy, and later.
Because the brain is still developing so rapidly in infancy, the infant’s head should be
protected from falls or other injuries.
At birth, the newborn’s brain is about 25 percent of its adult weight. By the second birthday, the
brain is about 75 percent of its adult weight.
However, the brain’s areas do not mature uniformly.
The infant’s brain is literally waiting for experiences to determine how connections are made.

Physical Growth and Motor Development

According to dynamic systems theory, infants assemble motor skills for perceiving
and acting; perception an diction are joined together.
In order to develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the environment
that motivates them to act, and then use their perceptions to develop their movements.
Motor skills represent solutions to the infant’s goals.

By 2 months of age, babies can sit while supported on a lap or an infant seat, but
they cannot sit independently until they are 6 or 7 months of age. Standing also develops
gradually during the first year of life.
By about 8 months of age, infants usually learn to pull themselves up and hold on to a chair, and
by about 10 to 12 months of age they can often stand alone.
Locomotion and postural control are closely linked, especially in walking upright. To walk
upright, the baby must be able both to balance on one leg as the other is swung forward and to
shift the weight from one leg to the other.

Cognitive development
Infants must also learn what kinds of places and surfaces are safe for crawling or walking.

Language Development
Babies actively produce sounds from birth onward. The effect of these
early communications is to attract attention. Babies’ sounds and gestures go through this order
during the first year:
1. Crying. Babies cry even at birth. Crying can signal distress, but there are different types of
cries that signal different things.
2. Cooing. Babies first coo at about 1 to 2 months. These are gurgling sounds that are made in
the back of the throat and usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver.
3. Babbling, In the middle of the first year babies’ babble-that is, they produce strings of
consonant-vowel combinations, such as “ba, ba, ba, and ba.”
4. Gestures. Infants start using gestures, such as showing and pointing, at about 8 to 12 months
of age.

A baby’s schemes are structured by simple actions that can be performed on objects such as
sucking, looking, and grasping.