BMC131421690
Yvonne Howell
Know stages of growth and development throughout the human lifespan
Understand potential effects of life factors and events on the development of the individual
Date issued 03.11.14
Content page
A description of the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development for each life stage.
A discussion on the nature-nurture debate In relation to development.
An evaluation on how nature and nurture may affect the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of two stages of development.
Introduction
This fact file will describe the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development for each of the life stages of an individual; it will also include a discussion on the nature-nurture debate in relation to the development of an individual. Finally it will give an evaluation on how nature and nurture may affect the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of two life stages of the development of an individual.
Description of physical, intellectual, emotional and social development for each life stage Development is an increase in skills, abilities and emotions.
Physical development is the way the body increases in height and weight during a person’s lifetime.
Intellectual development is the way an individual’s ability to use language develops. It’s sometimes called cognitive development.
Emotional development is the way in which a person learns to understand their feelings and other peoples too.
Social development is when a person gradually learns how to get on with other people.
In your lifetime you go through six life stages, these are conception and pregnancy, birth and infancy, childhood, adolescents, adulthood and older adulthood.
The first stage (conception and pregnancy):
Human life begins with conception. A woman is born with the same amount of eggs they will ever have throughout their life, when they are gone is when menopause takes place. There are only thirty days in a year a woman can become pregnant. The father on the other hand would have had is testicles developed immediately after birth, they are made up by his kidneys. They move into the scrotum they travel through their inguinal canal. The male also has what is called andropause which is the male equivalent to menopause, this happens when a man’s testosterone levels start to fall. The mother and fathers lifestyle is very important before, during and after conception, the baby feeds from the mother so whatever she does to herself she is doing to the baby also. A woman would usually only produce one ova per month, this would happen about two weeks after her last menstrual period. The ova would travel from her ovaries and through the fallopian tube and towards the uterus, this is when the ova is fertilised. Each time a man ejaculates over five hundred million sperms are released to increase risk of pregnancy, but it only takes one sperm to fertilise an ova. Most sperm only survive for about an hour after ejaculation; they may also die before an hour due to the acidic wall inside the vagina that kills sperm. Sperm are the cells that make up the males half of the DNA and the semen is the liquid that carries the nutrients. Conception is also known as zygote. After two or three days it is about the size of a pin head. The cells divide and double and travel down to the uterus, this normally takes around 4 days. After three or four days it is fertilised and becomes an embryo. It is attached to the wall of the uterus by the placenta. The placenta acts as the liver and heart, the lungs and the kidney, its job is to secrete erythropoietin and urine, it filters the blood and regulates electrolytes. The foetus swallows around half a cup of amniotic fluid a day, and its heart beats about 120 times a minute. There are around 100 million sexual acts a day, and 400,000 babies born.
The transformations throughout the nine months take place