Unit 4 – p1 Describe physical, intellectual, emotional and social development for each of the life stages of an individual.

I am going to be writing about a lady named ‘Martha Williams’ who is 75 years old. She is happily married and has two adult children. I will be looking at all the life stages Martha has been through and how she has developed physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. The life stages I will be looking at are conception, pregnancy, birth and infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, older adulthood and final stages of life. Currently Marta is in her older adult hood stage of life.

Conception ‘The action of conceiving a child or of one being conceived.’
Martha’s mother would have produced an egg and it would have been roughly 2 weeks after her last period. Conception occurred when Martha’s mother and father had sexual intercourse, where her father’s sperm was ejaculated into her mother’s vagina. After ejaculation the sperm travels up towards the egg where it then fuses with the egg and creates a new living being that goes on to grow into ‘Martha’. The conception date may have been the day they had sex, or some days later because sperm can live in the body for up to five days. Once fertilised, the egg, now called a zygote, immediately closes its outer membrane to the rest of the 250 (on average) sperm that have made it this far. Then it begins dividing into identical cells as it is swept down the fallopian tube to the uterus, where it will continue to grow.

Pregnancy ‘the condition or period of being pregnant.’
Martha’s mother’s pregnancy began when the sperm penetrated her egg. One to one and a half days later the single fertilised egg began to divide. After two or three days there were enough new cells to make the fertilised egg the size of a pin head. The collection of cells travelled to the lining of Martha’s mother’s uterus where it anchored. After 8 weeks the embryo had grown to 3 or 4 cm, had a recognisable heartbeat and the beginnings of eyes, ears, a mouth, legs and arms. During the remaining 7 months of the mothers pregnancy ‘foetus Martha’ grows to about half the length of Martha at birth. By 32 weeks the baby was about half the weight that it was at birth. During pregnancy Martha’s intellectual development was happening all the time, she was growing neurons and making links between the neurons. Towards the end of the pregnancy Martha would have made some social developments, she would have been able to recognise her mother’s voice and she would kick or move in her mother’s stomach to communicate.

Birth and infancy ‘the stage where the child is 0-3 years.’
During this period Martha developed a lot. She was born on her due date exactly 9 months into her mother’s pregnancy, she had a normal birth with no complications. As a new-born baby she could hear sounds and identify the smell of her mother. By 3 months old Martha could sit up with some support, she was able to make noises when spoken to and she was very interested in people’s facial expressions. At this stage she was able to recognise her mother and father and if they were lucky she was able to give them a smile. By 6 months Martha could pull herself up from her cot and turn her head to look at people, her social developments began here as she started to become shy of strangers and people she wasn’t familiar with. By the time Martha was 9 months old she was able to make ‘babbling’ sounds and recognise and understand simple words such as ‘ no’ and ‘bye bye’. She also grew in strength as she was able to roll around in her cot or on a play mat and crawl around. When Martha was a year old she was much more physically developed as she was able to walk whilst holding on to objects for support and could move around on the floor rapidly. Her intellectual developments also progressed as she was able to understand simple commands such as ‘come to mummy’, by this point she could recognise her own name. At this stage however she was still playing alone and lacked the ability to successfully play with other children. Once Martha was 2 she had made many physical developments such as being able to climb stairs and walk freely without any support. She was also able to put simple words together to form sentences and would try and join in with songs for example ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. Socially she still was unable to play with other children successfully but she would take part in parallel play, so she would play on her own near other children. By this age Martha was unable to always control her emotions so she may have tantrums or show jealously over her older brother when she felt he was getting more attention. By the age of 3 Martha had very sophisticated physical abilities she was able to ride a tricycle and could climb freely on play equipment. She was also able to hold simple conversations with adults or other children as she had quite a large vocabulary by this point. Her social abilities had developed a lot as she could now take part in co-operative play with other children as she understood sharing. Martha could also manage her emotions much better by the age of 3 and had less outbursts, she could also manage with being away from her mother for a few hours.

Childhood ‘when a child is 4-9 years old.’
During this period Martha’s developments were much more gradual that in her infancy stage, however there were still many significant changes. Martha had a growth spurt when she was about 6 years old where grew quite significantly in height. Throughout this period Martha had very good co-ordination and control she was now able to throw and catch a ball and could successfully hit a ball with a bat. By the end of Martha’s childhood she was able to fully understand concepts, concepts include colour, number, size and symbols. She also was able to sometimes understand what was right and wrong. By the age of 5 she began to learn new vocabulary as she was listening to other children and was learning new words introduced to her from her reception teacher. Socially Martha developed a lot during this period, she was much better at understanding the feelings of others and could show sympathy to others. Martha was able to be separate from her mother and father without distress which showed signs of independence. During this period Martha started to develop friendships with others and could play very well with peers, Martha was very social and had many strong friendships. By the time she was 7 she was aware of the sexual differences and preferred to play with other girls. As Martha got older she became better as responding to her emotions. She learned to express her emotions differently depending on the situation. During this period Martha still heavily depended on her mother and father, and the way they treated her was very important for her self-concept. If Martha had disagreements with others at school it would cause her to become very distressed and she would go to her family or teachers for emotional support, however she was popular at school and many friends which had a positive effect on her self-concept.

Adolescence ‘the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult, 10-18 years old.’

During Martha’s adolescence she made many developments. At around the age of 12 she began to develop breasts and grow pubic hair. By the time she was 13 she had started to menstruate (have periods), this was all part of Martha going through puberty. During this time Martha learned to think in different ways and she could understand more difficult concepts that she could in her childhood. She was also able to use information to solve problems in her head. Martha was a very clever girl and during this time she passed all of her GCSE’s which showed her intellectual abilities. Martha had many emotional developments during this time, the start of her periods brought with it some very complex hormones that Martha sometimes struggled with. She would have very big mood swings, being happy one minute and depressed the next. She could occasionally show a very fierce mood and easily get angry with others especially her parents. During this time Martha looked very hard for a sense of personal identity, she took on some of her parents ideas about politics and religion. She also started to drink socially at the age of 16 with friends which her mother did not approve of. Martha had many changes in her social life during this time, she began to feel the need to be independent from her parents and their opinions did not matter to her as much as they did when she was younger. During this time Martha was very fashion conscious and liked to wear the right clothes and fit in with her friends. She experimented with smoking as some of her friends did but later realised it wasn’t for her. With increasing sexual maturity Martha also began to look for a partner, she had her first boyfriend at the age of 17 and they started to experiment sexually.

Adulthood ‘the part of someone's life when they are an adult, 18-65.’
By the time Martha was an adult her physical growth was little, she gained a little weight as she aged but that was more due to her inactive lifestyle than the ageing process. When Martha was 30 she had her first child this changed her physical appearance as she developed stretch marks around her stomach, she had her second child when she was 35 this had less effect on her body but her stomach muscle tone very much declined. Her overall physical decline began quite early at around the age of 45, an important physical stage for Martha was her menopause when her periods stopped and she could no longer have children. Martha’s intellectual development continued through adulthood, when she got her first job as a nurse it required her to learn many new skills. Martha also needed to learn many new skills when she left home and started to live independently, this included cooking and managing a home, when she raised her children this also required many new sophisticated skills. When Martha met her husband she was 24, maintaining a relationship with him and coping with issues in their relationship required a level of emotional maturity. She had to understand her own emotions and those of her husband and be able to control the way she responded to those emotions. When Martha had her first child it meant accepting a lot of new responsibilities, her baby like all babies was very demanding this caused her a lot of stress but she had to be emotionally mature enough to deal with this stress and care for her child in the best way possible. Socially Martha changed a lot during this time, she began to go out less and have different relationships with friends. She formed many friendships with her work colleagues. Her relationship with her parents also changed, they began to think of each other as equals.

Later adulthood ‘an adult in their later stages of life 65+’
This is the stage Martha is currently in so she has not yet made all of these developments. So far Martha has developed quite a few wrinkles as her skin has lost a lot of its elasticity, her hair has lost a lot of its thickness and has lost its auburn brown colour and is now mostly grey. Her organs are beginning to become less efficient but she is still currently well. She now wears glasses as her eye lens has stiffened and is less able to focus on close objects making reading more difficult. Her retina has become less sensitive to light so she needs a brighter light when trying to read or look at something. Currently her hearing is okay but she will probably find it harder to hear people talking to her in the future. Martha has not yet had a fall but she knows the possibility is there as her balance is poor. Martha’s family has started to recognise that she has difficulty remembering details especially when she is under pressure and that her reaction times are slower, but they know this can only get worse as she gets older. Martha now sometimes gets confused when trying to look after her affairs and has asked her children to take care of her finances. Since Martha turned 65 she has experienced a lot of social changes, especially since she retired. She misses regular contact with new people but she does enjoy spending more time relaxing and watching TV and playing board games with her husband. Martha and her neighbour also attend a local bingo session every week which she enjoys. Her children live close by so Martha gets to see them regularly therefore she doesn’t get lonely.
Final stages of life
Martha has not yet reached this stage, so far she has lived a healthy life which enhances her chances of living to a very old age. During the final stages of her life she will become increasingly frail and thinner, she will most likely become very confused and maybe not be able to communicate with others.