Human Growth and Deveopment Writing Assignment

Human Growth and Development
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Human Growth and Development
Introduction
Infancy and early childhood developmental periods are extraordinary stages as the child continues to gain more independence in the social and physical world. New interactions with the immediate setting help the child to acquire a feeling of self-identity in addition to learning culture and its practices. Such practices form the basis of moral evolutions of a child’s behavior and the acceptance of these rules by the adults or the significant other. Each developmental stage is important in its own way and helps in managing the intellectual, cognitive and physical development of a child. The infant and preschool developmental stages are the most significant in regard to instilling values that form the foundation of other developmental stages. This paper offers a comparative analysis of infancy, preschool, middle childhood and adolescent developmental stages.
Infancy and Preschool Development Stages
Personality and social development occur via different means and gradually moves from infancy to preschool developmental stages. On the other hand, moral and psychosocial development occurs via varying means for the two populations. At the infancy stage, a child acquires the first sense of personality and social development via significant others who in this case would be the caregivers or the guardians. The parents, especially the mother form the primary source of interaction with the outside world (Carson, et al, 2016). In this regard, infants form an emotional attachment with the caregiver or the significant other and gradual observation enhance their personality traits as they continue imitating from those who are close to them.
Emotional attachments promote an infant’s motivation to remain close to significant others and by extension allow such a child to learn, feel secure, warm and get guidance from those they constantly relate to. The feeling of security may in this case differ from one case to another. For example, an infant whose parents handle them sensitively will be securely attached. Such an infant will have confidence that their caregivers will offer the necessary support. On the other hand, a child will be insecurely attached in an environment where care is unpredictable or where the caregiver shows negligence. It is important to note that insecure attachments not sorely a consequence of poor parenting, but rather a combination of different circumstances (Carson, et al, 2016). For example, an exhausted or overworked single parent can become over stressed making it difficult for her to give the necessary attention to her child.
As children progress to preschool stage, the relationship between them and their caregivers naturally vary. Preschool children tend to be more capable as compared with infants and have individual preferences. Unlike in the case of infants, preschool children may at times seek to negotiate or totally refuse to adhere to the expectations of the caregiver. This can be a source of conflict between the caregiver and the child. How such conflicts are managed determines the quality of the relationship between the caregiver and the child. For example, when a parent has reasonable expectations, the child will develop self-confidence and greater competence. This kind of parenting style is known as authoritative in that it allows children to make constructive mistakes while guiding them on the best way forward (Carson, et al, 20...